Ethics Brushfire Not Moody’s First
Jon Lender
Government Watch
October 18, 2009
Gov. M. Jodi Rell was asked last
week if she still has confidence
in M. Lisa Moody, her widely
feared, intensely political but
infrequently seen chief of staff.
“I have always had full confidence
in Lisa Moody as my chief of
staff, and will continue to do so
unless there’s any reason not to,”
Rell responded immediately.
It’s great to have that much
support from your boss — but it’s
not so great to be in a position
where your boss is asked that
question.
It’s a familiar position for Moody,
though, at the center of a political
storm.
Moody, 50, a longtime GOP
legislative staff operative from
Vernon, has inhabited that place
repeatedly since Rell’s first
full year as governor in 2005.
In December of that year, Rell
suspended her for two weeks
after newspaper revelations of
Moody’s improper on-the-job
political activities at the Capitol.
She had told top Rell appointees
to distribute tickets for a Rell
campaign fundraiser at the Marco
Polo restaurant in East Hartford.
This time, the storm revolves
around a $223,000, taxpayer-
funded study by a University of
Connecticut professor and polling
expert under a no-bid contract
with the Rell administration.
The study by UConn polling
expert Kenneth Dautrich is now
the subject of official inquiries
by state auditors, state Attorney
General Richard Blumenthal,
UConn and election enforcement
officials.
The big question is whether
taxpayer funds were misused to
provide Rell with political advice.
Rell denies that, and defends
the study as a valuable effort
to streamline government. But
the governor again finds herself
responding to questions about the
actions of Moody, who, according
to e-mails and memos, has clearly
been Dautrich’s main contact.
Democrats have been blasting
Rell and singling out Moody for
criticism since the matter arose
two weeks ago — and while
Republicans have defended them,
their defense of Moody could be,
well, a little more spirited.
For example, here is what House
Republican leader Lawrence
Cafero, a representative from
Norwalk, said when asked last
week whether Rell is well-served
by Moody’s continued presence as
chief of staff: “The opinions that I
have on this matter, I think out of
respect for the governor, I would
share with her first before I would
share them with anyone.”
Cafero’s counterpart in the state
Senate, Republican leader John
McKinney of Fairfield, did
offer an enthusiastic defense.
He called legislative Democrats
hypocrites for attacking Rell
and Moody now over alleged
misuse of public funds on politics
when they refused earlier this
year to sanction two Democratic
state senators, Thomas Gaffey
of Meriden and Joseph Crisco
of Woodbridge. Those two
were fined $6,000 and $4,000,
respectively, by the state elections
enforcement agency for violating
state election laws, and “they
admitted to ... worse” than any
“mistake” that Moody ever made,
McKinney said.
But there have been other
incidents:
• In 2006, Moody testified under
oath during a legislative hearing
that she “did not fully read ...
and absorb” an ethics memo to
the governor’s staff, which she
violated in the 2005 Marco Polo
affair even though she was listed
as its author. It was later revealed
that she made handwritten editing
marks on a draft of it. The draft
was missing from documents that
the governor’s office produced in
response to a Courant Freedom
of Information request. The draft
only surfaced because someone
else had kept a copy, and it found
its way to the newspaper.
• In 2007, it was revealed that
Moody also was at the center
of arrangements for Rell’s 2006
election committee to raise
campaign funds by use of an
official state list of names and
addresses of the leaders of
arts organizations; after Rell
announced she would support
funding for the arts, leaders of
arts groups on the official list
were solicited by Rell’s campaign
committee for contributions.
Blumenthal later said Moody used
“state time and equipment” to
provide the official address list
to Rell’s election committee. She
was not sanctioned.
• And just last month, the
missing-document scenario of
2006 repeated itself — under
different circumstances, but with
the same protagonist: Moody.
Rell’s office failed to release a
potentially embarrassing Sept. 1
Moody e-mail that The Courant
had requested. In it the chief of
staff advocated a tactic — which
was later ruled unconstitutional —
for Rell to use a line-item veto on
a state budget bill that legislative
Democrats had recently approved.
Moody told Rell’s budget director
in the e-mail that even though
two high-ranking lawyers within
the administration agreed the
line-item tactic would be illegal,
“the Governor and I don’t [agree]
— we win.”
The Courant had requested e-
mails for a period including Sept.
1, but the Moody e-mail was
missing from a stack of copies in the hearts of many of Rell’s
that Rell’s press office released. commissioners with a phone call
The missing e-mail was finally or an e-mail.
released a week later, after
sources told The Courant that Moody didn’t change her pattern
Rell’s office had withheld it, and when asked for an interview to
the newspaper went back and respond to issues raised in this
asked for it specifically. story. A Rell press aide responded
with an e-mail message: “Lisa is
Rell’s legal counsel, Anna Ficeto, declining comment because of the
said Moody would “swear on a investigation.”
stack of Bibles” she had included
the missing one with the other Jon Lender is a reporter on The
e-mails that were produced in Courant’s investigative desk,
response to the original FOI with a focus on government and
request. Ficeto said she had seen politics. Contact him at jlender@
that e-mail in the pile of copies courant.com, 860-241-6524, or
she examined prior to their c/o The Hartford Courant, 285
release, but then she gave them Broad St., Hartford, CT 06115.
back to Moody — who held them
for some time before returning the Copyright © 2009, The Hartford Courant
documents to Ficeto for release to
The Courant. Ficeto said that she
did not re-examine them before
subsequently releasing them to
The Courant.
Afterward, Rell did not voice any
qualms about the possibility that
Moody had tried to hide the e-
mail.
Critics said the e-mail showed
arrogance by an unelected
operative who is relied on
too much by a governor
— particularly a governor who
preaches ethics in government.
At least one newspaper editorial
has called for Moody’s ouster in
this latest controversy.
But Moody continues to operate
as usual, within the walls of an
inner office in the governor’s
suite on the second floor of the
state Capitol in Hartford. She
stays mostly out of public view,
but still is known to strike alarm