{news} (N. H. Register) State's Greens say Refom Measure hurts 3rd parties

[Green Party-CT]

                                    02/14/2006    State’s Greens say reform measure hurts 3rd parties     Joseph Straw , Register Washington Bureau 
          WASHINGTON — The Connecticut Green Party is slamming U.S. Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro, D-3, for her support of a public campaign finance bill the Greens claim would reinforce exclusion of third parties from elected office. 
U.S. Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., offered the bill last week with DeLauro and six other co-sponsors.

                
 
                  on error resume next For mp_i=11 To 6 Step -1 If Not IsObject(CreateObject("ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash." & mp_i)) Then Else   mp_swver=mp_i   Exit For End If Next       ');   }   //-->           Like Connecticut’s public financing system for statewide races, the Obey bill would set up a fixed pot for House races but would divide the pot between parties based on each one’s share of the vote in the prior two elections combined.

By garnering a specific number of petition signatures, any challenger, either in a minority party or third party, could receive the amount of funding awarded to the top recipient. Partial funding would require signatures equal to 10 percent of ballots cast in the last election, and 20 percent for full funding.

All independent expenditures "are banned outright so that only the candidate is responsible" for his or her message, according to Obey’s office.

Green Party critics of the plan include New Haveners Charlie Pillsbury, who challenged DeLauro in 2002, and Ralph Ferrucci, who did the same in 2004 and is now taking on U.S. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, D-Conn.

Pillsbury voiced disbelief that a candidate could not spend his or her own money on a campaign.

"No government money and no private money will mean that a non-qualifying candidate would be prohibited from spending any money at all, not one red cent. Not even a business card with the candidate name and office sought would be legal under the bill," Pillsbury said.

"Third parties have always brought out new voters and people who would not have voted, "Ferrucci said. "By not giving them a voice, we are then taking away their right to free speech."

DeLauro spokeswoman Ashley Turton said Obey’s bill "starts an important dialogue about the need to rid the system of money while giving candidates across the political spectrum more effective means to build real grass-roots support. 

"Congresswoman DeLauro believes one of the most attractive aspects of this particular bill is that third parties and independent candidates automatically receive funding based on popular support," Turton said.

Obey’s office argues that the bill would provide "vast majority of challengers with more funds to mount their campaign than the current system," in Ferrucci’s case eight times the roughly $5,000 he raised in 2004, according to a Democratic aide.

Connecticut’s new public financing law for statewide elections requires that the candidate’s party received 10 percent of the vote in the previous election to get one-third of the maximum public financing; 15 percent to receive two-thirds; and 20 percent of the vote to receive a full grant.

This month, however, Rell proposed cutting those thresholds to 3 percent, 4 percent and 5 percent, respectively.

Mary Boyle of Common Cause, a Washington nonprofit that advocates for campaign finance reform, said that Obey’s bill "gets to the heart of the process" by "stopping the money chase."

Boyle further questioned the Greens’ contention that the bill is exclusionary, and echoed the argument that the bill is a necessary step.

"There’s a threshold you need to meet regardless of your party affiliation, so I don’t know if it really excludes anyone," Boyle said. "And we think public financing is the way to go, and we strongly support (Obey’s) efforts.   
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Joseph Straw can be reached at jstraw at nhregister.com or (202) 737-5654. 
http://www.nhregister.com/site/printerFriendly.cfm?brd=1281&dept_id=517515&newsid=16120284 


       
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