Sen. Heather Somers, R-Groton, says she is grateful that she never ran for state office in the days before Connecticut’s public financing system, when a major portion of fundraising took place in Hartford and was geared to collecting checks from lobbyists and their clients. But that didn’t stop her from voting Friday for a budget that would repeal the system.
citizens election program
Posted inPolitics
Campaign finance, minimum wage bills in the mix despite budget crush
With a little more than two weeks remaining until the session’s June 7 adjournment deadline, dozens of bills unrelated to the state’s budget are certain to be voted upon. Legislative leaders say campaign finance reform and a minimum wage increase are among the contentious issues that could come up in the session’s final days.
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In CT Democrats’ new campaign ad, money is the message
With a new ad and press conference, Democrats made the corporate and billionaire backers of a Republican effort to gain seats in the Connecticut House an issue Thursday. The GOP called the effort a disingenuous gambit to distract voters from the state’s economic failings under a Democratic governor and legislature.
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Business, labor bet big on fight for Connecticut Capitol
Business groups intent on boosting the influence of Republicans in the General Assembly outspent labor allies of majority Democrats by roughly a 2-1 margin in independent expenditures reported to the State Elections Enforcement Commission through Tuesday, according to an analysis by CT Mirror.
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Investigator says Malloy settlement keeps voters in the dark
Near the end of his FBI career, Charles Urso helped send Republican Gov. John G. Rowland to prison in 2005. He said Thursday his second career as an elections cop ended in frustration — getting stonewalled trying to find out if Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy violated campaign finance reforms inspired by the Rowland scandal.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Rell: Dems proposal eviscerates election law spirit and letter
I am profoundly disappointed that legislative Democrats would turn aside, through budget cuts, the public campaign financing program many of us worked so hard to put in place to prevent political corruption scandals. The Democrats have effectively eviscerated the spirit of the law since 2011 and now they are looking to overturn the actual letter of the law altogether.
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Democrats’ campaign finance cuts lose steam
Few trial balloons at the State Capitol have deflated as quickly as a proposal this week by Democratic legislative leaders to save $11.7 million by suspending Connecticut’s groundbreaking system of publicly financed campaigns.
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House votes for doomed election reforms
The House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted Thursday night for sweeping campaign finance reforms offered by the GOP minority, a bipartisan gesture of protest directed at Senate Democrats reluctant to stem the flow of big money into publicly financed campaigns.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Connecticut citizens need to take back their elections
Many Americans, like me, look at the political system and feel so miniscule in comparison. Although the power to control our nation and our destiny was originally intended for the people, it now largely belongs to the biggest or richest players in the political system. Citizens need to take control of our elections and take our government back from the special interests who seek to define our future for us.
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Campaign finance reform left for high-level negotiations
The Senate Democratic majority’s leadership yielded Monday to a toothless compromise on the question of capping the unlimited expenditures the state parties now can make on General Assembly races in Connecticut. The compromise: a $250,000 cap that wouldn’t have meant a difference in any campaign last year.
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Sharkey and GOP vs. Senate Democrats on campaign reform
The Senate Democratic majority is blocking House Speaker J. Brendan Sharkey, D-Hamden, and minority Republicans from closing what critics say is major loophole in Connecticut’s system of publicly financing campaigns — the parties ability to direct special-interest money to taxpayer-funded candidates.
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A struggle for high ground on campaign reform in CT
The General Assembly’s Republican minority moved Thursday to shape the debate on Connecticut’s system of publicly financing campaigns, demanding that Democrats close loopholes undermining the state’s clean-elections law. The GOP offers itself as the savior of a system whose creation was opposed by most Republicans.
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Can Connecticut’s campaign finance reforms be saved?
Reform it. Leave it alone. Blow it up. Prescriptions for fixing Connecticut’s system of publicly financing campaigns vary wildly. Its tight limits on contributions and spending turned porous in 2014, tarnishing what had been a shiny instrument of campaign finance reform.
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GOP accuses Kennedy of campaign finance violation
A Republican campaign official has filed a complaint accusing Democrat Ted Kennedy Jr. of skirting campaign finance laws by raising $40,000 for the state Democratic Party that seems to have flowed back to his publicly financed campaign for state Senate.
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Democrats say Foley’s campaign finances just don’t add up
An elections complaint filed by the Connecticut Democratic Party claims that the gubernatorial campaign of Republican Tom Foley failed to report major expenses in June, such as staff salaries and the cost of producing the commercial that began airing Monday.