Opinion ID: 150474
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Trigger Provisions

Text: Finally, under the CEP's so-called trigger provisions, candidates receive additional funding when certain conditions are triggered. There are two trigger provisions: the excess expenditure provision and the independent expenditure provision. The District Court concisely explained the excess expenditure provision: The CEP provides matching funds for participating candidates who are outspent by a non-participating opponent who is not bound by any expenditure limitin the primary or the general election (excess expenditure trigger). Conn. Gen.Stat. § 9-713. If a non-participating candidate receives contributions or spends more than an amount equal to the participating candidate's expenditure limit, then the participating candidate is eligible to receive up to four additional grants, each worth 25% of the full grant. Id. The excess expenditure grants are distributed whenever the non-participating candidate receives contributions or makes expenditures exceeding 100%, 125%, 150%, and 175% of the expenditure limit for that particular office. Green Party II, 648 F.Supp.2d at 315-16. The independent expenditure provision is similar to the excess expenditure provision, but it applies when non-candidate individuals and organizations make independent expenditures advocating against the election of a candidate. Again, the District Court concisely explained this provision: The CEP also contains a trigger provision tied to independent expenditures made by non-candidate individuals and political advocacy groups.... Conn. Gen.Stat. § 9-714. A qualifying independent expenditure is an expenditure that is made without the consent, knowing participation, or consultation of, a candidate or agent of the candidate committee and is not a coordinated expenditure, id. § 9-601(18), and that is made with the intent to promote the defeat of a participating candidate. Id. § 9-714(a). Matching funds under this provision are triggered when non-candidate individuals or groups make independent expenditures advocating the defeat of a participating candidate, that in the aggregate, and when combined with the spending of the opposing non-participating candidates in that race, exceed the CEP grant amount. Id. § 9-714(c)(2). Funds are distributed to the participating candidate on a dollar-per-dollar basis to match the amount of the independent expenditure(s) in excess of the full grant amount. Id. § 9-714(a). Notably, independent expenditures made in support of a candidate (without expressly advocating the defeat of an opponent) do not count towards the independent expenditure trigger, meaning individuals and groups are entitled to make unlimited independent expenditures in support of a candidate without triggering CEP matching funds for that candidate's opponents. See generally id. § 9-714[.] Id. at 316.