Democrats Forge Campaign Finance Bill

HARTFORD (AP) — House and Senate Democratic leaders have agreed on a compromise bill that would allow millions in taxpayer money to be spent on statewide campaigns and establish voluntary election spending limits.

Democrats on Tuesday were calling the proposal a landmark reform. However, Republicans said they were leery of a bill shaped without their input.

The bill, which incorporates elements of competing plans being pushed by Democrats in each chamber, would add Connecticut to a growing number of states to adopt so-called public financing of campaigns.

Leaders in the House, where the bill was expected to be debated this week, said they are confident they have enough votes to pass it.

“I think it’s historic,” said House Majority Leader David Pudlin, D-New Britain, who led negotiations on the compromise bill with Senate President Pro Tempore Kevin B. Sullivan, D-West Hartford.

A spokesman for Gov John G. Rowland was far less enthusiastic about what he called an agreement among Democrats.

“This comes as news to the governor’s office,” spokesman Dean Pagani said late Tuesday. “The governor’s office has not been involved in the discussions at all. The Democrats appear to have left the Republican Party out of the process.”

Pagani reiterated Rowland’s long-standing conditions on campaign finance reform: that the final bill should have bipartisan support and that any restrictions imposed on statewide races should also be extended to legislative elections.

Meanwhile, Rep Brian Flaherty of Watertown, a deputy Republican leader, complained that Republicans not only were left out of the negotiations on the House and Senate compromise but also did not even receive a copy of the bill until nearly 5 pm. Tuesday.

From a preliminary reading, “It does not look like it’s a compromise that meets any of the things Republicans are talking about,” Flaherty said.

GOP leaders have discussed issues such as limiting contributions from political action committees and increasing disclosure on the Internet of campaign finance reports.

But Democrats say the bill addresses one of Rowland’s key objections to their earlier proposals by including House and Senate races in a system of voluntary spending limits.

Democrats claim that Republicans do not want a comprehensive campaign finance bill to reach Rowland’s desk and say it is their job to put one there.

The bill negotiated by House and Senate leaders would create a Citizens Elections Fund that would immediately begin collecting tax money to pay for statewide campaigns. The money would not be spent until 2006.

In the meantime, the bill would set up a voluntary system, starting in 2002, in which candidates for statewide office would be urged to agree to spending limits of $4 million per candidate in the governor’s race, and $750,000 per candidate in elections for other statewide offices.

If only one candidate in a race agrees to spending limits, he or she would receive taxpayer money matching every dollar over the limit spent by the opponent, Democrats said.