Citizen Funded Elections

A new campaign finance reform program has promise but lacks one important ingredient.

Common Cause urges Virginians to make campaign finance reform their top priority in 2017 electiions

A new report by Common Cause and other advocacy groups shows wealthy, white political donors in Chicago wield power far beyond their proportion of the city's population

Common Cause statement on the South Carolina Republican primary and the withdrawal of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush

In 2005, the Connecticut General Assembly, urged on by an intense grassroots advocacy effort, passed the first comprehensive public financing system for state elections in the nation. The kick off election cycle was 2008, and in that year and ever since, at least 74% of all candidates choose to participate in the system of public financing, called the Citizens’ Election Program. So, has public financing really made a difference? The answer is a resounding, YES! So why are state Democrats proposing to kill the program? That is completely unclear, but leadership has proposed cutting $11.7 million from the Citizens’ Election Fund, effectively wiping out Connecticut’s public financing program.

Proving that neither major party is pure when it comes to reducing the influence of money in politics, leaders of the Connecticut Democratic Party today proposed “suspending” that state’s model Clean Elections law in which 74 percent of candidates running for office participated during the 2014 election. The proposed suspension for 2016 comes on the heels of law suits filed by the Connecticut State Democratic Party that also seeks to undermine the landmark legislation.