State Policy Network: Connecticut to candidates: Don’t talk about the Governor, or else
By Matt Nese
One of the most important jobs of a state legislature is to check the power of the executive branch. Yet in Connecticut, legislative candidates have been fined simply for mentioning the governor’s policies in campaign ads. The Institute for Free Speech is helping those candidates fight back.
In 2014, Connecticut General Assembly members Joe Markley and Rob Sampson ran for re-election on similar platforms. Both had fought against Democratic Governor Dannel Malloy’s policies on taxes and government spending and wished to tout their records to voters. But when they mentioned the governor in their campaign ads, they unwittingly violated state campaign finance laws. As a result, the State Elections Enforcement Commission (SEEC) assessed them $7,000 in fines.
Represented by the Institute for Free Speech, Markley and Sampson are asking a Connecticut court to vacate the fines and declare the law invalid, unconstitutional, or both. The First Amendment does not permit the government to regulate the content of campaign ads. Yet Connecticut’s law effectively bans legislative candidates from criticizing the governor in their ads…
The SEEC’s ruling, and the underlying regulations and laws upon which it is based, are a clear violation of the First Amendment. It is absurd to force legislative candidates to split the advertising costs with a candidate for governor, who might well refuse to do so, anytime they criticize the governor’s policies. Likewise, campaign regulators should not be able to fine candidates for expressing their policy positions in a mailer.
IFS is optimistic the courts will vindicate its clients’ First Amendment rights.
