Opinion ID: 150474
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The History of the CEP

Text: The CFRAwhich includes the CEP was passed in response to several corruption scandals in Connecticut. Id. at 306-07. The most widely publicized of the scandals involved Connecticut's former governor, John Rowland. In 2004, Rowland was accused of accepting over $100,000 worth of gifts and services from state contractors, including vacations, flights on a private jet, and renovations to his lake cottage. Rowland accepted the gifts, it was alleged, in exchange for assisting the contractors in securing lucrative state contracts. Rowland resigned amidst the allegations, and in 2005 pleaded guiltyalong with two aides and several contractors-to federal charges in connection with the scandal. Rowland was fined and sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison. See id. at 307. Sadly, the ignominy of public corruption was not limited to Rowland. As the District Court discussed in detail, the Rowland scandal was but one of the many corruption scandals involving elected officials in state and local government that helped earn the state the nickname `Corrupticut.' See id. at 307-08 (cataloging the scandals); see also id. at 307 n. 9 (discussing the decline of the reputation of Connecticut's state government). It was in the wake of those scandals that Connecticut lawmakers resolved to enact expansive campaign finance reforms. Id. at 309. In the summer of 2005, Governor M. Jodi Rell established the Campaign Finance Reform Working Group (the Working Group), a collection of six state representatives and six state senators who were charged with drafting a new campaign finance reform law. After holding televised hearings for three months, the Working Group proposed an expansive bill, much of which would be incorporated into the final version of the CFRA. See id. at 309-10. In the fall of 2005, Governor Rell called a special session of the General Assembly for the sole purpose of considering the Working Group's proposed bill. After a month of debate, the General Assembly passed the CFRA, and Governor Rell signed it into law. See id. at 300-11. As the District Court set forth in detail, several contemporaneous statements from General Assembly members, as well as Governor Rell, explain that the CFRA was passed to combat actual and perceived corruption in state government. Id. at 311. Much of the CFRA went into effect on January 1, 2006, but 2008 marked the first election cycle with candidates participating in the CEP public financing scheme. Id. at 330; see also Conn. Gen. Stat. § 9-702(a) (providing that the CEP becomes effective for the legislative elections in 2008 and for the statewide elections in 2010). Before it went into effect, the CEP was twice amended. See Green Party II, 648 F.Supp.2d at 311, 319-20.