It’s looking more and more as if the House and Senate aren’t near anything in the way of a deal on Gov. Jodi Rell’s proposed $450 million in cuts to the current budget. That means it’s a growing likelihood that tomorrow’s scheduled special session of the General Assembly will become a “tech” session, in which a couple gavels will meet wood and then lawmakers will go home; and the more optimistic leaders will declare “mission accomplished” in the latest round of ignoring the state’s revenue-starved spending problem.
Possibly sensing the legislative flop sweat, Common Cause in Connecticut, Connecticut Citizen Action Group and the League of Women Voters have planned a newser for tomorrow featuring a pledge from Lt. Gov. Mike Fedele, who announced earlier this month that he will seek to replace Gov. Jodi Rell, to use the state’s public financing. Scheduled to appear are several people who have launched exploratory campaigns and could become gubernatorial candidates themselves: Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz; Dannel Malloy, the former Stamford Mayor; and Ridgefield First Selectman Rudy Marconi. Those three are still in the exploratory phase. Former Speaker of the House Jim Amann of Milford, who has a candidacy committee for governor, has also signed the pledge. Others who have not committed to public funding include the Greenwich millionaires, Ned Lamont on the Democratic side and Tom Foley from the GOP.
The election activists are trying to lobby the General Assembly to keep the Citizens’ Election Program alive for the 2010 statewide election cycle. Currently the system is up in the air because a federal judge said the landmark 2005 law created unreasonable obstacles to minor parties and petitioning candidates. While Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is confident the state will win on appeal, Gov. Rell and many lawmakers – but possible not enough – want to rewrite the law to make it more inclusive.
Ct Public Financing scheme is a total sham. In the last state-wide elections, you had public funds being used to pay campaign employees who were legislative aides of the incumbent represnatives and senators they were working for. (Rep. Jason Bartlett) For openers. Don’t believe me? check their financial disclosures and sit down before you do it. The extant that our legislators are using public funds to line their campaign staff pockets is criminal. And we’re not even discussing the obvious political discrimination that’s acutely apparent when minor party candidates are required to do far more just to qualify for lesser public funding. It’s downright discrimination, unconstitutional, and the candidates that stand in support of not amending the rules are sanctioning discrimination and should be avoided at all costs!
Comment by bad karma — December 15th, 2009 @ 7:50 am
The legislators don’t really want public financing, that’s why they included the poison pill in it (the provision that says if any part of it is tossed, the whole system goes out the window). They want to continue to reap money from lobbyists so they can raise so much that they won’t have any competition.
That’s the game, and they miss it. Ask them.
Comment by billygoat — December 15th, 2009 @ 1:46 pm