Cafero says SOTS is honest, but verify the use of her office for electronic newsletter

House Minority Leader Lawrence F. Cafero Jr., R-Norwalk, said after Secretary of the State Denise Merrill’s news conference to announce she’s abandoning her five-month-old electronic newsletter that he trusts her honesty, but it’s the latest in an apparent series of Democratic efforts in gaming the political-advertising system.

“I think what I heard her say is ‘the reality is that I’m not using this office for campaign purposes or political purposes,’” Cafero told reporters in the Capitol. “I’ve known Denise Merrill for 20 years and I believe her. She’s an honest woman and a hard-working woman. What I also applaud, however, is that fact that she recognized that the perception is that she is using the office. Better put, I think there’s a culture of political partisanship that’s going on in a non-partisan office.”