Advocates: Malloy plan 'betrays spirit' of reforms

The CT Mirror ^

[matt04]

National clean-election advocates added their voices Monday to local critics of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's proposal to allow publicly financed candidates to accept unlimited dollars from corporate and other private interests if they are outspent.

"It certainly betrays the spirit of the law," Nick Nyhart, president and chief executive officer of the Washington, D.C.-based Public Campaign, told members of the Government Administration and Elections Committee. "Such a solution could bring us back to the days of Corrupticut."

Nyhart made his comments at a legislative forum on Citizens United, the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision that has made it easier for corporations and other interests to influence elections. Without new laws, Nyhart and others said, special-interest money could dominate state and local races.

Malloy's controversial proposal to change the state's 2005 public-financing law is a reaction to an expected influx of big money. He would allow publicly financed candidates, who now agree to spending limits in return for public financing, to raise unlimited supplemental funds if they are outspent by any amount.

On Monday, the administration said its proposal was meant to begin a necessary debate.

"As the governor said last week, the proposal was intended to spur a conversation about how we can maintain a level playing field between publicly financed candidates and self-funders who have the ability to spend tens of millions of dollars," said Andrew McDonald, the governor's general counsel. "If the committee has other methods of dealing with this type of problem, I look forward to working with them on their proposal."

But Donald Simon, former executive vice president of Common Cause, said the governor's proposal is "contradictory to the whole point of the public financing system," which is to restrict the influence of well-financed special interests.

[GeronL]

Public funding is always a bad idea

[Dr. Sivana]

"Such a solution could bring us back to the days of Corrupticut."

So says the man from the state whose governor was down a few thousand votes until a big of uncounted ballots was found in a basement closet (or something like that) the day after the election.