New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Report: Public financing of elections has changed state’s political landscape
The first 10 years of Connecticut’s public-financing program for the General Assembly turned the state into a model for removing special interest money from politics, but also fostered competitive races, progressive public policy, and more women and minorities in the legislature, according to a new report by Common Cause, the election watchdog.
Beth A. Rotman, director of Money in Politics and Ethics for the Common Cause Education Fund said the program set the table for paid family and medical leave for Connecticut workers, and participation in the Citizens’ Election Program is now pushing close to 90 percent of the races for 151 House seats and the 36 Denate districts.
“I am very proud of Connecticut and believe something extraordinary happened there,” said Rotman, who co-authored the report with Lisa Nightingale. “If you are going to let the special interests fund our government, it’s their government. If you let the citizens do it, it’s their government,” said Rotman, a former Connecticut elections regulator and founder of the public financing program, who now works in the Washington office of Common Cause.
The report found that in the 2018 races, 99 percent of candidate funding came from individuals, with minuscule amounts from other sources. In 2006, nearly half of the $9.3 million raised by candidates came from lobbyists, political action committees and other entities.
The reforms started under Republican Gov. M.
Jodi Rell, who took office after the abrupt resignation of John G. Rowland in July, 2004, when the state was earning the “Corrupticut” moniker for a series of government scandals that led to federal prison terms for Rowland and his associates; legislator Ernest E. Newton of Bridgeport; and Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim and his associates.
By the end of 2005, Rell signed a bipartisan bill to change the state’s political landscape, initiating public financing first for the 2008 legislative races, then the 2010 governor campaigns.
The average participation rate of the voluntary Citizens’ Election Program , in which candidates for the state Senate and House of Representatives raise small amounts from individuals, was 76 percent in the period between 2008 and 2018, with 85 percent of candidates in the 2018 elections joining in.
Prior to the 2008 election, there were 53 women in that General Assembly, representing less than 30 percent of the 187 seats. In the 2008 election, that increased to 59. In the 2018 election, 63 women were elected including 52 in the House and 11 in the Senate.
First-term state Rep. Anne Hughes, D-Easton, credits the CEP with her 2018 victory, becoming the first Democrat is 34 years to hold that House seat, which also represents Weston and Redding. “For someone like me, a working individual who is not wealthy, the program was absolutely critical in giving me an opportunity to participate.,” Hughes said in the report.
The level playing field is also attributed to the increase in Republicans in the House. In 2007, the
GOP caucus had 44 members and leaders were having a hard time fielding candidates. By 2017 they increased to 72, which fell to 61 in 2018’s national blue wave.
Democratic state Rep. Quentin Phipps is quoted in the report as crediting public financing with his ability to become Middletown’s first Black representative, because it was “unquestionably an equalizer in the process.”
State Sen. Gary Winfield, D-New Haven, said the Citizens’ Election Program allowed him to first serve in the House of Representatives, then move to the Senate.
“I am a candidate of color and I did not come from money,” Winfield said in the report. I was not the candidate picked by a political party or machine apparatus. The Citizens’ Election Program made it possible for me to run and serve the public — as one of them.”
“Many everyday Americans are unaware of the link between these reforms and their day-to-day lives,” Rotman wrote. “There is a price we all pay within our family budgets when wealthy special interests fund the campaigns, political parties, and set the agenda with lobbying. This needs to change, both in order to protect the reforms that have passed and to educate more of the public across the country about the need to pass these reforms in their own communities.”
While individual contributions were initially limited to $100, over the years the amount has risen to $270. A Senate candidate who collects $16,000 from at least 300 residents in their district, can leverage as much as $104,000. A House candidate needs to collect $5,300 from as many as 150 people in their district, and can collect
$30,575.
The program is funded by unclaimed property in the state treasurer’s office and as many as $24 million a year in unredeemed can-andbottle deposits, which before the CEP, were returned to beverage companies. In recent years the General Assembly has folded the deposits into the General Fund. Lawmakers have also hampered the operations of the SEEC, by cutting its budget and limiting the amount of time regulators may investigate malfeasance and irregularities.
The SEEC recently announced that it had its busiest day and week since the start of the program 12 years ago.
Michael J. Brandi, executive director and general counsel of the State Elections Enforcement Commission, which regulates election campaigns and runs the Citizens’ Election Program, said Friday that his agency has an important role.
“The CEP is a unicorn, really,” Brandi said. “It’s so uniquely successful. People from all over the country call us and we have to explain: the candidates here are almost all publicly funded. They don’t take outside money — it all comes locally, in small amounts. In some states it’s simply a free-for all. They call us and are amazed, and I think a bit jealous. But if we can make it work here—keep it alive--it can be reproduced elsewhere.”