Opinion ID: 150474
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Distribution Formulae

Text: Once a candidate qualifies for public funds under the CEP, the amount of public money that he or she receives is determined by the CEP's distribution formulae.
Candidates seeking the endorsement of a major party must run in primary elections that are governed by state law. Those candidates receive CEP funding for the primary election in the following amounts: candidates for governor receive $1.25 million; candidates for other statewide offices receive $375,000; candidates for the state senate receive $35,000; and candidates for the state house of representatives receive $10,000. Id. § 9-705(a)(1), (b)(1), (e)(1), (f)(1). Like all CEP grants, those amounts will, in the future, be adjusted for inflation. Id. § 9-705(d), (h). A candidate running for the General Assembly receives more money for the primary election if the election takes place in a district that is considered one-party dominant and the candidate is a member of the dominant party. (As discussed in greater detail below, we will also refer to one-party dominant districts as safe districts.) A one-party dominant district is defined as a district in which there is a difference of twenty percentage points or more between the number of registered voters for the two major parties. For example, if 55% of the voters in a district were registered Democrats and 35% of the voters were registered Republicans (with 10% unaffiliated or registered with a minor party), there would be a twenty-percentage-point difference in the number of Democratic and Republican voters, and the candidates running in the Democratic primary would receive extra money: the grant for the Democratic candidate for the state senate would increase to $75,000, and the grant for the Democratic candidate for the state house of representatives would increase to $25,000. See id. § 9-705(e)(1)(A), (f)(1)(A). Currently, no minor party in Connecticut selects its candidates by means of primary elections, but defendants contend that, if a minor party were to hold primary elections, that party's candidates would be eligible for CEP funding. See Green Party II, 648 F.Supp.2d at 312 n. 16.
For the general election, the CEP provides the following full grants: candidates for governor receive $3 million; candidates for other statewide offices receive $750,000; candidates for the Connecticut Senate receive $85,000; and candidates for the Connecticut House of Representatives receive $25,000. See Conn. Gen.Stat. § 9-705(a)(2), (b)(2), (e)(2), (f)(2). Those full grants may be reduced in certain circumstances. For instance, if a major-party candidate is running unopposed, the CEP grant is reduced to 30% of the full amount. See id. § 9-705(j)(3). If a major-party candidate has no major-party competitor but is running against a minor-party candidate who has not qualified for (or accepted) CEP funding, the major-party candidate receives 60% of the full amount. See id. § 9-705(j)(4). If a major-party candidate is running against a minor-party candidate who has, in fact, qualified for CEP funding (or if the minorparty candidate has raised or spent non-public funds equal to the amount of funding the candidate would have received under the CEP), the major-party candidate receives the full grant. See id.