Conn. governor's budget study suspended

Hartford (AP) - Gov. M. Jodi Rell's budget director has suspended a two-year, $220,000 government efficiency project at the center of investigations into whether it was used to help Connecticut's governor politically.

Secretary of the Office of Policy and Management Robert Genuario advised University of Connecticut Prof. Ken Dautrich, who oversaw the project, and the school on Oct. 16 of the suspension.

The attorney general and state auditors are investigating the project. The state's elections commission and UConn are also conducting separate probes.

Rell said on Wednesday that it's not appropriate to draw conclusions from random e-mails when asked about news reports of e-mails that appear to indicate she knew about discussions between Dautrich and her chief of staff about conducting an opinion poll as part of the project.