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

Heading: The Provisions of the CEP

Text: The CEP is a complicated statutory scheme, see Conn. Gen.Stat. § 9-702 et seq., and the District Court took great care in explaining each of its provisions. See Green Party II, 648 F.Supp.2d. at 311-20. We describe only those provisions of the CEP that are relevant to our decision here.
Candidates qualify for CEP funding by satisfying one of two types of qualifying criteriaone type for major party candidates and one type (with two subtypes) for minor party candidates. Under what we will refer to as the CEP's statewide qualifying criteria, candidates qualify for CEP funding if they are running on the ticket of a major party. See Conn. Gen.Stat. § 9-702(a). A major party is defined by the CEP as a party that either (a) had a candidate for governor in the last election who received at least 20% of the vote, or (b) has as members at least 20% of the registered voters in the state. See id. § 9-372(5). There are, and have been for some time, only two parties that have achieved major party status in Connecticut: the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. Green Party II, 648 F.Supp.2d at 311. For candidates who are not running on the ticket of a major partythat is, for candidates who are running on the ticket of a minor party or who have no party affiliationthere are alternative ways of qualifying for CEP funding. Under what we will refer to as the CEP's single-election qualifying criteria, a minor-party candidate can qualify for funding in a specific race if a member of his or her party achieved a certain threshold percentage of the vote in the same race in the last election. See Conn. Gen.Stat. § 9-705(c)(1), (g)(1). A minor-party candidate can qualify for a full grant of CEP funding if a member of his or her party received 20% of the vote in the same race in the last election; a candidate can qualify for two-thirds of the full amount if a member of his or her party received 15% of the vote in the same race in the last election; and a candidate can qualify for one-third of the full amount if a member of his or her party received 10% of the vote in the same race in the last election. See id. Under what we will refer to as the petitioning criteria, minor-party candidates can also qualify for CEP funding by collecting a certain number of signatures of those eligible to vote in the race in which they are running. A minor-party candidate can receive a full CEP grant if he or she collects a number of eligible signatures equal to 20% of the votes cast in the same race in the last election; the candidate can receive two-thirds of the full amount if he or she collects a number of eligible signatures equal to 15% of the votes cast in the same race in the last election; and the candidate can receive one-third of the full amount if he or she collects a number of eligible signatures equal to 10% of the votes cast in the same race in the last election. See id. § 9-705(c)(2), (g)(2). Finally, all candidateswhether they qualify under the statewide criteria, the single-election criteria, or the petitioning criteriamust raise a specified amount of money through small qualifying contributions of $100 or less. See id. § 9-704. The required amount that candidates must raise varies depending on the office sought: candidates for governor, for instance, must raise $250,000 in qualifying contributions, whereas candidates for state representative must raise $5,000 in qualifying contributions. Id. § 9-704(a)(1), (4). Otherwise-qualified candidates do not receive CEP funding until they have raised the required qualifying contributions.
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.
By participating in the CEP and accepting public funds, candidates agree to accept certain limits on the total amount of money they may spend on their campaigns. In essence, candidates that participate in the CEP may spend only the amount they receive in public funds, plus the amount they raise through the required qualifying contributions. See Conn. Gen.Stat. § 9-702(c). Participating candidates are also permitted to spend a small amount of their own personal funds in certain circumstances. See id. §§ 9-702(c), 9-710(c).
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.