Witkos: Romano Must Go.

State Senator and retired police sergeant Kevin Witkos (R-Canton) called Sunday for state Republican Party chairman J.R. Romano to resign over his mishandling of accusations of domestic violence against party-endorsed congressional candidate Thomas Gilmer. Romano has said he knew of the accusations before the party’s 2nd District nominations convention in May but declined to disclose what he knew and took no action.

“I am deeply disturbed by reports that state party leadership did anything but immediately report this information to law enforcement. You cannot build barriers to illegal activity and then claim plausible deniability,” Witkos wrote in a statement Sunday. “As a retired police sergeant and someone who has made numerous domestic violence arrests, I can say unequivocally that these situations need to be investigated immediately and that proper notification to law enforcement is essential. It should not be up to anyone else to decide whether the situation should be investigated further.”

Witkos, who serves as Deputy Senate Minority Leader, concluded, “The more I learn about this entire incident the more unsettled and troubled I become. The fact that Chairman Romano knew of these allegations, but took no further action leads me to join calls for his resignation as Chairman of the Connecticut state Republican Party.”