Who did John DeStefano piss off at the New Haven Advocate

Wow, that's rather harsh.

The New Haven Advocate obviously has a gripe with John DeStefano and they went in full attack mode against him in their latest issue. The lead article centers around DeStefano's campaign contributions and basically calls his comment of running a "clean" campaign hypocritical.

His website boasts that he's a longtime supporter of public campaign financing and of getting "the corrosive influence of money" out of politics.

All the while, John DeStefano continues raking in campaign contributions from people who owe him their livelihoods. People who work at or get contracts from City Hall, over which he presides as New Haven's mayor. People who work for the school system whose board he appoints. People who want public favors--including public money--for their downtown real estate projects.

And people who would love to have a good relationship with the man DeStefano hopes to be: the governor of Connecticut.

If you expected a clean-money campaign from the guy who calls himself a clean-politics candidate, you will be disappointed.

If, on the other hand, you expected a sustained and aggressive shaking of the money tree, your expectations will be met. In the cash-hungry race for the 2006 Democratic gubernatorial nomination, DeStefano has far outraised his two rivals, pulling in more than $2.2 million since early 2004. More than $450,000 of that came in the last three months alone--an April-through-June cha-ching that roughly equaled the combined totals of opponents Dan Malloy and Susan Bysiewicz.

It's all perfectly legal under our current system.

Although it might seem suspect, The Advocate does says DeStefano has done nothing illegal so I don't understand the point? To run a campaign (especially when running for governor) cost alot of money so I say shake every tree you can shake before the other candidate grabs the cash. I'm not endorsing him but I can see DeStefano's logic and it's all legal (it isn't like he's taking bribes). Now, if he's illegally raking in money, that's a whole different matter but the article doesn't say that, it just lists the contributors to his campaign and leaves it to the readers to connect the dots.

I don't know what the true point of the article is but on first read, it seems much more opinion than news. It would be interesting to look into the history of DeStefano and the Advocate and see how far back the bad blood goes.