Fresh from the defeat of his “10th Amendment” resolution in the Government Administration & Elections Committee, Sen. Michael McLachlan, R-Danbury, reached into his stack of amendments and came up with a sensible proposal that would force winners of primaries for state Senate, House and higher offices to subtract the value of things like lawn signs and money in the bank, from their General Election grants through the Citizens Election Program. Ah, but like so many things that make sense, if it comes from a Republican, blah, blah, blah.
“They essentially have a clear advantage in the General Election, with assets carried from the primary,” McLachlan said, adding that his proposal would “equalize the playing field.”
Rep. James Spallone, the committee co-chairman, called it “a major policy decision” and would be related to the fixes the committee did last week to the 2006 campaign reforms. So McLachlan’s brain storm died in a partisan voice vote.