{news} (ACTION) PLEASE respond to "Clean and Green"- Hart. and NH Advocate

[Green Party-CT]

  Clean and Green
  
Third parties aren´t so happy with the new campaign finance law 
   
  by Carole Bass - January 26, 2006 
                  COURTESY ACLU         Roger Vann of the ACLU. Through the tireless work of reformers, the state formerly known as Corrupticut now has one of the cleanest election laws in the country so stunning that one good-government activist likens it to ¨a beautiful bride.¨   Connecticut also has a brand-new election slush fund so self-serving that one critic calls it ¨the No Incumbent Left Behind Law.¨       Both are the same law, passed through a special legislative session by Democratic honchos in the middle of the night, and signed by Republican Gov. Jodi Rell.       Depending on whom you talk to, the law is either the best election-reform bill ever adopted, or an abomination masquerading as real reform. And both reactions come from members of the Clean Up Connecticut Campaign, a coalition that has pushed for election reform for a decade.   The law won´t kick in until the 2008 election cycle. Already, though, reformers are hotly debating whether and how the legislature
 should change the law in the session that begins Feb. 8.       Actually, the reformers agree that they like aspects of the new campaign-finance law:   ♦ It bans campaign contributions by lobbyists and state contractors. (The American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut objects to the outright ban on lobbyist contributions, but executive director Roger Vann acknowledges that other reformers love the ban.)   ♦ It ushers in public funding for candidates who qualify. In return, they must agree to spending limits. Together, public financing and the restrictions on fat-cat donors should make politicians less beholden to private contributors.       ♦ It contains a loophole that reformers agree about closing: Political action committees run by legislative leaders can make ¨in-kind¨ contributions to candidates they favor.       The major disagreement revolves around minor parties specifically, the hurdles they must leap before qualifying for public campaign funding.  
 Democrats and Republicans can get the public money simply by raising a set amount from small donors. But third-party candidates who already have to collect voters´ signatures to get on the ballot must round up even more signatures to receive public money.       To get full funding, they need signatures equaling 20 percent of the turnout in the last election. For statewide office, that adds up to more than 200,000 signatures.       ¨This is partisan, self-serving politics at its worst,¨ fumes Mike DeRosa, co-chairman of the Connecticut Green Party. ¨Show me the fairness.¨   The Greens, calling the third-party requirements unconstitutional, are threatening a lawsuit. DeRosa was disappointed not to find more support for that view at a Clean Up Connecticut meeting this month.   ¨I think these folks are so eager to pass a reform bill that they close their eyes to the fact that this is a ´deform´ bill,¨ he says. He contends that his party is ¨absolutely¨ worse off under the new system
 than under the old, because incumbents can help themselves to public money while also getting fat handouts from party leaders through the PAC loophole.       That´s nonsense, says Tom Swan of the Connecticut Citizen Action Group. Swan calls the petition requirements for third-party legislative candidates ¨reasonable.¨ In the Hartford-area Senate District 1, where DeRosa has thrice challenged the incumbent Democrat, the Green could get full public funding with about 3,600 signatures.   ¨When in the hell has a minor party ever had that kind of money?¨ Swan asks.       Striking a more moderate tone are two other Clean Up Connecticut Campaign members: the ACLU´s Vann, and Andy Sauer of Common Cause Connecticut.   ¨The hurdles that are put in the path of third-party candidates are excessive,¨ Vann says, and he will work to change them in the coming legislative session. 
  
Send comments to to BOTH papers and Carole Bass!
Email editor at hartfordadvocate.com 
   
  editor at newhavenadvocate.com
   

        



























  cbass at newhavenadvocate.com 
   
  Short letters are more likely to get printed than longer ones!
   
  Mention Tom Swan should have been labeled as "Democrat activist" and he is hardly unbias. He is working to get Ned Lamont to run, for example.
   
  Getting 3, 600 signtures for one State Senate race is quite a hurdle. Many elections do not even have that many total VOTES.
   
  200,000 signtures may be MORE than the Primary election total votes!!
   
  Please respond to both papers!
   


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      THE GREEN PARTY OF CONNECTICUT is the third largest political party in CT. The Greens are also the third largest political party in the US, with 220 Greens officeholders in 27 states. Over 80 countries in world have Green Parties. Wangari Maathai, the 2004 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, is Kenya's assistant minister for environment and an elected Green Party member.
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National Committee member from Connecticut: Tim McKee (860) 324-1684

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