The drumbeat for public financing pounded loudly on Monday when good government groups and Connecticut Secretary of State Denise Merrill visited the Capitol to make the case for campaign finance reform.
Republican lawmakers have argued that public financing has not stopped elected officials from abusing the system, but good government leaders believe that it improves the legislative process by reducing the dependency on fund-raising. “There’s a little concern about the unknown, but I think our experience in Connecticut is so powerful in terms of liberating candidates from endless dialing for dollars,” Demos president Miles Rapoport said. “Ironically, Republicans in Connecticut have been among the strongest supporetrs of the bill. As a minority party they have been at a disadvantage raising money from traditional sources.”
