Conn. State Senate Candidate: Opponent Ted Kennedy Jr. Broke Financing Pact

Editor's Note: This article was updated on Oct. 29, 2014.

STAMFORD, Conn. (CBSNewYork) -- Ted Kennedy Jr., the celebrity candidate running for a seat in the Connecticut state Senate, has violated an agreement to limit his campaign's spending, his opponent charges.

A Democrat who is the son of the late U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy and the nephew of President John F. Kennedy, Ted Kennedy Jr. has been accused of plowing $300,000 into his war chest by taking advantage of a campaign finance loophole, WCBS 880 Connecticut Bureau Chief Fran Schneidau reported.

Republican candidate Bruce Wilson said both he and Kennedy signed a pledge to stay within the limits of the state's financing, roughly $109,000.

Wilson said it boils down to a matter of integrity.

"I think that he should answer to the voters why he felt empowered to say one thing and do another," he told Schneidau.

Kennedy's campaign has not returned emails or phone calls requesting comment on the allegations.

But former state Sen. Ed Meyer told WCBS 880 Connecticut Bureau Chief Fran Schneidau that Connecticut lawmakers changed the campaign finance law last spring to allow more money for candidates running for office for the first time.

"The fact is that Ted Kennedy has complied with the letter of the law here, and as a first-time candidate, he wanted to be sure he got his message out," said Meyer, who helped shape the revision.

Last year, lawmakers in Hartford removed the cap on how much money state party organizations can spend to cover a campaign's costs. The cap had been $10,000.

According to The New York Times, Kennedy had received $207,000 from the Democratic State Central Committee by Oct. 16. Kennedy's relatives and business associates have donated at least $88,000 to the party organization, the newspaper reported.

Kennedy and Wilson are vying for Connecticut's 12th Senate district, which includes the towns Branford, North Branford, Durham, Guilford, Killingworth and Madison. The election is Nov. 4.

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