By Richard Weizel
NEW HAVEN (Reuters) - Two campaign managers for a 2012 congressional candidate testified on Wednesday that former Connecticut Governor John Rowland, on trial for campaign violations, worked as a top-level adviser while being paid through a phony contract with the candidate's husband's business.
Rowland, who was forced to resign from office a decade ago for corruption, provided political strategy, wrote press releases and courted backers for Republican Lisa Wilson-Foley, the two testified in U.S. District Court in New Haven.
Most campaign decisions needed Rowland's approval, they testified.
The former governor, 57, is charged with conspiracy, falsifying records in a federal investigation, causing false statements to be made to the Federal Election Commission and causing illegal campaign contributions.
Federal prosecutors contend that Rowland signed a secret illegal deal to be paid $35,000 by Brian Foley's healthcare company as a cover while he advised Foley's wife on her 2012 run for Congress.
The money is considered campaign contributions not reported to the FEC in violation of federal campaign finance laws, prosecutors say.
"I was stunned and deeply disturbed," Christopher Covucci testified when a prosecutor asked how he felt when Wilson-Foley told him of the plan to bring Rowland into the campaign and be paid by her husband's company.
"I started thinking about getting a new job right then," he said.
Covucci said he quit the Wilson-Foley campaign six weeks later, taking a lower-paying job for a less-promising candidate.
"Lisa had a very casual disregard for the rules," he testified.
Christopher Syrek, who took over as campaign manager, said on the witness stand: "Rowland's role just kept increasing, and it was clear he was running the campaign."
Syrek said the candidate and her husband wanted to keep Rowland's role off the books because it might generate negative publicity.
Rowland served as Connecticut governor from 1995 to 2004, when he pleaded guilty to accepting gifts from people who had been awarded lucrative state contracts. He served 10 months in prison.
Wilson-Foley and Foley in March pleaded guilty to conspiring to make illegal campaign contributions, and Foley agreed to testify against Rowland at trial.
Earlier this week, Foley testified that he and Rowland agreed to the bogus contract.
(Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst and Cynthia Osterman)