{news} Brennan Center Urges Federal Court to Dismiss Challenge to Connecticut Campaign Finance Law

[David Bedell]

The Brennan Center claims the CT campaign finance law is fair to minor
parties. But see my next post from Ballot Access News.

http://www.brennancenter.org/press_detail.asp?key=51&subkey=49046

For Immediate Release
Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Contact
Jonathan Rosen, BerlinRosen Public Affairs (646) 452-5637

Brennan Center Urges Federal Court to Dismiss Challenge to Connecticut
Campaign Finance Law

Bridgeport - The fate of Connecticut's groundbreaking public finance program
for political campaigns came before a federal judge in Bridgeport on
Wednesday. Arguing on behalf of three former candidates and two good
government groups as well as the State of Connecticut, an attorney from the
Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law urged the court to dismiss a
suit brought by the ACLU, the Green Party and others that seeks to
invalidate key provisions of Connecticut's Citizens' Election Program (CEP).

Enacted in late 2005, the Citizens' Election Program does not distribute
funds to any and all candidates, but rather distributes funds based on
demonstrations of public support. Minor party candidates and others have
challenged that and other portions of the law - alleging that it
discriminates against their right to be heard at election time.

On Wednesday, the Brennan Center rejected that contention.

"The U.S. Supreme Court has clearly held that a candidate can reasonably be
required to demonstrate some minimal level of public support before
taxpayers are called upon to finance her campaign," said Suzanne Novak,
Deputy Director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center who argued
the case today on behalf of the State of Connecticut, three former
candidates and two good government groups - Common Cause and Citizen
Action - seeking to defend the CEP.

Novak noted that in 1976 the Supreme Court in Buckley v. Valeo upheld a
federal public financing system for presidential elections that is very
similar to Connecticut's Citizens' Election Program in its treatment of
minor party candidates.

Plaintiffs challenging the constitutionality of the law have argued that
minor party candidates would be unable to qualify for public financing under
the program. Recent history of minor party election performance in
Connecticut shows otherwise. In urging the court to dismiss the Green Party'
s challenge to this portion of the Citizens' Election Program, attorneys for
the State and good government groups noted that at least ten minor party
candidates (two candidates for state senate and eight candidates for state
representative) received more than 10% of the vote in their respective races
for the Connecticut Legislature in 2006 --making them or another candidate
from their parties eligible for public funding in 2008 under the CEP
program.

Moreover, a 2006 research report by the Connecticut Legislature's Office of
Legislative Research entitled "Past Performance of Petitioning and Minor
Party Candidates in Connecticut" reveals that from 1998-2004 twenty-four
minor or petitioning candidates received at least 10% of the vote in their
respective races.

The motion argued today points out that one former minor party candidate
seeking to strike down the program would have, himself, qualified for public
financing under the CEP program. In 2004, S. Michael DeRosa received 11.36%
of the vote in his race for State Senator on the Green Party line in the
First District - more than the amount needed to qualify under the CEP. Had
the CEP program existed in 2004, DeRosa or another Green Party candidate
running in that district in 2006 would have been eligible to receive up to
$28,333 - nearly fifty times more money than the $573 that Mr. DeRosa raised
for his own 2004 Senate run.

"Not only is the public financing system in Connecticut's Citizens' Election
Program constitutional, it will put real money into the campaigns of scores
of minor party candidates in Connecticut each election year," said Andy
Sauer, Executive Director of Common Cause Connecticut, and a defendant
intervenor in the case.

One of the founders of Connecticut's Green Party, who is seeking to join the
lawsuit in defense of the program, called for the court to uphold the
program - despite the limits minor parties would face accessing public
financing under the law.

"I think the public financing program would allow people like me, who are
interested in public service, but don't have wealthy friends, to have a real
shot at public office," said Tom Sevigny a former candidate for State
Representative and State Senate on the Green Party line. "While all viable
candidates should be permitted to participate in the program, I believe it's
perfectly reasonable to require minor parties to demonstrate that they have
the support of enough people before we start handing out our tax dollars to
them."

The Brennan Center has successfully defended state public financing laws in
Arizona and Maine and North Carolina. Joining the Brennan Center as co-lead
counsel in the Connecticut case are a team of lawyers from the New York
office of Hogan & Hartson L.L.P., a leading national law firm, based in
Washington, with substantial experience in litigation concerning voting
rights and campaign finance. Attorneys from the Campaign Legal Center,
Sonosky, Chambers, Sachse, Endreson & Perry LLP, WilmerHale and Democracy 21
in Washington, DC also are part of the litigation team representing the
defendant intervenors.

In addition to challenging the public financing provisions, the suit by the
Green Party and other groups seeks to strike down the contribution limits
and contribution restrictions imposed under the Citizens' Election Program.
Briefing on those matters will occur later in the summer..

Read the Motion to Dismiss and the Reply in Support of the Motion to Dismiss
submitted by the State of Connecticut, Common Cause and Citizen Action.