Bob Statchen's campaign for the 18th Senate District seat has filed a complaint with the Connecticut State Elections Enforcement Commission against both the campaign and political action committee of his opponent, Sen. Heather Somers, R-Groton.

The complaint centers on $749.59 that Somers PAC — dedicated to "electing Republican women, business leaders and municipal leaders to office" — paid to the Florida-based Majority Strategies on Dec. 9, 2019. It was marked in a Jan. 10 SEEC filing as "Misc" for "miscellaneous." Somers' campaign, Somers for Senate, previously used Majority Strategies for web services.

The complaint says "without any explanatory narratives to the contrary," this expenditure suggests Somers PAC illegally paid a Somers for Senate contractor for campaign-related services, considering the campaign website's domain registry was updated the same month.

Somers campaign spokesperson Jon Conradi on Monday gave The Day an explanatory narrative to the contrary: The $749.59 was for invitation printing for a Somers PAC event to honor Col. Rob Simmons, held Dec. 4.

Conradi said Somers PAC never made any expenditures to benefit Somers' re-election, and that the domain registration renewal was simply because it was due for renewal. Somers' campaign website had its domain registry updated most recently on Dec. 31, 2019, according to whois.net.

Conradi said the Statchen campaign never contacted anyone associated with Somers PAC or the Somers campaign to ask about the expenditure, and he said in an email Statchen has "has once again proven his campaign has nothing to offer voters except dishonesty and desperation to distract from his dangerous policies."

Statchen confirmed he hasn't had any contact with Somers' campaign. He said since the Somers PAC expenditure was marked miscellaneous, Somers PAC and Somers for Senate have the same treasurer, and there was an update to the campaign website, he "thought it was a worthy question to ask."

"At a minimum, I believe the commission is going to find that she hasn't properly identified expenses in the PAC in the filings, because she has this thing that just says 'Misc,'" Statchen said.

Per rules of the Citizens' Election Program for public campaign financing, in which Somers and Statchen are participating, a candidate can't get campaign money from their own PAC.

Statchen said he doesn't make complaints lightly and it's "not something I wanted to do" but "as a candidate, I have to make sure that I think the election's fair."

Statchen signed his complaint statement, in which he was "formally requesting that SEEC investigate the purpose of this payment and the relationship between SOMERS PAC's spending and Sen. Somers's campaign," and had it notarized by his campaign treasurer Thursday. His campaign announced in a press release Monday it had filed the complaint.

His press release said that despite raising almost $25,000, expenditure reports from the Somers PAC don't confirm that actions to help elect Republican women in Connecticut have occurred, "leaving open questions to the actual purpose of the PAC."

Conradi said that Somers PAC, which Somers first announced in August 2019, has disbursed $7,500 in 2020. As recipients, Conradi pointed to three party leadership committees and 14 Republican Town Committees throughout the state.

Conradi said these Somers PAC contributions were made recently and therefore don't show up on SEEC filings yet. According to the SEEC's filing calendar, the deadline for the report covering July 1 through Sept. 30 is Tuesday.

"Bob Statchen is like a caricature of a divisive politician who has been running for state senate for three years and come up with nothing to run on except baseless innuendo, incendiary rhetoric, partisan whining and attacks on law enforcement," Conradi said. "While Statchen is whining, Heather Somers is working."

e.moser@theday.com