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Pagani Wrong: Public Campaign Financing Funds Are Not Abused

By Beth A. Rotman

03/24/08

Beth A. Rotman

In a recent column, Dean Pagani publicly worried about the potential for “waste, fraud and abuse” in Connecticut’s new Citizens’ Election Program that provides for publicly funded political campaigns. [Dean Pagani, “Political Persuasion: Publicly Financed Pizza,” Hartford Business Journal (1/28/2008)].

As director of the Citizens’ Election Program at the State Elections Enforcement Commission, the state agency charged with overseeing the new program, I appreciate Mr. Pagani’s point of view and share his concerns about possible misuse of program funds.

But I can assure Mr. Pagani and others following the creation of this program that the agency takes its role as steward of the public’s money very seriously and has embarked on bold initiatives to protect the public and guard against waste of state funds.

To that end, the SEEC has instituted a rigorous audit and enforcement program with a two-fold mechanism designed to make certain, first, that only qualified candidates receive campaign grants under the program and, second, that participating candidates use the grant money solely on permissible campaign expenditures, the goods and services needed to elect a candidate in the 21st century. This catchall category of the “stuff of democracy” circa 2008 includes such necessary expenses as postage and printing, polling and personnel.

Building on the ground-breaking, visionary statutory mechanism created by the General Assembly and signed into law by Gov. M. Jodi Rell in 2005, the SEEC has set up an enforcement infrastructure that draws on the financial resources and political commitment of the legislative mandate to create a vigorous, proactive, and responsive unit.

The goals for the program — the broadest and most widely sweeping public financing program in the country — are lofty and laudable: leveling the political playing field, enhancing competition in elections, limiting exorbitant campaign spending, and separating the political process from special interests, most notably by banning campaign contributions from lobbyists, state contractors and political action committees.

To achieve these goals, the agency must use the carrot of education to inform candidates and their campaign treasurers about the requirements of the program and prevent violations, while wielding the stick of enforcement to identify and punish violators.

Universal, post-election auditing based on exhaustive review of detailed expenditure records will ensure that campaigns adhered to the program’s spending requirements, which they explicitly accepted before receiving any public funds.

As the now 20-year-old New York City campaign finance board wrote in its report on the 2005 elections: “Without highly effective enforcement, well-intentioned campaign finance reform can easily devolve into mere ‘welfare for politicians.’”

Too much depends on Connecticut’s Citizens’ Election Program to allow it to become a publicly funded political “boondoggle.”

By establishing rigorous auditing practices, creating diligent enforcement mechanisms, and imposing consistent penalties for violations of the law, the SEEC hopes to foster a new era of less costly, transparent elections, potentially giving new groups of candidates a legitimate chance to run for public office.

Beth A. Rotman is the director of Public Campaign Financing of the State Election Enforcement Commission.