WHO IS TELLING THE TRUTH IN STATE TREASURER'S RACE ?

The heat is being turned up on the Connecticut State Treasurer's race and it has nothing to do with our current heatwave.

Shawn Wooden, the endorsed Democratic candidate, recently released a television add claiming his indignation over investments in the gun industry apparently made  by our current Treasurer, Denise Nappier. Wooden claimed further indignation by claims that he lost a family member to gun violence. Now let me say that any life lost to gun violence is tragic, but I think Wooden needs to be a little more transparent regarding the death of his family member.

Every action we take everyday has potential consequences, and any involvement with the drug trade increases the odds of being a victim of those consequences. Intruding on another drug dealers "turf" is not usually taken lightly and many times ends up with fatal consequences.


Last night I received an e-mail from someone affiliated with the campaign of Wooden's opponent , Dita Bhargrava, who seemed to show that Wooden\s history of indignation  with investments in the gun industry is only a recent development. The e-mail claims that Wooden has invested funds he handled through his current employer for the New Jersey State Public Pension Fund with  Black Rock Credit Investors. Black Rock apparently invested heavily with gun manufacturers, despite Wooden's indignation.

Here is the body of Dita Bhargrava\s e-mail:

I’m sending this email because I want to make sure you have all the facts. My opponent Shawn Wooden does not have the right experience to be Connecticut’s next State Treasurer.

During his tenure as Hartford’s City Council President, Shawn showed poor judgment and disregard for the people of his own city.

Shawn let Hartford slide toward financial bankruptcy, which is costing Connecticut taxpayers over half a billion dollars to bail out .

He pushed through the over-budget, disastrous Dunkin Donuts Stadium deal, and he even allowed a loophole in the living wage law preventing Connecticut residents from earning a living wage.

What’s worse even, is that Shawn touts his skill representing the NJ State Public Pension Fund with a $400 million investment in BlackRock Credit Investors. But what he doesn’t mention is that he engineered an additional investment into BlackRock — $144 million — to bail it out. The NJ Pension fund sustained $800 million in losses as a result of his risky investment. Nearly a billion dollars lost by Shawn Wooden. But Shawn’s firm collected millions of dollars in fees.

What’s equally disturbing about Shawn’s investment, is that BlackRock is among the biggest shareholders of gun manufacturers.

It’s completely misleading when you push an investment of half a billion dollars in gun manufacturing one year, then turn around and tell us you’re going to divest in guns now that you’re running

for office. It’s this kind of hypocrisy that people have come to expect from career politicians and what they’re voting against this year.

If Shawn is willing to mislead people in his campaign ads, how could we possible trust him with $32.5 billion in Connecticut’s funds?

- Dita



I know who I would trust to be telling the truth, and it most likely wouldn't be Shawn Wooden