Two top Republicans called Tuesday for Democrat Scott D. Bates to step aside from the state’s election office amid an ongoing controversy.
Senate Republican leader Len Fasano of North Haven said that Bates should be removed temporarily, but House Republican leader Themis Klarides of Derby said that Bates should be ousted from his position as deputy in the Secretary of the State’s office.
The calls came amid ongoing controversy at the embattled Connecticut Port Authority, where Bates had served as chairman before stepping down recently as a board member.
“Not only should he not be on the port authority in any capacity, but he should not be in the Secretary of the State’s office,” Klarides said. “At the very least, there was bad judgment involved.”
Klarides is highly concerned that members of the port authority have been involved in the deliberations for a major project for off-shore wind, which is projected to generate jobs in southeastern Connecticut. Officials project there could eventually be 1,000 turbines over 10 years, which would be far beyond the five pioneering turbines off Block Island.
“That is one of the most important economic development issues we’ve had in this state in the past few years,” Klarides said. “We’re going to let the Bad News Bears run it?”
She added, “We have this bipartisan concept in this wind bill. Not political. Not partisan. And now we’re going to let these clowns run the show?”
Fasano asked Secretary of the State Denise Merrill, a Democrat, to remove Bates temporarily. A spokeswoman for Merrill said that the concerns raised by Republicans are driven by politics.
Questions have been raised recently about “questionable purchases, contracts, and employment decisions” that were made by Bates during his tenure as chairman and before he stepped down Friday from his position on the board, Fasano said.
State legislators on the transportation committee held a public forum Tuesday that lasted more than five hours on the ongoing problems at the port authority, which has captured the attention of Gov. Ned Lamont.
“Until we have a full accountability of what happened, you ought not to have an individual associated with such significant breaches of the public trust associated with one of the most sacred objects of public trust, the public vote,” Fasano wrote to Merrill.
Fasano added, “The public needs to have absolute confidence in the Secretary of the State’s Office. While the administration is continuing to investigate ongoing concerns within the Connecticut Port Authority allegedly involving Mr. Bates, I believe it would be most appropriate to temporarily remove Mr. Bates from your office in order to eliminate any concerns regarding the operations of the Secretary of the State’s Office.”
Lamont has directed two of his top aides – chief of staff Ryan Drajewicz and chief operating officer Paul Mounds, Jr. – to closely analyze the management of the port authority and make sure that it is running smoothly. In a conference call Tuesday after he met with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on issues of mutual interest, Lamont declined to blast Bates personally despite the criticism by others.
“I think there were some errors in judgment,” Lamont said.
Bates, 53, was not immediately available for comment Tuesday.
Stephanie Sponzo, Merrill’s press secretary, said politics were behind criticism by legislative Republicans.
“There is nothing more important to our democracy than the public’s trust in our elections,” she said in an email. “It is regrettable that the House and Senate minority leaders have taken this opportunity to play politics and insinuate that the public ought to have anything but the utmost confidence in Connecticut’s elections administration.”
Rep. Laura Devlin of Fairfield, the ranking House Republican on the transportation committee, said the actions by Bates and others “have tarnished the agency.”
Before joining Merrill at the Capitol in Hartford, Bates held a variety of jobs over the previous 25 years at the local, state, national and international levels. An attorney who lives in Stonington, he holds degrees from the University of Virginia law school and the London School of Economics.
Bates served as the first senior policy adviser to the U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee after the September 11, 2001 attacks – overseeing reports on bio-terrorism and border security. He also served as President of the Center for National Policy, a think tank in Washington, D.C. that focuses on national security.
During wars, he has worked on a diplomatic level in hot spots such as Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq and the Persian Gulf.
Courant staff writer Stephen Singer contributed to this report.
