Fonfara Plays Dangerous Political Game To Boost His Company

Weeks ago it was suggested in this space that the hiring of Sullivan & LeShane lobbyist Jude Malone by state Sen. John W. Fonfara was a boost to the credibility and caché of the firm.

Which it was, but that wasn’t the whole story. It turns out that Sullivan & LeShane isn’t the only firm enjoying a shared employee with the Hartford’s Democratic senator and his billboard company, Face Value.

With Norwich-native Malone representing him, in April Fonfara secured a contract with that city to refurbish and sell advertising on four billboards.

Meanwhile, back at the Capitol, Sullivan & LeShane was representing the interests of its many lobbying clients. Among them was NRG Energy, a New Jersey company with ownership in 47 power plants around the world. NRG wanted to make sure Connecticut would keep its electricity market open enough for wholesalers like itself, so no doubt the supplier was pleased to see Fonfara – a main author of the state’s energy deregulation – so comfortable with its lobbying team that he actually hired one of the members himself.

And no doubt the company was further pleased when Fonfara successfully argued that a market for electricity generators ought to remain.

But as it turns out, Sullivan & LeShane’s clients aren’t the only ones who can beam with approval that they and Fonfara share a business partner, as became clear when the senator made a bid for a billboard project in East Hartford last week.

At a public hearing before the town council July 10, Fonfara unveiled a plan to create three new tri-vision or electronic billboards along I-84 in prime territory near Rentschler Field, which he would operate for the next 40 years.

To meet a town ordinance aimed at reducing the number of billboards, Fonfara proposed to acquire and take down seven other billboards. The town council could vote as early as August 7.

In pursuing the contract, Fonfara used the same model he had in Norwich: choose a former politician with strong local ties to represent him. For the East Hartford deal, Fonfara hired none other than Robert M. DeCrescenzo, mayor of East Hartford from 1993 to 1997 and currently a member of the government affairs unit at the Hartford law firm Updike, Kelly & Spellacy.

Wide Power
If the first two stops are any indication, Fonfara looks around the state for good billboard space and, upon finding some, uses his standing in the legislature to hire a political operative with enough clout in that community to help complete the deal.

Other billboard companies are concerned by the political power Face Value can employ, as evidenced by competitor Charles Ghione, owner of NextMedia Outdoor Advertising Co., who chalked up Fonfara’s deal in Norwich to “influence and backroom politicking.”

Competitors should always be wary. But shouldn’t the rest of us be worried about the damage Fonfara’s business model could have on the legislation he writes?

With campaign finance reform, the legislature and Gov. M. Jodi Rell acknowledged that money from lobbyists and their clients was marring the policymaking and election process.

Thanks to the law’s passage, lobbyists and their immediate families may not make donations to candidates for state office. Lobbyists are not even allowed to advise their clients as to which candidates to write checks for.

They also may not be solicited by legislators for causes related to their private professions, as we discovered with Speaker James A. Amann’s job raising money for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Considering all these efforts at separating policymakers from lobbyists, aren’t Fonfara’s hiring practices a step in the wrong direction? The expectation that, after they help drive Fonfara’s business and personal income, Malone and DeCrescenzo’s clients will receive no special favors whatsoever at the Capitol doesn’t seem to hold water.

Fonfara and DeCrescenzo declined to return phone messages on the issue.

Jonathan O’Connell is a Hartford Business Journal Staff Writer.