McGorty Moves Clean Elections Bill Through House
State Representative Ben McGorty (R-122) joined fellow Republican lawmakers in keeping their legislative promise from earlier this year when they pushed through a proposal this week that closes loopholes in campaign finance laws and cleans up the way money is spent during the election cycle.
The proposal was attached as an amendment to smaller municipal campaign bill on the House floor. The Stratford legislators said the bill will save taxpayer dollars, help restore voters’ trust in the publicly-funded election system and would curb dirty money.
“Transparency, accountability, and fairness are all essential elements of clean elections,” said Rep. McGorty. “This can’t be achieved in a system replete with loopholes that are exploited by special interests. The passage of these reforms is a dramatic step forward in accomplishing meaningful reform to this broken system.”
Among other things, the Republican proposal caps organizational expenditures by state political parties, reduces individual donor limits to state political parties from $10,000 to $5,000, eliminates grants to unopposed candidates, bars state contractors from donating to a federal account to fund a state race and reduces all publicly-funded Citizens Election Program (CEP) grants by 25 percent – an expense that cost Connecticut taxpayers $33.4 million in 326 publicly-funded campaigns in 2014.
The spending reduction would save taxpayers $7 million in a gubernatorial election year and $2.4 million in presidential cycles.
The CEP, which funds gubernatorial and state Senate and House races, is a public finance program that awards candidates with campaign funding after hitting a specific private contribution threshold. Since 2008, the 1,185 taxpayer-funded CEP campaigns have cost $80.7 million, according to the nonpartisan Office of Fiscal Analysis.
The proposal passed the House with a bipartisan majority of 134-12, and now heads to the State Senate for action there. This session of the General Assembly adjourns at midnight, Wednesday, June 3rd.