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In the most recent fight for campaign finance reform, the Connecticut General Assembly has passed a comprehensive public campaign financing program for statewide constitutional offices and a limited public financing program for General Assembly races. The measure allows candidates to use money from a Citizens’ Election Fund for statewide political campaigns in return for abiding by voluntary spending limits and ceasing private fund raising. The landmark legislation (HB 5102) will cut the skyrocketing cost of campaigns and level the playing field for political challengers. By shifting Connecticut’s campaign financing system on to a public financing track, the bill will allow candidates to concentrate on the issues that are most important to people of Connecticut.
Specifically, the bill passed by the Connecticut General Assembly establishes several
statewide programs and mandates:
- The state will create a Citizens’ Election Fund and, beginning in 2006, make substantial grants to candidates to help pay for primary and general election races for statewide offices.
- To qualify, candidates must reach a reasonable threshold amount in small-scale private donations and agree to voluntary spending limits.
- For legislative candidates, the bill sets up a voluntary system, starting in 2004, in which candidates would agree to a spending limit of $130,000 in the Senate and $50,000 in House races. Back up funding would be given to candidates whose opponents exceed pledge amounts.
In conjunction with legislative allies like House Majority Leader David Pudlin and Election Committee Chair Alex Knopp, Representative Andrew Fleischmann (Flemming Fellow 2000) was a key leader in pursuing the campaign finance reform for Connecticut. In addition, the Democracy 2000 Campaign, a broad-based coalition of over
50 organizations including the AFL-CIO, Connecticut Citizen Action Group, DemocracyWorks, Common Cause, Sierra Club, the Public Interest Research Group, League of Women Voters and others, were pivotal to the bill’s success. The bill also gained strong support from four constitutional offices: Treasurer Denise Nappier, Comptroller
Nancy Wyman, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, and Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz. Fleischmann said legislative vote in favor of reform showed lawmakers were finally prepared "to get big money out of big races and focus on raising issues, instead of raising money."
While as of this printing, the bill still needs approval of Governor Rowland, this innovative legislation is a win for progressives and supporters of campaign finance reform. CPA Board Member, Miles Rapoport, Executive Director of DemocracyWorks and former Connecticut legislator and Attorney General, believes this victory is an important step for greater accountability and civic participation in government. "This bill is a historic shift in the way Connecticut will finance statewide campaigns. It takes these campaigns off the high stakes private fundraising treadmill and creates a genuinely democratic fundraising base for them in the future. It was a great example of an outside coalition and strong legislative leadership working together."
The Connecticut victory provides other state legislators and advocates with a model for legislation and a strategy for developing coalitions to support campaign finance reform. The bill is similar to full public financing systems as adopted by Maine, Massachusetts, and Arizona through initiatives, but focuses full public funding on statewide races with a more limited program for legislative contests.
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