Secretary of the State September Newsletter
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| Thursday, September 3rd 2009 |
Issue 43 September 3, 2009
STANDING UP FOR CLEAN ELECTIONS
Secretary Bysiewicz spoke of her concerns at a press conference held on August 28, 2009 with Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and Jeffrey Garfield, Executive Director of the State Elections Enforcement Commission. The press conference was called to respond to U.S. District Court Judge Stefan Underhill's ruling declaring Connecticut's Campaign Finance Reform law unconstitutional. Secretary Bysiewicz declared support for the public financing law and for the Attorney General's appeal of the federal ruling.
Last week, in a disappointing turn of events, United States District Judge Stefan Underhill ruled Connecticut’s 2005 clean elections law unconstitutional. Elected officials, citizen advocates, and others worked very hard to enact the nation’s most aggressive clean elections law because we saw the corrosive and corrupting influence of big money in campaigns. Among many of its provisions, the law eliminated contractor and lobbyist contributions to our political system and provided publicly financed campaign dollars to candidates for state office in 2008 for the first time.
Public financing has worked extremely well so far: in the 2008 election cycle 83% of candidates for State Senate and 74% of candidates for the State House participated in the system. The Citizens’ Election Program awarded grants to 236 candidates: 135 Democrats, 96 Republicans, 3 Independent and 2 Working Families party candidates. That means that instead of campaigning based on who is contributing the most money, candidates can focus on the issues. If there are problems with minor parties getting access to public financing, we can and should fix those through legislation. We should not, however, throw out the entire clean elections system because of these concerns.
In addition, this is an unfortunate decision at an inopportune time for our political system. We are already halfway through the 2010 election cycle, and jettisoning the entire public financing system now would cause chaos for candidates for the General Assembly and Constitutional offices next year. It would also potentially allow contributions from lobbyists and contractors back into state campaigns, which is exactly what we don’t want. I am committed to clean elections and public financing, and believe our system is a model for the entire nation. I am confident that a forthcoming appeal by the State of Connecticut and Attorney General Richard Blumenthal will keep our public financing system intact so that we do not overturn the progress we have made in cleaning up our political process.
REMEMBERING SENATOR EDWARD KENNEDY 1932-2009
On Tuesday night August 25th, Connecticut lost a leader, a friend, a fighter and a champion for common people. Like many, my family has also been touched by cancer and my heart goes out to the family of the late Senator Edward Kennedy: his wife Vicki, daughter Cara, sons Patrick and Ted Jr., who lives in Connecticut with his wife Kiki, and to the entire Kennedy family. Senator Kennedy embodied the true spirit of public service and his leadership on so many issues knows no equal – whether it was civil rights, education, helping working families, or economic opportunities for the downtrodden.
Most of all, Ted Kennedy’s life’s work was to make sure every American had access to quality, affordable health care. For generations, literally millions of Americans have benefitted from the various health care proposals that became law because of this great man. Ted Kennedy said many times that health care is a right for all Americans, not a privilege for those who can afford the best doctors.
We will miss Ted greatly. But every one of us should honor Senator Kennedy’s memory by working hard to enact national health care reform that will guarantee access to doctors and preventative care, saving billions of dollars for our economy. And we should accomplish this with the humility and bipartisanship that characterized Ted Kennedy’s unparalleled legislative success. As Ted said when I saw him one year ago – The work begins anew. The hope rises again. And the dream lives on. Senator Kennedy’s legacy will live on in the countless number of people who were inspired by him and his family to go into public service.
Honoring Our Veterans
Secretary Bysiewicz presented a Public Service Award to World War II veteran and Windham resident Alden Banslaben on September 2, 2009. Attending the presentation with the Secretary were Mr. Banslaben, Windham First Selectman Jean DeSmet and two local officials. More than 70 veterans from Windham were honored for their service on September 2nd, one day after the 70th anniversary of the start of WWII on September 1, 1939. |
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