Rep. Chris Caruso of Bridgeport, one of the founding fathers of the state’s 2005 campaign-finance reforms, when he was chairman of the Government Administration & Elections Committee, will revisit his old stomping ground on Monday during a public hearing on the fixes that lawmakers are finally proposing as the entire program is in danger of being terminated in a pending appeal before the US Second Circuit.
The GAE committee will meet at 10 a.m. in Room 2B of the Legislative Office Building to discuss HB 5022 An Act Concerning The Citizens’ Election Program and HB 5021 An Act Implementing The Governor’s Recommendations Concerning The Citizens’ Election Program.
After months of dickering between House and Senate leaders, the committee bill would amend the Citizens’ Election Program “to reduce grant amounts, eliminate grants for unopposed candidates, make technical changes, and contingent upon a ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, to reduce qualifying thresholds for minor party candidates and petitioning candidates and to replace the supplemental grants with a new supplemental grant available only to certain candidates,” according to the legislation.
