Former New Britain, Connecticut, mayor Erin Stewart ended her Republican gubernatorial campaign Thursday after a law firm's investigation accused her of spending more than $200,000 in taxpayer money on personal items, including a Peppa Pig birthday party for her daughter, Amazon shopping sprees, and food for a campaign fundraiser she never reimbursed.
Stewart, who served as mayor from 2013 to 2025, announced the suspension the same day the Crumbie Law Group released a report commissioned by current city officials. The report outlined what investigators described as years of unchecked spending on a city-issued purchasing card, or P-card, with nearly $123,000 in charges lacking any supporting documentation at all.
New Britain's current mayor, Bobby Sanchez, said he would refer the accusations to state and federal criminal prosecutors. The Crumbie Law Group report warned of "significant civil and criminal liability under both state and federal law," citing potential violations of "statutes governing Fraud, Larceny, Embezzlement, False Statements, Wire Fraud, and Misuse of Government Property."
The report, first detailed by the Daily Mail, found that between 2016 and 2025, Stewart charged a total of $207,076.07 to her city P-card. The breakdown tells its own story: roughly $47,500 at Amazon, $19,200 at Costco, $7,400 on Instacart, and $113,500 at what the report called "other vendors."
Of that $207,000 total, investigators said $123,018.25 had no receipts, no invoices, no purchase orders, nothing to show where the money went or why. For a city credit card that exists to buy office supplies and conduct municipal business, that is a staggering gap.
The Crumbie Law Group didn't stop at the numbers. Investigators cross-referenced Stewart's social media accounts with Amazon purchase records tied to the P-card. The report included screenshots from Stewart's Facebook page alongside Amazon product listings, alleging the items matched. On several occasions, the report stated, Stewart appeared in photographs "wearing identical clothing to those that she purchased on Amazon utilizing her P-card."
Birthday party supplies for Stewart's daughter, described in the report as a "tropical Peppa Pig-themed party", and items for her husband's 40th birthday celebration were also flagged. City records categorized some of these purchases as "office supplies."
The Hartford Club, an exclusive private venue in a Georgian-style mansion that bills itself as a gathering place for "the region's most influential people and organizations," figured prominently in the allegations. The report found Stewart used her city credit card to cover costs and dues at the club. It also found she purchased food and beverages for a 2017 campaign fundraising event held there, and never paid the city back.
Using a municipal purchasing card to fund a campaign event is, as the report noted, a violation of city laws. The accusation strikes at the most basic obligation of public office: keeping personal and political money separate from taxpayer funds. When other lawmakers have faced allegations of misusing public dollars, the political consequences have been swift. Stewart's case follows the same pattern.
The report also described flights purchased for Stewart and her campaign manager to travel to Washington, D.C., allegedly to seek an endorsement from President Trump. The exact cost of those flights was not specified in the report's publicly available details.
Stewart released a statement the same day the report dropped. She said:
"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."
She added a pledge of accountability:
"I will take accountability for any mistakes, and I intend to make full and complete restitution to the City of New Britain, my home, for anything that I owe."
What she did not do is dispute any specific allegation. She did not challenge the dollar figures. She did not explain why $123,000 in charges had no documentation. She did not address the Peppa Pig party, the Amazon clothing, or the Hartford Club fundraiser. The word "mistakes" does a lot of heavy lifting when the report describes potential fraud, larceny, and embezzlement.
Stewart also deleted her Instagram page on Thursday. That is not the action of someone preparing a vigorous public defense.
The Crumbie Law Group report did not limit its criticism to Stewart. It also pointed a finger at the city's own financial gatekeepers. The report stated that New Britain's directors of finance who served under Stewart "should have known of the abuse that was ongoing with Ms. Stewart's P-Card; however, there is no record indicating Ms. Stewart's P-Card use was ever suspended nor restricted in any way."
That finding raises a question taxpayers in New Britain deserve answered: how does a mayor run up more than $200,000 on a city credit card over nearly a decade without anyone in the finance department raising a flag? The report suggests the oversight structure either failed or was never seriously applied. Either way, the people who paid the bills, New Britain residents, were left holding the bag.
This kind of institutional failure is not unique. Republican officials in other states have faced fraud allegations that similarly exposed weak internal controls and a culture of deference to people in power. The pattern is familiar: trust is extended, guardrails are ignored, and the damage accumulates quietly until someone finally looks at the receipts.
Mayor Sanchez's decision to refer the matter to criminal prosecutors means this is no longer just a political embarrassment. If state or federal authorities pursue charges based on the statutes the Crumbie Law Group identified, fraud, larceny, embezzlement, wire fraud, misuse of government property, Stewart could face legal consequences that go far beyond a suspended campaign.
The full report is publicly available through the city of New Britain's website. Its release marks one of the more detailed public accountings of alleged municipal corruption in recent Connecticut history. The Crumbie Law Group was hired specifically by current city officials to investigate Stewart's spending, and the firm delivered a document that names dollar amounts, identifies vendors, matches purchases to social media posts, and lays out a potential criminal referral.
For Connecticut Republicans, the timing is painful. Stewart was running for governor, positioning herself as a credible GOP candidate in a deep-blue state. That bid is now frozen, and the party must reckon with the fallout. Both parties have seen candidates forced to step aside when the gap between their public image and their private conduct becomes too wide to bridge. Stewart's case fits that mold precisely.
Several open questions remain. Which specific finance directors served during the years of alleged abuse, and will they face any accountability? Will Stewart contest the report's findings in any formal proceeding? And will prosecutors act on the referral, or will this end with a quiet restitution check and a press release?
The report's detail, down to the Peppa Pig decorations and the clothing screenshots, suggests investigators built their case methodically. When public officials dodge accountability hearings or deflect scrutiny, the public record has a way of catching up. In Stewart's case, it caught up on a Thursday, and a gubernatorial campaign ended before it really began.
Conservatives who demand clean government from the left have to demand it from their own. A city credit card is not a personal expense account, and "office supplies" is not a synonym for birthday party favors. If the facts in this report hold up, the system worked, just about a decade too late.
