Skip to main content

Jepsen Wealthy Beyond His Means Owing To Public Financing

Is anyone doing the arithmetic here?

Theoretically, public financing is supposed to “even the campaign money playing field” between contestants for office.

There is no incumbent in the attorney general race. Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is running for the U.S. Senate.

Out of the gate, George Jepsen, the Democratic candidate who has accepted public financing, will be awarded $750,000, according to a story in the Greenwich Time:

“To quality for a $750,000 grant, Jepsen was required to raise at least $75,000 in contributions of $100 or less. According to a campaign finance report filed this week, Jepsen has raised about $84,500.”
Of the two Republican nominees for the office, Ross Garber has raised $72,640, and Martha Dean, the Republican nominee for the position has raised $26,000. Both Republicans have spurned public financing.

Public financing, in this instance, has tilted the playing field significantly in Jepsen’s favor. The Democratic candidate for attorney general has in his campaign kitty $651,360 more than the combined total of both his opposition candidates.

If the purpose of public campaign financing is to give all contestants an even money shot at a public office, public financing has failed spectacularly in this instance.
Labels:

Comments

Fuzzy Dunlop said…
Cheers Don. Well put. I've enjoyed the public financing issue. It's given us an opportunity to finally agree.
7:06 PM
Don Pesci said…
Fuzzy,

It will be Interesting to see if the anomaly gets any media attention. I doubt it. Actually, the problem is bound to recur IF the public financing scheme is successful. The scheme envisions that there will always be an incumbent in the race, or a millionaire whose “advantages” may be leveled though trigger mechanisms now found to be unconstitutional. It really is a mess. The scheme itself will continually throw up dubious constitutional questions; and, in respect of public financing, the Supreme Court seems determined to hue to a rational view of constitutional assaults.

I’m bitterly disappointed that we agree. It’s much more fun the other way.
8:06 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Casey Chadwick’s Uneasy Life after Death

Casey and her mother Wendy "I just started grief counseling. I'm always sad. I'm sad and in pain and I miss her." Wendy Hartling   Hartling is the mother of Casey Chadwick, murdered in 2015 by Jean Jacques , an illegal Haitian immigrant. Jacques was convicted of the murder of Chadwick in a New London Superior Court jury trial and sentenced by Judge Barbara Bailey Jongbloed to a 60 year term in prison. Since Jacques is 44 years of age, the sentence was, in effect, a life sentence. Connecticut Commentary coverage of the Chadwick murder may be found here , and here   and here . Jacques could not have been sentenced to death because Connecticut’s Democrat dominated General Assembly, under pressure from the state Supreme Court, had abolished Connecticut’s death penalty law in 2012 . The slaughter of Chadwick was particularly brutal. Her body had been found by a friend who, opening a door to a closet, discovered Chadwick stuffed in a dark corner drenched in blo...
Post a Comment
Read more

Understanding North Korea Through Dramaturgy

The U.S. military is sending the Vinson Strike Group, including the carrier and two guided-missile destroyers, to operate in the Western Pacific Ocean in response to Pyongyang’s recent missile tests. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, asked about the strike force, issued a terse statement: “The United States has spoken enough about North Korea. We have no further comment.” Is this a post-Syrian bombing mission? Will the US take out North Korea’s missile launching sites, possibly with the unspoken concurrence of China? Never let a bombing go to waste. There are some in the United States who think any such incident should be used to rid North Korea of that runty little totalitarian cock-of-the-walk who keeps his countrymen starved, in fear and at his knees. Since we only have one chance, they say, go for the clean sweep -- no more Kims. Connecticut Commentary is reprinting an earlier piece about the Kims here. Best read with a glass of port.
Post a Comment
Read more

The Blumenthal Burisma Connection

Steve Hilton , a Fox News commentator who over the weekend had connected some Burisma corruption dots, had this to say about Connecticut U.S. Senator Dick Blumenthal’s association with the tangled knot of corruption in Ukraine: “We cross-referenced the Senate co-sponsors of Ed Markey's Ukraine gas bill with the list of Democrats whom Burisma lobbyist, David Leiter, routinely gave money to and found another one -- one of the most sanctimonious of them all, actually -- Sen. Richard Blumenthal."
17 comments
Read more