Hello Kossacks,
Over at Future Majority we are about to start a live blog with George Colli IV, a 29 year old state senate candidate in Connecticut running using pubic financing. Please join us. George's initial comments are below the fold.
In the State of Connecticut, the first chapter in the future of how campaigns will be run and how they will be won is being written as we speak.
2008 brings the first election cycle where candidates have the option of filing for state financing for campaigns. The need to level the playing field in elections and to put the power in the hands of the individual voter and away from PACS, lobbyist and special interests groups has created this program.
This "Clean Elections Program" was instrumental in giving me the confidence to take this step. I am running against an incumbent who has been in office for 8 terms. However, in the last election cycle, he raised only $11,000 from individuals with close to $55,000 coming from PACS, Lobbyists or his state party. The program requires a candidate to meet two thresholds:
- You must receive a minimum of 300 donations from individuals within the towns in your district. These donations are between $5-$100. No individual lobbyists or state contractors are allowed to contribute.
- The candidate must then raise a total of $15,000. These contributions can come from in or outside the district, however each donation cannot exceed $100.
- Once the candidate reaches these two thresholds, the state gives a grant of $85,000 for the general election. This money does not come directly from tax payer dollars but from the revenue from unclaimed property in Connecticut
It is a program that is revolutionizing the political process in Connecticut and I believe will be a model in the future for how other states deal with campaign election reform. It is a program I think many of you will get excited about.
While there are many issues facing my district, I have been focusing on issues surrounding energy, the housing crisis and, what I feel is most important to young people in my state – youth flight.
In Connecticut, there is an alarming amount of young people who go away for college and never come back. The list of reasons for this long, but in my area they revolve around declining job growth, a lack of public transportation and the high cost of living. This is an issue that the Connecticut Young Democrats have been trying to tackle and we are working on getting the state legislature to respond to.
Thank you for the opportunity and I look forward to taking your questions.