An Informational Forum has been held on the Connecticut Citizens' Election Program. Danbury Senator Mike McLachlan is co-chair of the Government Administration and Elections Committee, which took testimony about changes to the program.
The voluntary system of publicly financing campaigns was created in 2005, in response to the corruption scandal that forced John Rowland to resign as Governor.
Participants can accept individual donations of no more than $100, most from their district, and meet fundraising thresholds. They are then awarded grants. The budget adopted in October includes a provision that mandates complaints unresolved by the State Elections Enforcement Commission in a year be dismissed. But there's been a 40 percent reduction in SEEC staff over the years. It also raised the limit on qualifying contributions to $250.
There were some concerns raised about the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, which threw out prohibitions on independent expenditures by corporations and unions. McLachlan objected to provisions adopted in 2013 that allowed the state parties to make unlimited expenditures on Connecticut legislative races. There had been a limit of $10,000. He says a candidate's friends or family could be directed to give thousands of dollars through the state parties.
