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