Rep. Vail, GOP score clean elections victory

HARTFORD — After introducing legislation earlier this year aimed at cleaning up the state’s publicly-funded campaign program, Rep. Kurt Vail (R-52) joined GOP lawmakers Thursday in supporting a sweeping proposal that closes loopholes in current law and curbs dark money.

Vail, a cosponsor of H.B. 6749, applauded the bill which 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

“Our state needs to restore clean elections and we need to do it immediately,” Vail said. “Through this proposal, which is a combination of a number of Republican ideas from earlier this year, we will curb dark money and make campaigns more respectable. My hope is that the Senate will follow in our footsteps and approve this common-sense, statewide-friendly bill.”

The proposal passed 134-12, with a collation of majority party Democrats voting against it – a victory for the 64-member GOP minority.

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.

In 2014, taxpayers footed a $33.4 million bill in 326 publicly-funded campaigns. The Republican spending reduction would save taxpayers $7 million in a gubernatorial election year and $2.4 million in presidential cycles.