{news} The New London Day- State off. to challenge ruling

[Tim McKee]

State officials to challenge campaign finance ruling
[IMAGE]
By Ted Mann     Published on 8/28/2009

Hartford – A federal judge's order to freeze Connecticut's public
financing system for political campaigns could throw the electoral system
into chaos, state officials said Friday, announcing they would seek to
keep the system functioning while they appeal the ruling.

Gov. M. Jodi Rell, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, Secretary of the
State Susan Bysiewicz and Jeffrey Garfield, the executive director of the
State Elections Enforcement Commission, all decried the ruling by U.S.
District Judge Stefan R. Underhill, which held that provisions of the
2005 campaign finance reform law imposing higher qualification
requirements for minor party candidates are unconstitutional.

“What's at stake here is really the integrity and viability of the entire
campaign finance reform system,” said Blumenthal, who held a press
conference with Bysiewicz and Garfield to announce that he would seek a
stay of Underhill's ruling while his office appeals to the U.S. Court of
Appeals in New York.

“This law, in my view, is defensible, permissible, Constitutional,
as-is,” Blumenthal said.

In a written statement released by her press office, Rell called the law
“a model in the nation.”

“It was, and will remain, the means to keep special interest and lobbyist
dollars out of our election process,” the governor said. “I will do
everything possible to keep this program intact and will support an
immediate appeal of the decision.”

And Bysiewicz, whose office oversees most state election procedures,
warned of chaos if current or potential candidates for office under the
voluntary public finance system — including, in her current exploratory
consideration of a run for governor, Bysiewicz herself — see the rules
changed mid-race.

Underhill's decision as issued would “permanently enjoin” Blumenthal and
Garfield from operating the Citizens Election Fund, which administers
grants to participating candidates to fund their campaigns, in exchange
for abiding by spending limits and restrictions on contributions from
state-connected individuals and industries.

But other groups rejoiced at the ruling, including Rell's Republican
allies, who have long opposed publicly financed campaigns.

“The Connecticut Citizen's Election Program has been a taxpayer-financed
incumbency protection program from the start,” said Chris Healy, the
chairman of the Connecticut Republican Party. “It unfairly excluded
third-party efforts and punished those candidates who would choose to not
burden the taxpayers by subsidizing those who did and were unable to
match private sector support.”

“The ruling today is a great victory for people disenfranchised by the
system," said Heath W. Fahle, the public policy director of the Yankee
Institute think tank. “The Citizens' Election Program unfairly burdened
minor party and petitioning candidates while giving significant
advantages to Republicans and Democrats.”

Campaign finance reform advocates, meanwhile, said they were confident
that either Underhill himself or the appeals court would grant a stay of
the decision, and said they believed the Connecticut system would be
vindicated in the higher court.[IMAGE]


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Tim McKee, New Britian, CT, main number cell-860-778-1304
National Committee member of the Green Party of the United States and is a spokesperson for the Green Party of CT.
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