State Senate Republican Leader Louis C. DeLuca (R-Woodbury) today voted against a bill to take $17 million in taxpayer dollars every two years and give them to politicians to run election campaigns.  The bill, which is touted as “campaign finance reform” by its proponents, gives qualifying candidates thousands of dollars in campaign funds from the state while still allowing legislative leadership Political Action Committees (PAC’s), the two state parties and local town committees to provide unrestricted “in kind” contributions to candidates they support.

“This ‘reform’ is nothing more than an incumbency protection plan for Democrats that will cost millions of dollars for the people of Connecticut,” said Senator DeLuca.  “In the name of being ‘reformers,’ the Democrats have built a plan that allows labor unions and other special interests to exert an even more powerful influence over the legislature, while injecting even more money into the process.  The end result of this legislation is that the supposed ‘corrosive influence’ of special interest money just got a whole lot more corrosive.”

Senator DeLuca gave several reasons for his opposition to the taxpayer financed campaign legislation:

1. The bill puts no restrictions on the ability of leadership PAC’s to provide “in kind” contributions to candidates they support.  These activities can include polling, phone banking and political consultants.
2. Special interest PAC’s (such as those controlled by unions and trial lawyers) can still contribute large amounts of money and support to leadership PAC’s and the state parties, which can then turn around and provide this support to participating “clean” candidates.
3. The legislation takes taxpayer dollars to support political candidates that the taxpayers do not necessarily approve of.
4. The legislation offers no controls of any kind as to how candidates spend these tax dollars during their campaigns.  It is entirely within the law for a candidate to take and $85,000 grant from the state and hire a friend as a “consultant.”

“I guess today the Democrats got the best of both worlds, they are using tax dollars to take special interest money out of politics, and leaving the special interest money in anyway,” said Senator DeLuca.