Top Connecticut GOP staffer resigns in wake of $2M campaign kickback probe

[unhappycamper]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/02/21/top-connecticut-gop-staffer-resigns-in-wake-of-2m-campaign-kickback-probe/



Top Connecticut GOP staffer resigns in wake of $2M campaign kickback probe
By Scott Kaufman
Friday, February 21, 2014 12:26 EST

George Gallo, the chief of staff for Connecticut’s House Republican leader, suddenly resigned Thursday after it became known that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has been looking into the possibility that lawmakers and their staff have been accepting $2 million in campaign-related kickbacks.

According to the Courant, Gallo quit his $150,000-per-year job a day after FBI agents established an investigative office in a room inside the House Republicans’ suite of offices at the state legislature. The FBI agents allegedly asked Republican House members and their staffers whether they had ever been “encouraged” to use Direct Mail Systems Inc., of Clearwater, Florida.

The “Political Services” of Direct Mail Systems’s current website claims that information about their involvement in campaigns will be “Coming Soon.” However, archived versions of website indicate that the company encouraged potential clients not to trust radio and television spots, but to rely on printed material to get their message out to voters.

“Even if a candidates budget can support TV or radio spots,” Direct Mail Systems previously claimed, “it is generally advised that, given the ease at which ‘sound-bytes’ are manipulated and taken out of context, positions on important and potentially complex issues are usually best defined in print.”

[KoKo]

1. Would be interesting to know if "Direct Mail" actually mailed out

any campaign position information. Or, did they take the money and do little in the way of Direct Mail. Kind of sounds like that might be the case that FBI got involved initially.

Also, wonder how many other states have "Direct Mail" advocates who are taking kickbacks.