Klarides’s Fight For Connecticut Stumbles on Campaign Finance Rules.

Retiring House Minority Leader Themis Klarides’s unofficial gubernatorial exploratory committee, Fight for Connecticut, had trouble complying with federal campaign finance rules in its first quarter. The committee, formed during this campaign season, exceeded limitations on contributions to two Republican candidates.

The Klarides committee, which features photographs in its ads and on its website of the Derby Republican, sent contributions to the Margaret Streicker campaign in the 3rd Congressional District and David X. Sullivan in the Fifth. The committee’s low number of donors and short duration limited its contributions to $2,800 each.

The most recent federal campaign finance report shows Klarides’s committee making a $2,800 donation to Streicker on October 14th and contributions of $2,800 and 2,200 to Sullivan on the same day. It also reveals Sullivan returned $2,200 to Klarides on busy October 14th. A Fight for Connecticut spokesperson had indicated the committee would be making a $5,000 contribution to the Streicker and Sullivan campaigns.

The committee’s most significant expenditure was to a political analytics firm associated with Ted Cruz, the Texas senator and 2016 presidential hopeful turned ardent Donald Trump supporter.