In the wake of court-appointed do-over elections in Bridgeport, the legislature is moving forward with a bill that would provide Citizens’ Election Program (CEP) grants to candidates in certain elections.
The Government Administration and Elections Committee voted during a March 26 meeting to advance a joint favorable substitute report for SB 263.
“Obviously this is something that has shown it’s necessity with recent events and I support this proposal.” Sen. Rob Sampson, R-Cheshire, said before moving to place the bill on the consent calendar.
While updated language is not currently available, the original bill makes provisions for candidates in adjourned primaries, meaning a primary is concluded with no clear winner, and court-ordered do-over elections and primaries to receive grants from the state’s public campaign financing program.
In the event a court orders a new primary or election, provisions within SB 263 would enable a qualified candidate committee for a major party’s candidate in various races to receive CEP grants to various amounts.
Gubernatorial candidates would be eligible for a grant worth $250,000. Candidates for statewide office executive positions, including the lieutenant governor, attorney general, and secretary of the state, would be eligible to receive $75,000. Those amounts also apply to adjourned elections.
Changes in the law also include other specifications for how state senate and state representative candidates can qualify for a CEP grant in the case of a special election, an adjourned primary, or an adjourned election.
The bill would also make changes to how the Citizens’ Election Fund (CEF), which is the source of money paid out through CEP grants, is financed.
Another new section of the bill adds campaign events at which candidates or candidates are present to the definition of organization expenditures.
The State Elections Enforcement Commission (SEEC), which manages the CEP and put forward the initial bill, provided public testimony in favor of it, calling it a “significant improvement to the State’s statutory campaign finance scheme.”
The original bill also earned the support of the Connecticut League of Women Voters and the Connecticut Citizen Action Group.
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