CT firms on track to set spending records lobbying lawmakers in 2025. Here’s where it’s being spent

CT Insider – Monday, June 30, 2025
By Ken Dixon

HARTFORD —More than $28.4 million was spent influencing state lawmakers, leaders and agencies in the first quarter of 2025, putting Connecticut lobbyists and their clients on-track for record-setting expenditures.

Health care, energy, banks, realtors and municipal interests are among the major clients paying to lobby lawmakers and leaders at the State Capitol this year, so far. The Connecticut Hospital Association’s $1.45 million ranks highest for spending this year, on top of $3.7 million the CHA invested during the 2023-2024 legislative session, according to the Office of State Ethics, which handles mandatory filings for lobbyists and their clients.

There are 1,055 registered clients and hundreds of lobbyists who descend on the State Capitol during the two-year-long sessions. In the previous legislature, $108 million was spent lobbying the General Assembly, state agencies, constitutional officers including Gov. Ned Lamont, as well as quasi-public agencies such as the Connecticut Lottery Commission and the Airport Authority.

During the 2019 and 2020 legislative sessions, a total of $96.9 million was spent, including the pandemic-shortened 2020 General Assembly.

“Regardless how much is spent on lobbying, Connecticut’s lobbyist registration and reporting laws play an important role in informing the public about the sources of lobbying expenditures to influence governmental decision making,” said Peter Lewandowski, executive director of the Office of State Ethics (OSE).

For the recent quarter, the top-10 clients and their expenditures included the Washington-based Partnership for America’s Health Care Future Action ($349,000), made up of hospitals, health insurers and the pharmaceutical industry known for opposition to the single-payer system.

The Connecticut Education Association ($336,574) representing public school teachers was third, followed by Eversource ($294,345), Hartford HealthCare ($248,266), the Connecticut Bankers Association ($246,495), the Connecticut Association of Realtors ($238,288), the Connecticut Association of Health Plans ($230,370), the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities ($225,582) and Elevance Health and Affiliates ($214,940), in a near tie with the Yale New Haven Health System ($214,447).

Connecticut companies include hundreds of in-house personnel for lobbying plus outside contractors and law firms that leverage personal relationships with state lawmakers in an effort to steer legislation. Many lobbyists represent multiple issues, making it hard to calculate how much particular high-profile subjects, such as energy, education and business are investing in particular issues.

Hospital spending

The Connecticut Hospital Association, in a statement, said the nearly 90-member organization representing about 200,000 jobs, pushes for a variety of issues.

“Hospitals not only provide care when people are sick and in the hospital, they are increasingly focused on providing preventive care and services outside of those four walls to make local communities healthier and prevent chronic illness and hardship that contribute to poor health outcomes,” the CHA wrote.

The CHA filing includes contact with 34 state agencies including the governor, as well as 36 legislative issues.

“Priority issues have included increasing access to care by advocating for sufficient Medicaid reimbursement, reforming a regulatory environment that can impede healthcare access, addressing the state’s behavioral health crisis, tackling the significant financial challenges and pressures hospitals are experiencing including burdensome commercial insurance practices, advocating for policies that support the growth and retention of the healthcare workforce, protecting hospitals’ ability to invest in and provide services within their local communities, and addressing social drivers of health – from access to nutritious food and diapers to job opportunities,” the CHA wrote in response to a request for comment.

The association said its presence in legislative hearings included statements on more than 100 bills before 16 legislative committees, as well as engagement with policymakers, advocates, and others “before, during, and after the legislative session.”

Kate Dias, president of the Connecticut Education Association, said that as usual, the group focuses on the needs of Connecticut public school educators.

“Our efforts include researching and analyzing hundreds of legislative proposals and educating our members on the issues,” Dias said in a statement. “In 2025, CEA’s many priorities included increased special education classroom support, universal preschool, competitive teacher salaries and increased state funding to school districts (Connecticut is among the top 10 wealthiest states but ranks 15th in the nation for teachers’ starting salaries and 44th for proportionate state funding of education), free speech protections for educators, local school budget transparency, improved school indoor air quality, recruitment and retention of certified educators amid an ongoing shortage, and more.”

Energy costs one of the hottest topics

One of the highest-profile legislative campaigns this year was the push-and-pull over the state’s electric rates, which resulted in Lamont agreeing to take over some of the controversial “public benefits” charges on consumer electric bills and save families about $200 a year while adding to the state’s long-term bonded debt.

Eversource’s total expenses so far include more than $11,000 in lobbying the executive branch and more than $283,000 for the legislature, supplemented with $15,500 in office expenses and more than $55,000 in “other” costs.

A more-detailed look into the Eversource filing indicates that there are seven in-house Eversource employees involved in the lobbying effort. In addition, three high-profile veteran lobbyists are contracted, including Marc DiBella of the 3D Consulting, LLC who was paid $120,000; Jay Malcynski of the New Britain-based Gaffney, Bennett and Associates government affairs company got $239,250, with a similar amount anticipated by the end of the year; and Kevin Reynolds of the West Hartford-based Reynolds Strategy Group, LLC received $45,000.

During the 2023-2024 legislative session, Eversource spent $1.6 million trying to sway state government.

Avangrid, the parent of United Illuminating, spent about $88,000 lobbying the legislature in the first quarter of 2025, with in-house personnel as well as three well-known lobbying firms: Brown, Rudnick Government Relations LP for $7,836 a month; the Hartford-based law firm of Robinson & Cole LLC for $8,000 a month; and it was anticipated DePino, Nunez & Biggs, LLC would receive $100,000 during the 2025 calendar year.

But in total, 158 companies were registered to represent energy-related issues, from the consumer-oriented AARP, to players such as Dominion Energy, the owner of the Millstone Power Station nuclear plant in Waterford, which spent about $39,00 lobbying agencies and $69,000 meeting lawmakers. The Andover, Mass-based PetroGas US/AppleGreen spent $20,000 lobbying the governor, his budget office and the state Department of Transportation, plus about $40,000 lobbying on energy, labor and licensure issues, according to the filings.

John Erlingheuser, senior associate state director of advocacy for the AARP, said Friday that the energy issue brought scores of lobbyists into the State Capitol during the recently completed session, putting consumer-oriented nonprofits like his at a disadvantage in spending. But the red-clad AARP volunteers who were daily fixtures in the Capitol halls helped immensely, he said.

“We’re real people and we have dedicated volunteers who will to go to Hartford, go to their local town and city halls for public meetings,” Erlingheuser said. “It puts us at the table, so to speak. We were outnumbered on most of the big issues we worked on, but we had 10 or 12 volunteers up there every day looking legislators in the eye. Does it even the playing field? A little. Does it put us in position to leverage lawmakers? Yes, because our members make up 40 percent of voters in every election.”

The OSE filings indicate that in the first three months of 2025, the AARP spent $25,000 lobbying 13 state agencies including the governor and attorney general and nearly $94,000 in compensation for influencing the General Assembly on eight issues, including banking, the environment, health, insurance and transportation. An additional $81,000 was invested in paid AARP media campaigns.

Other entities lobbying the energy issue include the Connecticut Business & Industry Association, which invested about $20,000 in interacting with 32 state agencies, including the governor’s office, plus $170,500 to influence legislation on 45 subjects, from aging and agriculture to travel, tourism and veterans’ affairs. The CBIA also spent $10,000 in paid media campaigns, according to the quarterly filing covering the first three months of the two-year legislative cycle.

“It’s critical for the CBIA to represent the business community,” said Chris DiPentima, president and CEO of the state’s largest business organization, a nonprofit founded in Middletown in 1815 when state manufacturers asked for tariffs to protect their Industrial Revolution businesses from lower-priced imports. “We have to speak up for individual businesses. Lobbying is the core of CBIA’s mission.”

Connecticut’s ethics laws sharply limit lobbyists to spending no more than $10 per official per event and about $70 total per year at events such as receptions and symposiums. “Most of the dollars we spend is traveling and focusing on issues critical to the residents including more-affordable child care, regulatory reform, lowering the cost of energy, better transportation, insurance costs and the tax climate,” DiPentima said on Friday. “Business is only as good as our work force. The workforce in Connecticut is only as strong as the people who live here.”

‘…Real interesting stuff is under the hood…’

Another non-profit listed among the energy lobbyists, the consumer advocacy Connecticut Citizen Action Group, spent $37,000 in the first quarter, including $3,000 meeting with the Department of Insurance, as well as the governor’s office and Comptroller Sean Scanlon. Almost $34,000 was spent on 17 other subjects besides energy pending before the legislature.

Tom Swan, executive director of the CCAG, said in an interview that the Office of State Ethics’ filing system doesn’t make it very easy to track down all the money being spent on influencing Connecticut officials, because it’s hard to track down all that’s been invested on big subjects such as health care or energy. Still, there are enough hints to probe further into expenditures, he said.

“The more you find out, the more it can lead to more questions and then you might discover more interested parties, such as members of associations that can drive totals higher,” said Swan, a veteran Capitol watcher. He said that looking at the Connecticut Hospital Association filing, it showed about nine in-house lobbyists, most of whom were focused on issues including cost containment strategies, tax issues and revenue generation. Swan noted that state taxes become charges for which the state hospitals in turn bill the federal government with the money coming back to them from Washington.

“The CHA is so big and powerful, they have to be invited into the room,” Swan said of the legislative process, adding that money that various entities may invest in membership associations that also lobby state officials, isn’t included in the filings. “I think the OSE filings present a picture and provide information the companies believe they have to provide. It’s important information, but the real interesting stuff is under the hood. I wish OSE had a better web page. It’s a challenge to get through.”

Access this article at its original source.