The enforcement chief at the State Elections Enforcement Commission was laid off Thursday under a reorganization that she said she believes is motivated by a desire to sacrifice enforcement while promoting the state's program for taxpayer-funded financing of elections.
"The upshot of this [layoff] is that enforcement is not a priority," Joan M. Andrews, director of legal affairs and enforcement at the SEEC, told The Courant in an exclusive interview within hours of a late-afternoon meeting to which she was abruptly called and informed of the layoff by the agency's director, Albert Lenge.
"You can rename them the 'State Elections Acquiescence Commission,'" Andrews said.