Stewart-Ackert Ticket Launch Overshadowed by Misconduct Report

Erin Stewart had planned Wednesday to make news on her own terms. Instead, she spent the afternoon playing defense.

The Republican gubernatorial candidate announced Rep. Tim Ackert of Coventry as her preferred running mate at what was supposed to be an upbeat press conference outside Ackert Electric, the electrical contracting company Ackert built after his Air Force service. The moment was swallowed whole by an investigative report, released that same afternoon, alleging serious financial irregularities in New Britain’s tax collector’s office during Stewart’s twelve years as mayor.

Not great timing. But whether it was deliberate is already in dispute.

What the report says

The report, produced by the Crumbie Law Group and commissioned by Bobby Sanchez, the Democrat who defeated Stewart in November, landed in reporters’ inboxes at 12:05 p.m., right as Stewart was introducing Ackert to the cameras. The report concluded that New Britain’s tax collector, Cheryl Blogoslawski, had routinely backdated tax payments to shield herself and others from interest penalties. More alarming, it documented a pattern of unsecured cash, including a January 2024 incident in which “over $246,000 was left unsecured on top of the safe,” leaving janitorial staff so concerned they refused to clean the office.

The backdating allegations carry a direct line back to Stewart: the report quotes Blogoslawski as saying she acted with knowledge of Stewart’s office. The report does not establish whether Stewart’s office was aware of the cash security failures.

Stewart’s campaign pushed back hard. “Obviously timing the release of this memo to coincide with today’s press conference shows this to be the political witch hunt we’ve known it to be,” Stewart said in a statement. “And it confirms what I’m the only Republican Ned Lamont and his minions are scared of.”

The timing question

Alisha Rayner, director of operations and communications for Sanchez, told reporters by email that the release was not timed to embarrass Stewart. The report was submitted to the city’s corporation counsel the day before, she said, and Wednesday’s release was connected to Sanchez’s budget presentation to the city council that evening. “This topic will be relevant and addressed during his speech,” Rayner said.

So the collision may have been coincidental. May have been.

Stewart, who had not yet read the report when she faced cameras in Coventry, declined to address its substance at the press conference. A statement released later did not directly deny the claim that her office knew about the backdating. The CT Mirror was unable to independently verify Crumbie’s account of Blogoslawski’s reported admission, and Blogoslawski did not return a request for comment.

The Ackert pick

Lost in the noise was the actual announcement, which matters for understanding where Stewart is trying to take the Connecticut Republican Party.

Ackert, 63, is a Coventry-based state representative and a self-described conservative who trained as an electrician in the Air Force and then built his own business. He has been one of Stewart’s more vocal supporters, and his appeal is pointed: he represents the argument that Connecticut Republicans don’t need another wealthy shoreline businessman at the top of the ticket. Every four years since 2010, that’s been the formula. It hasn’t worked.

Under Connecticut law, governor and lieutenant governor run as a team in the general election but compete for their party nominations separately, so Ackert’s selection as Stewart’s preferred partner is not yet official.

Why this matters for the GOP race

Stewart’s central argument for the Republican nomination rests on her mayoral record. She governed New Britain, a diverse, Democrat-leaning city, for twelve years as a young Republican. That tenure is the whole résumé. It’s the reason her supporters say she can compete in places like Hartford and New Haven that Republicans usually write off.

If that record becomes a liability rather than an asset, her path to the nomination gets complicated fast. A report alleging that cash sat unsecured in six figures and that tax records were manipulated under her watch is not a footnote. It’s a direct challenge to the core of her campaign.

She’ll need to answer it directly, and soon.

What to watch: whether Stewart addresses the backdating allegation specifically, how Republican Town Committees in swing suburbs respond to the report, and whether any other GOP primary candidates move to exploit the opening.