Gov. Ned Lamont is going for a third term after besting two-time Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Stefanowski in 2018 and 2022. This year’s Republican candidate for governor, Sen. Ryan Fazio, R-Greenwich, faces an uphill battle, with Republicans nationally facing strong political headwinds that have left some of their previous political strongholds in states like Texas, Ohio, and Georgia up for grabs.
That means that the major national political action committees are pouring money into races outside of Connecticut as Democrats look to pick up Senate and governor seats as Republicans rush to defend. While that was also the case for Connecticut in 2022 when national PACs poured millions into the gubernatorial contest, this year’s political situation has drawn that money elsewhere.
No worry for Gov. Lamont, who has self-funded all his campaigns with his personal wealth. Although Fazio secured a Citizen’s Election Program grant of $18 million in February, those funds were held in limbo as the State Elections and Enforcement Commission (SEEC) investigated a complaint against his campaign. The complaint was finally dismissed in July, according to CT Mirror, allowing Fazio to move forward with getting his name and message to voters through advertising.
Lamont, on the other hand, having helmed the state for eight years, has no trouble with name recognition, but did face a primary challenge from within the progressive wing of his own party, causing him to spend some of his campaign funds to ensure he won his primary election against Rep. Josh Elliott, D-Hamden.
Gubernatorial campaigns spend tens of millions trying to secure a win, and those millions largely go to outside contractors and consultants. Everything from polling to television and radio ads, legal services, software, and campaign t-shirts are outsourced to politically aligned consulting companies that often operate at a national level.
During the 2022 gubernatorial campaign, Inside Investigator broke down where campaign money was going for each candidate, and this year, we’re doing it again to help show readers how election campaigns are managed, often by people outside the state.
In this analysis, we compiled campaign spending with consultants and contractors from July through September for each campaign. We excluded necessities like office furniture, payroll processing fees (which can be quite costly), office rental for campaign headquarters, and food. Although, for those of you who believe working a campaign is a glamorous endeavor, Lamont’s campaign spent $1,500 on DoorDash. We also excluded vendors who were not politically aligned; the typical t-shirt company will make t-shirts for anyone who orders them; it’s not a political endeavor.
Since we are focused on consultants and contractors, we have also excluded campaign funds routed to Democratic or Republican Town Councils, and salaries for campaign staff, which can also be expensive.
Lamont’s staff consist of some notable individuals, like his former Chief of Staff Matthew Brokman, who left his role to run Lamont’s campaign, and the governor’s former communications director and current state senate candidate, Robert Blanchard, and former State Senator Will Haskell. Although Fazio has employed “field consultants” in towns throughout the state, the Lamont campaign has roughly double that number receiving a salary.
Lamont has largely returned to work with many of the same contractors he did in 2022, looking to repeat a winning strategy, while Fazio has employed different contractors from his predecessor. Despite the delay in receiving the CEP funds, since July, Fazio has spent more on his advertising blitz than Lamont as he seeks to close a gap that Quinnipiac polls put at roughly 20 points.
The consultants and contractors used by the campaigns are broken down by how much each campaign has spent with them, going from highest to lowest.
GOV. NED LAMONT
SKD KNICKERBOCKER: $3.48 MILLION: The governor once again returns to this Democrat-aligned communications powerhouse that has formed the backbone and biggest spend of his previous campaigns for obvious reasons: he keeps winning with them. This firm has operated out of Washington D.C. for decades, taking on some of the biggest names and causes of the past two decades. Recently rebranded as SKDK, the Lamont campaign has poured millions now into ad-buys through this consulting firm.
DELIVER STRATEGIES: $483,555: Another company that has helped propel Lamont to victory in past campaigns, Deliver Strategies, based in Arlington, Virginia, specializes in mailers for Democratic candidates and progressive causes, and has counted among their clients President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Stacey Abrams. However, the company was faulted in 2022 for not including the “paid for” language in a political mailer on behalf of New Hampshire Congressional Primary Candidate Robert Burns. Deliver Strategies settled with the New Hampshire Attorney General in 2024 for $40,000 to resolve the matter.
ORCHESTRA GROUP: $300,000: This communications consulting company is also new to the Lamont campaign, and is the parent company of BerlinRosen, which has worked with Democrat candidate campaigns across the country, including Maura Healey in Massachusetts, and The States Project, a PAC-funded campaign to win Democrat majorities in state legislatures.
GLOBAL STRATEGY GROUP: $203,900: Another consulting company Lamont has used in previous campaigns for polling research, this communications and public affairs agency specializes in “Electing Democrats and Advancing Progressive Causes,” according to its website. The company has worked with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, among many others, including conducting polling for Kamala Harris’s 2024 presidential campaign. Although used heavily by Democratic Party candidates, GSG also represents major Fortune 500 companies and has received criticism over its work with Amazon to thwart a union drive on Staten Island.
WORTHY AGENCY: $168,000: A newcomer to Lamont’s campaigns, this company, whose actual name is Worthy Media, is run by Michael Keonigs out of New York City, who also donated to Lamont’s campaign. The company owns and operates numerous YouTube channels and works with major media and entertainment companies like Disney. Worthy was hired by the Lamont campaign for media consulting, according to the filings.
BRUSHFIRE STRATEGIES LLC: $88,109.80: This phone-banking firm advertises itself as mostly women-owned that specializes in mobile phone and texting outreach for Democrat and progressive political action committees, state parties, and political campaigns. The company’s website indicates performs a full suite of mobile phone outreach, including writing the scripts and offering peer-to-peer texting.
CHARITABLE DONATIONS: $39,563.48: One of the more interesting aspects of Lamont’s campaign spending; aside of merely spreading the wealth around the state through Democratic Town Committees, the Lamont team has also been peppering churches and associations with charitable contributions from $1,000 to upwards of $7,500. Recipients ranged from the church Citadel of Love in Hartford, which received $1,000, to over $2,500 for the Bridgeport Pride Center, and $5,000 to the Fairfield County Association of the Links, a national nonprofit comprised of professional women of color. The largest recipient thus far was $7,500 to the Greater Hartford Pan-Hellenic Council, which is a coalition of historically black college fraternities and sororities.
OPEN LABS, LLC: $28,898: This is the research arm of Democratic SuperPAC Future Forward and has worked extensively with the Democratic National Committee and President Joe Biden’s 2024 campaign. Founded by Jon Fromowitz, a senior media advisor for President Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign. Open Labs made national news when one of its polls was leaked to the press showing that Biden was trailing Donald Trump in 2024 and raised questions about his age and viability as a candidate. The Lamont campaign is using the firm for ad testing and polling.
MBA CONSULTING GROUP: $19,990: The Lamont team has once again turned to D.C.-based MBA Consulting Group to ensure campaign compliance. The company contracts with left-leaning political action committees and campaigns.
BREAK SOMETHING, INC: $17,600: Another D.C., Democrat-aligned digital strategy consulting firm, creating digital advertisements and short videos for candidates like Raphael Wornock in Georgia. The Lamont campaign has reportedly been using the firm for texting and email services since his primary campaign against Rep. Josh Elliott.
MIRANDA CREATIVE: $15,817.50: Miranda Creative is a marketing firm based in Norwich that the Lamont campaign tapped for digital strategy consulting. Although the firm does not appear to have done many political campaigns, it has been used fairly extensively by Connecticut state agencies for advertising and marketing. According to the state open checkbook website, Miranda Creative has been paid $3.05 million by state agencies since 2020, including over $114,000 so far this fiscal year, mostly for the Secretary of the State and the Office of the Treasurer.
EM CONSULTING GROUP: $14,040.43: Another newcomer to the Lamont campaign, this rather mysterious Get Out the Vote consultant company was incorporated in July 2026, and registered to an apartment in Boulder, Colorado. The Colorado Secretary of State business filings indicate the company was formed by Emmanuel Mammah. A search of his name brings up the website for a company called E-Bot Campaign Technologies, which claims to do “data engineering, analytics and software for progressive campaigns,” and lists Ned for CT 2026 as one of its recent programs. The company claims to use “VAN [Voter Activation Network] data combined with door knocks, calls, shifts, paid canvassing, ballot returns and goals, with safeguards that flag anything uncertain.” NGP VAN is a privately owned voter database used by Democrats for fundraising, emails, and digital engagement, and its software was used by the Lamont campaign in 2022.
GDA WINS: $12,837.50: GDA Wins is another D.C.-based, Democrat-aligned company specializing in direct mail that worked with labor unions like the SEIU and the National Education Association to turn out voters for President Joe Biden in 2020. They handle mailers for candidates across the country, and for Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy.
ELIAS LAW GROUP: $4,666.35: The Lamont campaign returned to one of the nation’s most well-known Democrat-aligned legal teams founded by Hillary Clinton’s former general counsel, Marc Elias. The Lamont campaign has used Elias Law Group for legal consulting this election cycle, although it appears the campaign has required far less of the firm than it did in 2022.
SEN. RYAN FAZIO
STRATEGIC MEDIA SERVICES: $7.02 MILLION: Strategic media services is Fazio’s biggest spend as he seeks to get his name and face in front of voters with ad-buys from the Republican-aligned media placement service that received more than $288 million in 2024, helping propel Republicans to victory that year, according to Open Secrets. Founded by David Neal in 1966, SMS and Neal were sent a letter co-written by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-CT, in 2026 as part of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation’s look into possible contract award violations at the Department of Homeland Security. According to the letter, a company called Safe America Media was formed just days before receiving a no-bid DHS contract for $143 million to produce advertising campaigns for DHS. The company was formed by a Republican operative who had previously shared office space with SMS for eight years, and Safe America Media then contracted SMS to place those advertisements.
CREATIVE DIRECT: $979,554.80: A company specializing in mailers, Creative Direct is based in Virginia and was formed in 1997 by former Republican operatives. The company has been used by Republican candidates like Brian Kemp of Georgia, and political action committees in presidential races.
GRAND OLD VICTORY: $436,838.74: Grand Old Victory LLC has been in Connecticut news recently; owned by Tyler Flanigan, a former Wethersfield Town Council member and aide to New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte. Fazio’s campaign is utilizing Grand Old Victory for their text messaging campaign and for political strategy consulting, according to campaign filings.
CYNGAL: $127,500: A Virginia-based polling firm established in 2007, Cyngal is rated as one of the top and most accurate polling companies in the nation by the Silver Bulletin – a website run by famed pollster Nate Silver. Cyngal caters to Republican candidates and causes, although the firm’s latest National Voter Trend survey released on October 7, 2026, offered little in the way of optimism for Republicans at the national level. In Connecticut, Quinnipiac polls placed Gov. Ned Lamont roughly twenty points ahead of Fazio. Fazio had questioned the results of a Sacred Heart poll in September, claiming the race was down to single digits, according to the Hartford Courant.
VARIOUS FIELD CONSULTANTS: $120,758.02: As indicated before, the Fazio campaign is utilizing nearly thirty “field consultants” who live in towns across the state and receive anywhere from $250 to upward of $15,000 for their work canvassing and door knocking for Fazio. And while that may seem like a fair number of people working the ground game for Fazio, the Lamont campaign lists over sixty individuals receiving a salary.
RED CURVE SOLUTIONS: $80,117.42: Red Curve Solutions is a budgeting, financial, and compliance management company for Republican campaigns and political action committees. Based out of Massachusetts, Red Curve advertises itself as having served every Republican presidential campaign since 2012, which earned the ire of some groups and media organizations in 2024 when President Donald Trump utilized their services to facilitate payments to his legal team. A complaint filed against the company and several other organizations in 2024 by the Campaign Legal Center, but that complaint was dismissed by the Federal Elections Commission.
REBEL INTERACTIVE GROUP: $50,150: Recently rebranded as Rebellion Interactive, this large, Cheshire-based marketing and branding firm doesn’t appear to have participated in many political campaigns but is widely used in Connecticut by both companies and state agencies. Among their clients, Rebellion lists Rodeo Cannabis, a cannabis company co-owned by former state senator Art Linares, along with work for the City of Stamford where Linares’ wife, Caroline Simmons is mayor. The organization also lists work for Tweed Airport, Connecticut’s Milk Promotion Board, and Eastern Connecticut State University. The state has directly paid Rebellion a little over $300,000 for marketing in the past.
ELITE CANVASSING: $48,000: Elite Canvassing is essentially doorknockers for hire who specialize in political campaigns. The company claims to be able to deploy canvassers within 24 hours and knock on 10,000 doors per week, but little else can be found about the company.
NATIONWIDE CAMPAIGNS: $10,000: A canvassing field consultant, Nationwide Campaigns is run by Shawn Upton of New Jersey, who has served as a campaign consultant for other grassroots campaign companies. Upton also owns another company called HOME3 that involves a crypto token allowing people to invest fractionally in real estate markets around the world. The website associated with his canvassing company – www.nationwidecanvass.com – is not accessible.
i360: $9,678: Taking a page from Stefanowski’s book, the Fazio campaign is utilizing software from i360 that includes voter and consumer data, analytics, and audience building. The platform has been used extensively in political campaigns and political action committees across the country.
HOLTZMAN VOGEL: $7,500: A massive legal firm that specializes in government affairs in a wide variety of areas and with offices all over the country. The firm was founded by former Chief Counsel to the Republican National Committee and Virginia State Senator Jill Holtzman Vogel. The Fazio campaign has contracted with the firm for legal services.
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