Tens of billions of dollars have been spent on political campaigns leading up to the midterms. The cycle is shaping up to be billions of dollars more expensive than 2022, and more than half of the money is coming from outside groups that aren't actually affiliated with either candidate.
It hasn't always been like this. Until 2010, outside groups, called Political Action Committees, weren’t allowed to spend unlimited money in races.
The Supreme Court’s landmark Citizens United decision changed that, leading to the creation of Super PACS. They can spend as much as they want on independent expenditures, which are typically ads. The ads can be in favor or against candidates.
Joanna Zdanys is with the nonprofit Brennan Center for Justice.
“The result has been that we've seen an explosion of private wealth in our elections to a degree that we really have not seen in the modern era,” Zdanys said.
Zdanys spoke to WSHU in May for The Making of U.S.
“An increasing trend that we've seen since 2010 is that candidates are frequently working in alignment with these nominally outside entities that are allowed to take in unlimited amounts of money and to spend unlimited amounts in support of their favored candidate or in opposition to an opponent,” Zdanys said.
Most people can’t afford to run a campaign without outside spending, because they have to keep up with their opponent. That cycle results in a reliance on wealthy donors and Super PACs, which means candidates become beholden to their interests.
Connecticut bucks the national trend through the Citizens Election Program, or CEP.
The program came about after former governor John Rowland went to jail for a pay to play scheme.
It’s administered by the State Elections Enforcement Commission. Joshua Foley is the commission’s senior council, and a huge advocate for the initiative.
“The CEP is a public financing program that allows candidates for the General Assembly or statewide office to raise small dollar contributions from their constituents, and then get a big grant from the state of Connecticut,” Foley said. “After that, they have to stop fundraising, and they get to just campaign.”
Candidates running to represent Connecticut at the federal level are not eligible for the program.
The amount of money each candidate has to raise depends on the office they’re seeking. A state rep candidate needs $6,700 in small donations from people in their district. If they’re approved for the program, they get an additional $38,000 from the state.
Those funds are typically used for campaign staff, consultants, lawn signs, and more.
This year, Republican Gubernatorial candidate Ryan Fazio opted in and has gotten more than $18 million from the program. Governor Ned Lamont, a Democrat running for re-election, is self funding his campaign.
Most candidates for the state legislature — between 80% and 90%, Foley said — use the CEP.
“That means that people on both sides of the aisle and both sides of the races are using about the same amount of money to get elected,” Foley said.
When candidates are using the same amount of money, there isn’t as much incentive to get outside groups to spend on their behalf.
“The only people that they have to answer for are the same people that are living in their district, who give them these small dollar contributions, and they have no other conflicting interests,” Foley said.
Funding comes from the state’s abandoned property fund. That includes sources like unclaimed tax refunds and abandoned bank accounts.
There will always be criticism of financing political campaigns with taxpayer money, Foley admitted, but “it's much cheaper than corruption.”
Other states have asked Connecticut to consult with them on how to replicate the CEP. Notably, New York borrowed Connecticut's blueprint for their public campaign financing program that launched a few years ago.
