Mocabee "really f-ing mad" at Ward's comments about campaign finance fine

City Republican Party Chairman Art Mocabee said Tuesday that he is “really f-ing mad” that Bristol’s Democratic mayor chose to blame the Republicans for his own failure to obey campaign finance law.
Mocabee said “it makes no sense” for Mayor Art Ward to blame the GOP for filing a complaint rather than simply accepting responsibility for the flawed forms produced by his own campaign – an error that led to a state-imposed $1,500 fine against the mayor’s campaign treasurer.
“Our mayor broke the law,” Mocabee said.
What’s more, said the GOP chief, the Republicans only filed the complaint after unidentified members of the Democratic Town Committee last summer urged them to take action on Ward’s shoddy campaign finance disclosure forms.
The Democratic leadership in Bristol “knew what was going on,” Mocabee said.
“They made the snowball and we threw it,” he said. “They were looking to get Mr. Ward in a bunch of trouble and they succeeded.”
“The information got to us quite clearly. And they were absolutely right,” Mocabee said.
The questions about Ward’s error-plagued campaign finance forms arose last July and August, Mocabee said, at the same time Ward and former city Councilor Ellen Zoppo were locked in a tight mayoral primary race.
Mocabee said that Ward is a 14-year veteran of city politics and “knows campaign finance is critical.”
He said that even though he filed the complaint that led to the fine by the State Elections Enforcement Commission, he had no desire to tar Ward with it. He said he didn’t tell the press about the fine and was content to let the matter slide.
Mocabee said that when a reporter called to ask him about it Monday, he tried to show understanding to both Ward and Robert Dunlap, the mayor’s former campaign treasurer, instead of attempting to score political points.
But Ward lashed into him anyway.
Mocabee said he was stunned that Ward proclaimed that the GOP boss “should be ashamed of himself” for blowing the whistle on campaign finance problems.
Using that argument, said Mocabee, “every voter in Bristol should be ashamed of themselves because the mayor and his campaign manager broke the law. That’s the logic of our mayor right now. That makes absolutely no sense.”
Mocabee said it isn’t reasonable to say he ought to be hanging his head because Ward “failed to follow the law.”
Mocabee, who promised to try to send me electronic copies of Ward’s problem-plagued campaign finance reports, said that the forms have blanks on them for the campaign to fill in the full name, occupation and contribution amounts of each of its donors.
Ward’s forms only listed the donors’ first names, he said.
“How shameful is that? How idiotic is that?” Mocabee asked. “Anyone in their right mind can fill in name, address, city, state and zip code. I mean, c’mon.”
Still, Mocabee said, the state may have “gone to extremes” in its effort to crack down on the potential for corruption. He said he agrees that finding campaign treasurers may be a bad idea because it’s going to become difficult to find anyone willing to do the job if there’s such a risk attached to it.
Dunlap was required to pay the $1,500 fine himself, with no help from Ward.
Mocabee said, though, that he “wouldn’t be surprised if some cash gets exchanged somewhere along the line so Mr. Dunlap can take his vacation” this summer.
Mocabee said he’s glad that Ward is casting the blame for the mistakes on Dunlap.
“It’s admirable that the mayor is standing by his man. And the fact of the matter is, he should,” Mocabee said.

Update at 3:55 p.m.: Once Mocabee learned it would cost $50 to get copies of the relevant forms, he decided not to get them after all. I don't blame him. That was pretty much my thinking, too.

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