Chief State's Attorney Kevin Kane said Friday that he won't pursue a criminal investigation into a 36,000-name constituent database maintained by Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz.
The matter had been referred to Kane in early August by Attorney General Richard Blumenthal after an investigation in which Blumenthal concluded that Bysiewicz kept "inappropriate" personal and political information in the taxpayer-funded office database.
Blumenthal's office has confirmed that he referred the report to Kane, to legislative leaders and to the State Elections Enforcement Commission in hopes of closing a legal loophole that permits political activity in state offices by elected officials, and to allow Kane to review whether any criminal laws were violated.
In a letter dated Friday, Kane wrote that after reviewing the report and talking with Blumenthal's investigators, his office "has concluded that no criminal investigation is warranted."
Bysiewicz issued a statement saying: "This ... confirms what we have said all along: That the database we use is a very valuable tool to provide constituent service and manage the many constitutional and statutory functions of this office."
Kane's decision could mean it may never be determined who used a computer in Bysiewicz's office in 2007 to upload more than 6,700 names from her 2006 re-election campaign database into the official database.