Well, I guess we now know who the REPUBLICAN ELECTED MUNICIPAL OFFICIAL FROM WESTERN CONNECTICUT is now...SURPRISE SURPRISE!

The Hartford Courant has ALL the details and it's not pretty.

Indicted Danbury garbage executive James Galante was arrested Friday on charges related to making nearly $40,000 in illegal campaign contributions to state Senators Louis DeLuca and David Cappiello, as well as Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton.

[...]

In cases of bundled donations, individual contributors typically exceed the legal $1,000 contribution limit by passing money through third parties. In Galante's case, he is accused of contributing $15,000 each to DeLuca and Cappiello in 2002 and $8,000 to Boughton in 2003. People familiar with the case said he passed the money in $1,000 increments through employees of his various trash businesses, their family members or their friends.

Boughton acknowledged Friday that one of his political actions committees, People Over Politics, got money from associates of Galante in 2003.

Sources said that eight, $1,000 checks from either Galante employees, friends or associates were donated to People Over Politics on Oct. 26, 2003. Some of them were then reimbursed or told that the donations would help Galante's trash hauling business, which is based in Danbury.

Maybe the Courant should have added that the donations would help Galante's ice rink...just sayin'.

Now for my favorite part of the article...damage control.

Boughton said Friday that he was unaware that there was anything wrong with the donations and that his campaign officials would have no way of knowing if someone was fronting money for others.

"We've accepted thousands of donations from thousands of contributors and we assume that the name on the check is the person that donated the money. In fact we send a personal thank you letter to each person,'' Boughton said. "I was absolutely unaware that there was anything wrong with any donations.''

Ah...yeah. We'll see if that excuse will hold up over time...or else...

...there could be political ramifications for the politicians if they are linked to illegal contributions.

Trust me, this is SO DEVELOPING...