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Press Release
DeRosa for CT Secretary of the State
Connecticut Campaign Finance Court Challenge
WHAT YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO KNOW ABOUT CT CAMPAIGN FINANCE LAW
11.02.2006
Certain parts of the recent CT campaign finance law are discriminatory
against the Green Party of CT and other alternatives to the Democratic
and Republican Parties. We feel that sections of the new CT campaign
finance law (those that force us to collect 20% of the signatures of
voters in a district in order to qualify for full matching funds, while
NOT requiring the major parties to fulfill this requirement) give
unconstitutional favor to incumbents and give unfair advantage to
Democratic and Republican backed candidates.
It is no secret that
in many cities in CT the primary election of one major party or more
likely the nomination meetings of one of the two major parties are
where candidates are elected to our legislature and to other elected
positions. Since no other clean election fund in the US (e.g., AZ, MA,
ME) requires a discriminatory signature requirement for third parties
it is hard to understand what the CT legislature was thinking when they
attached this to this legislation.
The ability of our candidates to petition their way on to the ballot
(1% to 2% requirement on a state mandated and controlled petition), get
the nomination of our party, and collect a large number of small
donations should be sufficient to allow us legitimate access to CT
clean election fund matching funds. The discriminatory addition of
collecting an additional 10% for partial funding(10% gets you one third
of the grant/money, 15% gets you one half of the grant/money) and 20%
for full funding is unconstitutional and violates the First Amendment
and 14th Amendment rights of insurgent third party candidates.
Furthermore, forcing non-major party candidates to solicit
discriminatory public support in the form of signatures before
participation in the clean election fund is tantamount to a state
imposed "public support" qualification that violates the constitutional
Qualifications Clause.
Also, because of the historical record in CT (Weicker's third party
election to Governor in 1990) the US Supreme Court's decision under
Buckley vs. Valeo that "the government can discriminate when it awards
public funds to presidential nominees" does not apply.
Also under Greenberg vs. Bolger, (497 F. Supp. 756, 1980) a U.S.
District Court ruled unconstitutional a law that gave cheaper postal
rates to political parties that had polled 25% for president in the
last election. Another case is Socialist Workers Party vs. Rockefeller
(314 F. Supp. 984, 1970) that ruled that if the government gives a free
list of the registered voters to qualified parties, it must give it to
the unqualified parties as well. The U.S. Supreme Court summarily
affirmed this decision. Also helpful are decisions from New York, New
Jersey, Colorado, and Oklahoma, that say if voters are permitted to
register as members of qualified parties, they must be allowed to
register as members of unqualified parties.
For over 50 years CT's discriminatory laws have kept third party
candidates off the ballot thereby reducing their ability to form
effective free associations and making it difficult to find one
another. We have developed here in CT a set of laws that creates two
tiers for political parties (i.e. major parties and minor parties).
While all political parties in CT are equal, some political parties are
more equal than others. The recent provisions of this law only further
delineate in an unconstitutional way this unequal status for entry and
participation in the electoral process. The sections of the law in
question may make this new law the "No CT incumbent left behind law of
2005".
While we will try to "reform" aspects of the law in the upcoming
session of the CT General Assembly, we are keenly aware that the
legislators are unlikely to vote to change something that allows them
to essentially silence those who compete against them on the ballot. It
is critical that a credible judicial challenge be in place in order to
encourage the CT legislature to allow third parties equal treatment
under the law.
Sincerely,
Mike DeRosa
Co-Chair, Green Party of Connecticut
Green Party candidate for CT Sec. of the State, 2006
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