Emails: State Struggled With TicketNetwork

Emails show that Gov. Dannel Malloy and top administration officials struggled with state assistance to online ticket exchange TicketNetwork Inc.

According to the emails obtained in a Freedom of Information request by The Associated Press, officials braced for questions last July about why a loan and grant package of up to $7.75 million was going to a Connecticut company rather than to attract an out-of-state business.

And in February, Malloy administration officials were considering how to publicly respond to the company's withdrawal from the governor's signature economic development program after Chief Executive Don Vaccaro was arrested at an Oscar party in Hartford.

Vaccaro, who police said was drunk and abusive, later took an indefinite leave of absence from the company.

A spokesman said the company would not comment.