Erin Stewart drops out of race for Connecticut governor after new report blasts spending; state police investigating

HARTFORD, Conn. - Former New Britain mayor Erin Stewart suspended her campaign for governor Thursday, moments after new documentation surfaced of tens of thousands of dollars of apparent personal purchases charged to her city credit card, including photographs of her wearing clothing identical to items she billed to the city as office supplies.

"The continued allegations from New Britain City Hall have understandably taken over this race and diverted attention away from the critical mission of saving our state from high taxes, high costs, the most expensive energy in America, and low opportunity for young people," Stewart, a Republican, said in statement. "I take the allegations that have been made against me very seriously. And for that reason, I am suspending my gubernatorial campaign effective immediately so that I can focus on addressing those claims."

Mayor Bobby Sanchez, whose office initiated the investigation and report, referred the new report to "both the Chief State's Attorney's Office and the United States Attorney's Office for review and any law enforcement action deemed appropriate."

Connecticut State Police confirmed Thursday that the agency is investigating Stewart's spending on the city credit card.

The new disclosures are detailed in a second report associated with a city-commissioned, private investigation of Stewart's spending. Sanchez, the Democrat who replaced Stewart, said he ordered the investigation after hearing complaints about spending from city employees.

Even before its release, the anticipated report was adding to talk among some Republicans of blocking Stewart's campaign for governor. The politically devastating analysis of credit card charges appeared a day before the state Republican convention, at which she was trying to secure enough delegate support to qualify for a $2.8 million taxpayer-financed campaign finance grant.

In addition to reproducing social media photos that Stewart posted of herself at family parties – parties that billing records suggest were decorated and catered at city expense – the report asserts that her office regularly exceeded its budget for office supplies and miscellaneous expenses and, at one point, ignored a fraud warning by city auditors that greater control was needed over credit card spending.

The report, by the Crumbie Law Group of Hartford, also suggests that Stewart billed the city – twice – for political expenses. If proven, such billing could amount to violations of state campaign finance laws, among others. The state police, already examining alleged irregularities in city tax collections during Stewart's administration, have expanded the inquiry to include credit card use, a department official said Thursday. The new report also has been referred to the U.S. Attorney's office.

If 2017, while running for re-election, the Crumbie report says then-Mayor Stewart joined the pricey Hartford Club and billed the recurring expense to the city. Her campaign notified the State Elections Enforcement Commission that it was hosting a "cocktail event" fundraiser at the club' on September 26, 2017. The city picked up the tab. The bill that month was $680.03, including a $163.03 for a Sept. 26 cocktail event.

Last spring, on April 2, 2025, Stewart's city credit card was charged for round trip tickets to Washington, D.C. for her and John Healey, formerly the mayor's chief of staff and now her campaign manager. Days later, the report says Stewart told the Republican State Central Committee she went to Washington in an attempt to obtain President Donald Trump's endorsement.

The 18-page report, illustrated with photographs posted by Stewart to her Facebook page and supported by 74 pages of exhibits, is a withering critique of what it characterizes as reckless, irresponsible and possibly illegal spending. It "raises concerns" that the questionable purchases could constitute evidence of a half dozen state and federal fraud charges.

There is an image taken from a September 12, 2023 television news program in which Stewart appears wearing a powder blue maternity dress identical to the $40.40 "Sleeveless High Waisted Midi Dress Photoshoot Baby Shower Blue L" dress that city expense records show was purchased from Amazon and charged to her city credit card two months earlier.

The report contains another photo from one of Stewart's social media posts, dated August 13, 2023, showing her in a red "Sleeveless Swing Casual Work Summer Party Dress with Pockets." It appears to be identical to one purchased from Amazon and billed to her city credit card three months earlier.

Over June and July of 2022, the report cites city expense records showing that multiple purchases at Costco and Amazon were billed to Stewart's city credit card as office expenses and delivered to her home. According to the report, those purchases consisted of food, gifts and decorations for "a tropical Peppa Pig-themed birthday party" that Stewart arranged at her home for her then 2-year-old daughter.

Among the photographs reproduced from Stewart's Facebook page is one showing adults watching Stewart's daughter, wearing a dress similar to one charged to the mayor's city card, reaching toward a giant Peppa Pig character.

The report tracks the same sorts of city credit card purchases for two other events involving Stewart's family – a party two years later to celebrate her daughter's nursery school graduation and another for her husband's 40th birthday.

It also contains a chart correlating the birth of both of Stewart's children with purchase of maternity and early childhood items, lists credit card jewelry purchases and asserts she is using audio equipment the city paid for in her campaign for governor.

Collectively, the report claims that a years-long pattern of questionable purchases raises the possibility of criminal or civil liability not only for whoever made the purchases, but for those who approved them.

"The misuse of taxpayer funds reflected in the evidence raises concerns that extend well beyond administrative misconduct and may expose the individuals involved to significant civil and criminal liability under both state and federal law," the report says. "The apparent diversion of public funds and municipal assets for improper purposes not only constitutes a serious breach of the public trust, but may also implicate statutes governing Fraud, Larceny, Embezzlement, False Statements, Wire Fraud, and Misuse of Government Property.

"Where public officials knowingly authorize, conceal, or benefit from such conduct, the exposure is not limited to reimbursement or internal discipline; rather, it warrants a full criminal investigation by the appropriate state and federal authorities."

The Courant reported earlier this week that nearly a decade of New Britain expense records show that $207,076.07 in purchase were charged to Stewart's city credit card from 2016 to 2025. Of that total, about $47,000 involved purchases from Amazon, about $19,000 from Costco, $18,000 from The Hartford Club, more than $7,000 from Instacart and about $71,000 from a variety of other vendors.

The records show that more than half the purchase were not validated by receipts. The available receipts show that about $22,600 of what was bought was shipped to Stewart's residence and $7,500 in items were shipped to the mayor's office.

New Britain has rules concerning the city credit, or P-cards, it issues to dozens of employees, including requirements that the cards be used only for essential purchases and that the transactions be backed by receipts.

Card policy is supposed to be enforced by the city finance director and lapses are to be punished by cancelation of card access. There were two finance directors over Stewart's dozen years in office and both have not responded to repeated inquiries. A former City Hall employee has said there was concern among Stewart's staff over her credit card use as early as 2018 and at times it rose to loud arguments.

In an interview with the Courant earlier in the week, Stewart defended her credit card spending and claimed it was never questioned.

"There is a reason you have receipts and you have all that proof because there was nothing to hide," she said. "There were receipts that were submitted and annually budgeted and don't forget independently audited too. And for 12 years there was never a question or a doubt raised until now, until I decided to step away and run for higher office."

The Crumbie report questions the claim, saying that as early as 2019, then city auditor BlumShapiro "urged the city to consider and implement a fraud-risk assessment program in light of ‘the city's vulnerability to misappropriation of assets.'"

"With respect to the city's P-Card Program, in its 2019 letter to Ms. Stewart, BlumShapiro reported that ‘six transactions out of twenty-five selected did not have proper supporting documentation, which spanned three different departments,' noting that ‘[a]lthough the City has procedures in place to review these transactions monthly, that review usually takes place after the purchases were incurred and detail is limited,'" the report says.

The report says Stewart would not submit to an interview by the Crumbie investigators and instead asked for a list of written questions.

"When advised that this could not be done, she ignored an additional request for an interview.," the report says.

The report released Thursday asserts that reimbursements to the city for personal charges were negligible. In 2018 and 2020, the report says Stewart personally reimbursed the city a total of $456.07 for Uber rides and other unspecified charges. In 2018, '19 and '20, Stewart's charity, the Mayor's Trophy Charitable Fund, and the New Britain Republican Town Committee, reimbursed the city a total of $1,472.92

In its conclusion, the report says, "The financial records, purchase histories, and supporting documentation presented here show that the great majority of the expenditures made with Ms. Stewart's P-Card were wholly unrelated to official municipal business and instead appear to have benefited and enriched Ms. Stewart and her family."

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This story was originally published May 14, 2026 at 10:27 AM.