A pass for Ganim defeats the message

The issue: Connecticut has a mechanism for giving public money to candidates for elective office.

The mechanism is the Citizens’ Election Program and it was started in 2010 as an antidote to the “... years of scandal, the perception of rampant corruption in state government...” that put several elected Connecticut officials behind bars for falling prey to the blandishments of deep-pocketed state contractors and state contractor wannabes.

The intention was to remove the corrupting influence of big private money, with all the sticky strings dangling, from political campaigns.

Large contractors were all too happy to pay for the cost of the democratic process by contributing hefty amounts of money to candidates.

Alas, their bursts of generosity were not confined to election time,but they could be the gift that keeps on giving all through the year with, say, hot tubs, free air flights to the free use of vacation homes, driveways, chimneys fences, shrubbery, wine, clothing, jewelry and, of course, good old-fashioned cash. Qualifying candidates can get about $1.3 million to spend in a primary and $6.5 million for a general election.

The program then was revised in 2013 to bar applicants who have been convicted of felonies related to any public office they were holding at the time. It’s often referred to as the “clean elections bill.”

Bridgeport Mayor Joseph P. Ganim is one of those convicted felons, sent to prison in 2003 for crimes he committed while holding public office.

Ganim now wants to run for governor and wants an exemption from the law.

What we wrote: Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim may be entitled to run for governor, but he’s not entitled to run for the office on public money.

He is excluded from the Citizens’ Election Program program — the so-called clean elections program — by virtue of his conviction by a jury in 2003 on 16 counts of corruption that occurred while he held elective office in Connecticut as the mayor of Bridgeport, the state’s most populous city.

He spent seven years in prison and in 2015 completed a remarkable cycle when he won re-election to the mayor’s office. Some 11,000 Bridgeport voters were unswayed by his past and that was enough to put him back in office.

Ganim earlier this year asked for the ban to be lifted. The State Elections Enforcement Commission rightly turned him down... The Citizens’ Election Program, shortcomings and all, is worth protecting. If Ganim wants to run for governor, it should be on his dime and on the dimes of people who think he should be governor. He should not be an exception to the intent of the clean election program. — August, 2017

Where it stands: Ganim’s appeal goes before U.S. District Court next week. He argues, in part, that the ban limits his political speech and public funds will elevate other candidates’ voices over his.

And that may very well be. But that’s not a compelling case to give him a pass.