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Campaign Financing Still Favors Two Parties
Campaign Financing Still Favors Two Parties
By Morgan McGinley
Published on 9/21/2008 in Home »Editorial »Editorial Columns
Connecticut is about to experience partial and voluntary participation  
in public financing of campaigns for the state House and Senate. And  
while the effort aims at reform - removing the gross influence of big  
money from special interests - not everybody is pleased.

The Green Party sees the system as skewed to favor the Democratic and  
Republican parties, and has filed a lawsuit contending the system is  
not fair. Since the rules were written by a General Assembly  
consisting almost wholly of Republicans and Democrats, the outcome of  
self-protection was inevitable.

One rule for obtaining public financing states that to be fully  
eligible, the candidate's party must have gotten at least 20 percent  
of the vote in the last election for that office. The Green Party's  
argument may have merit since minority parties often don't run many  
candidates, or just as frequently, fail to get more than a few  
percentage points of the total vote.

In its “charitableness” though, the legislature said that even if  
minority party candidates could not meet the percentage standard of  
the last election, they could petition their way to a share of the  
public money. They could get the full amount if they filed petitions  
bearing the signatures of voters equal to 20 percent of the ballots  
cast in the last election for that office. Those grants would be  
$85,000 for state senators and $25,000 for state representatives. And  
candidates could get proportionately reduced grants if they filed  
petitions equaling 15 or 10 percent of the total voters for that  
office in the last election.

Most vexing, though, may be the first eligibility requirement. To be  
eligible at all, a candidate must raise at least $15,000 for state  
Senate consisting of small donations of $1 to $100 from at least 300  
small donors within the Senate district. A candidate for state  
representative must raise at least $5,000 in small donations from at  
least 150 residents of his or her district.

The legislature felt strongly, and Secretary of the State Susan  
Bysiewicz agrees, that the candidate must in this fashion show a  
measure of public support.

But even if minority party candidates meet all those standards for  
public financing, they first must obtain the signatures of registered  
voters equal to 1 percent of the total voting in the last election.  
That effort gets them onto the ballot. Then they can try to raise the  
money needed to qualify them for grants.

Connecticut's experiment with what it calls the Citizens' Election  
Program is almost certain to undergo some reforms in the future as the  
system identifies issues not previously contemplated or reveals flaws  
in the program.

It is a start at reform, and that's good. But Connecticut still seems  
to be suffering from its long history of opposition to truly open  
elections. Time was when primaries were almost impossible to wage  
within a constricted party system and the party lever was an  
instrument for maintaining tight control on state politics.

The modern-day success of Gov. Lowell P. Weicker Jr. and U.S. Sen.  
Joseph I. Lieberman in winning third-party fights for office was a  
strong exception to the norm. Both men were charismatic political  
figures well known to Connecticut voters and possessing strong records  
in prior office. Weicker had been a first selectman, a state  
representative, a U.S. representative and a United States senator.  
Lieberman served as a state senator and state attorney general before  
being elected to the U.S. Senate.

But even as noble a gesture as this campaign finance reform apparently  
couldn't happen without putting burdens on minority party candidates.  
These candidates have trouble raising money, have trouble getting into  
campaign debates and generally are asked to bear a greater burden to  
participate in the process than either Democrats or Republicans.

MORGAN MCGINLEY IS A FORMER EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR OF THE DAY, NOW  
RETIRED.


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