About 85% of legislative candidates used public funds in 2018, making Connecticut’s elections program a national model, Common Cause reports.
Common Cause
Posted inPolitics
They love public financing. The oversight, not as much.
Campaign laws are about transparency, but the Senate reminded Connecticut once again this year that the process by which they are created is opaque.
Posted inMoney
FOI complaint seeks documents delving into fiscal stability panel’s work
Two progressive policy groups have charged the state’s fiscal stability commission with failing to disclose documents — including those tied to a nonprofit that funded key budgetary consultants for the panel. They are asking the legislature to put off acting on the panel’s recommendations until their request for the documents is resolved.
Posted inPolitics
An unlikely rebuke of the General Assembly over election laws
With a blandly titled “informational forum,” a Democratic state senator choreographed an unusual rebuke of the General Assembly and its leadership Friday, eliciting testimony about the systematic weakening of campaign finance laws in Connecticut, most recently by provisions inserted into the bipartisan budget adopted in special session last fall.
Posted inPolitics
CT lawmakers spend millions fending off underfunded foes
WASHINGTON — Boosted by their success at fundraising, members of the all-Democratic Connecticut delegation to the House of Representatives have spent a total of nearly $5 million to stave off woefully underfunded challengers this year.
Posted inPolitics
CT GOP helps Trump mega-donors bypass campaign limits, legally
Some eye-popping numbers are listed in the Connecticut Republican Party’s latest finance report: On a single day, nearly $900,000 flowed from across the U.S. into its account, nearly doubling its receipts. But the money bounced to the Republican National Committee, a legal trick practiced by both parties to help megadonors evade contribution limits.
Posted inHealth, Politics
Wade faces subpoena in Cigna conflict of interest question
The Office of State Ethics is taking the rare step of seeking authority to subpoena personal financial information that Insurance Commissioner Katherine L. Wade has failed to provide the lawyer responsible for determining if Wade has a conflict of interest ruling on the merger of Anthem and Cigna. Wade’s lawyer says she has been responsive and suggests the conflict question is moot, because the state’s review is suspended until a federal anti-trust suit is resolved.
Posted inPolitics
Stakes grow in Malloy’s third challenge of watchdogs’ autonomy
The latest challenge to the fiscal autonomy of state’s watchdog agencies by the administration of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is raising unprecedented legal questions likely to eventually require Attorney General George Jepsen and Comptroller Kevin P. Lembo to publicly contradict or confirm the administration’s position.
Posted inHealth, Politics
Anthem-Cigna controversy exposes gaps in ethics rules
Insurance Commissioner Katharine L. Wade’s controversial refusal to recuse herself from ruling on the Anthem-Cigna insurance merger has provoked a reappraisal of ethics regulators, who heavily rely on the self-reporting of public officials, and an ethics code that may be clearer to lawyers than lovers of English.
Posted inPolitics
Donna Parson, longtime Connecticut activist, dies
Donna Parson, who organized grass-roots efforts that helped stop construction of an interstate highway, pass a bottle bill and elect progressives in Connecticut, died Tuesday after heart surgery at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York. She was 73.
Posted inPolitics
Miles Rapoport brings political skills honed in CT to DC
Washington – Miles Rapoport has been at the center of many brutal political fights, but is he hard-nosed enough for Washington?
Posted inPolitics
Court invalidates aggregate limits on federal contributions
Washington – The Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down an aggregate limit of $123,2000 in contributions that an individual can make to federal candidates, parties and political action committees each campaign cycle.
Posted inPolitics
Revolving door spins for Connecticut delegation
WASHINGTON — Many Connecticut lawmakers who have retired recently have become lobbyists. An analysis by The Connecticut Mirror shows that dozens of staffers for the state’s lawmakers have also swung through the revolving door, the term used for an ingrained, and growing, Washington phenomenon for when lawmakers and their staff leave Capitol Hill for more lucrative lobbying jobs.
Posted inPolitics
Malloy, Williams back national popular vote
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and Senate President Pro Tem Donald E. Williams Jr., D-Brooklyn, endorsed legislation Monday that would have Connecticut join an interstate compact committing the state’s electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote. The governor’s office announced the support of Malloy and Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman as the legislature’s Government Administration […]
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Op-ed: Put CT on the presidential map
A national popular vote is consistent with one of America’s deeply held values: every vote should be equally important.