A former Connecticut Democratic state senator faces criminal charges for the alleged misuse of absentee ballots during the 2026 Bridgeport Democratic Primary.

Dennis Bradley, who served as a Connecticut state senator from 2019 to 2023, was arrested Tuesday morning on absentee ballot tampering charges.

“Bradley, 42, is charged with two counts of illegally possessing absentee ballots and envelopes, along with two other charges for being present when a voter filled out their ballot and opening a ballot envelope,” WTNH reports.

“He was released on a promise to appear in Bridgeport Superior Court on Oct. 21,” the outlet added.

Bradley was convicted earlier this year on multiple counts of wire fraud.

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WTNH explained further:

Alesia Dennis of Bridgeport said that upon receiving her absentee ballot, she had voted for the two “Row A” Democrats—Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont and Probate Judge Paul Ganim.

Dennis alleges that on July 30, Bradley arrived at her apartment with another unidentified man and asked whether she had voted for Mark Bradley, a probate judge candidate and his brother.

According to Dennis, she allowed the two men into her apartment and showed them her sealed, completed absentee ballot. She said surveillance video from her kitchen shows Dennis Bradley opening an envelope she says contained her ballot.

Dennis alleges Bradley then handed her a pen and instructed her to change her vote for probate judge from Ganim to Mark Bradley.

“I did it because I was intimidated,” Dennis told News 8 in August. “And I didn’t know what was going to become of this anyway. I just wanted to do what I had to do so they can get out my house.”

Dennis said she ultimately did not return the absentee ballot. Instead, she chose to cast her vote for Ganim during early voting.

“Inspectors from the Statewide Prosecution Bureau in the Office of the Chief State’s Attorney today arrested Bradley on a warrant charging him with two counts of Illegal Possession of Absentee Ballots and Envelopes, in violation of Connecticut General Statutes § 9-140b(d), Present When an Absentee Ballot Applicant Executes an Absentee Ballot, in violation of Connecticut General Statutes § 9-140b(e), and Absentee Ballots, in violation of Connecticut General Statutes § 9-359,” a press release from the State of Connecticut Division of Criminal Justice read.

The Justice Department shared further details on the wire fraud conviction:

David X. Sullivan, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that a federal jury in New Haven has found former Connecticut State Senator DENNIS A. BRADLEY, JR., 43, of Bridgeport, guilty of defrauding Connecticut’s program for publicly funding political campaigns during his 2018 run for State Senate.

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According to the evidence presented during the trial, in his 2018 campaign for State Senate representing the 23rd District, Bradley and others conspired to defraud the Connecticut State Election Enforcement Commission (“SEEC”), the Citizens’ Election Fund, and the State of Connecticut by making material misrepresentations concerning Bradley’s compliance with state election law and the requirements and restrictions of the Citizens’ Election Program (“CEP”), a voluntary public election-financing program under which candidates can apply to SEEC for grants to fund their primary and general election campaigns. Bradley and his co-conspirators violated CEP rules, then engaged in a scheme to trick SEEC into awarding his campaign undeserved CEP grants by making misrepresentations and omissions to disguise the nature of a March 15, 2018, campaign launch event at Dolphin’s Cove restaurant in Bridgeport.

Although CEP rules imposed a $2,000 limit on Bradley’s expenditure of personal funds, Bradley used more than $7,000 in personal funds to pay for the Dolphin’s Cove campaign event, including an open bar, food, printed invitations, a band, a DJ, and a videographer. In an attempt to hide the Dolphin’s Cove campaign event from SEEC, Bradley and his co-conspirators claimed it was a “Thank You Party” for Bradley’s law firm. At least eight donors gave to Bradley’s campaign at the Dolphin’s Cove event, but Bradley and his co-conspirators altered and falsified the contribution cards so that none were dated March 15, 2018.

CEP rules required complete and truthful disclosures of Bradley’s campaign contributions and expenditures. In April, May, and June 2018, Bradley’s campaign filed disclosure statements with SEEC that fraudulently omitted that Bradley had held the Dolphin’s Cove campaign event, omitted that Bradley had incurred or paid more than $7,000 in expenses for that event, omitted that Bradley’s campaign had accepted contributions at the event, and misrepresented the dates of those contributions.

On May 24, 2018, Bradley applied for a CEP grant to fund his Democratic primary campaign. On July 10, 2018, relying on the false and misleading information contained in Bradley’s filings, SEEC issued the campaign $84,140 in public funds. On August 14, 2018, Bradley won the Democratic primary with approximately 55 percent of the vote.

After issuing a CEP primary grant to Bradley, SEEC began investigating a citizen complaint regarding Bradley’s campaign, including the Dolphin’s Cove campaign event. On August 21, 2018, Bradley emailed a letter to SEEC in which he denied all the allegations in the citizen complaint as “frivolous and manipulative” and falsely stated, “This was in no shape or form a political event. … In fact, we did not collect any donations at this event and have no donations dated 03/15/2018.”

On October 12, 2018, after Bradley attempted to obtain an additional $95,710 CEP grant to fund his general election campaign, his campaign treasurer, Jessica Martinez, repeated similar false statements under oath to SEEC. Bradley then once again repeated those lies at a SEEC meeting considering whether to award his campaign the general election grant. SEEC eventually denied Bradley that grant. On November 6, 2018, Bradley won the general election.

The jury found Bradley guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and five counts of wire fraud. Each offense carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years.

Bradley is released on a $300,000 bond pending sentencing, which has not yet been scheduled.

 

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