Republicans want to reduce the amount of public financing a candidate can get by 25 percent.
Republican legislative leaders held a press conference Thursday to call for changes in the state’s campaign finance laws, though leading Democrats said talking to them first might have been a better strategy.
Joined by rank and file legislators, Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano and House Republican Leader ThemisKlarides said state Democrats have consistently worked to undermine and erode the clean elections laws they worked to pass in 2005 after the conviction of former Governor John Rowland.
Klarides, who opposed the 2005 law, said Democrats aren’t being honest with taxpayers.
"Sounds great on paper. Sounds great when we talk about it, press conferences, in your district," Klarides said. "But, then, when it applies to you, you may not think it benefits you. So, you know what that means? I guess we change it. But you can’t do it that way if your genuine intention is to gain the public’s trust, to have sunshine on everything we do and have clean elections. If that’s the true in intention, then changing it because it doesn’t suit your needs at the time is hypocritical."
When it comes to the public financing of campaigns, Republicans want to reduce the amount of money a candidate can get by 25 percent. They also want to eliminate public funding entirely if a candidate is running unopposed. Additionally, Republicans want to cap spending by state parties, and reduce individual donor limits to those parties.
Unlike Klarides, Fasano said he supported the law originally. And he said it has worked. But he also said Democrats have weakened it over time.
"I think there were some very good things that came out of it," Fasano said. "Now, we’re in a very different stage of the program. And in my view, if we don’t fix this, we should get rid of this."
In a statement, Democratic House Speaker Brendan Sharkey said some of those ideas sound familiar, but said Republicans should have spoken with Democratic leaders before "running to the cameras." Sharkey also questioned the motivation of legislators like Klarides, who didn’t support the law in the past.
