Ruling on Foley Claim Tomorrow
Judge Julia L. Aurigemma will rule Tuesday on Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Foley’s action to enjoin the Michael Fedele campaign from spending $2.2 million in public funds in his primary campaign.
Judge Aurigemma may not have a written opinion tomorrow to accompany her ruling, but she will rule.
Team Fedele feels like it scored the points it needed to stay in the game and dissuade the judge from effectively ending his campaign.
Updates as required.
17 comments
These laws are so convoluted that only a judge can figure them out. Even the lawyers who wrote them can’t find their proper application.
Kevin, can you elucidate for your readers what arguments Bart made in support of the SEEC’s interpretation? Foley’s view/reasoning is clearly presented in Dan Krisch’s lengthy complaint. If Fedele has tried to make a substantive argument in favor of the SEEC’s interpretation, I have yet to hear of it.
Also, “richee” brings up a good point. The law is flat out terribly written. I’ve gone back and forth on how I think it this should come out (from a legal standpoint, policy wise its terrible) several times. It seems likely that Judge Aurigemma will be required to look beyond the plain text (seeing as it isn’t “plain” at all really) and divine the legislature’s intent. Or, there is of course the question of whether a judge could even order a campaign to return money it has already received.
The Foley campaign contends that Section 709(a) of the General Statutes limits the right to form a joint committee to the endorsed candidates for Governor and Lieutenant Governor. Obviously, they haven’t read the law.
The statute does require the endorsed candidates for Governor and Lieutenant Governor to campaign jointly after the primary.
But it also provides that ” Any other candidate for nomination or election to the office of Lieutenant Governor shall be deemed to be aiding or promoting the success of such candidacy for the office of Lieutenant Governor and the success of a candidate for nomination or election to the office of Governor jointly upon a declaration by the candidates that they shall campaign jointly”. That is exactly what Fedele and Boughton have done.
I have a message for Tom Foley: The Governor’s Office is not For Sale.
I don’t claim to have a detailed grasp of the campaign finance. It sounds like the most compelling arguments Fedele made are rooted in the process that applies to any proceeding for an injunction. It’s an extraordinary proceeding that requires a showing of special circumstances. For instance, the Fedele campaign argued that Foley had not met his burden of showing that he was likely to proceed in the underlying case challenging the SEEC’s actions. It also argued that a balancing of equities favored Fedele. Foley’s campaign manager testified that allowing Fedele to have the grant would mean Foley would have to spend more money. Fedele argued that granting the injunction would end his campaign. They pointed out, for example, that they believe there’s no way for the campaign to resume fundraising once they’ve met the threshold or to get out of the system once a candidate’s this enmeshed in it.
I hope that ‘s helpful in explaining a statute that often seems incomprehensible. Let it serve as a reminder of the dangers of passing a vast law without a public hearing and the normal crucible of the legislative process.
I encourage others to join in.
Ken Langley, you don’t give the whole story here, you list only the second sentence and omit the first in 9-709(a) after the “or (3)” part. Put the first and second sentence together and try again:
“or (3) a declaration by the party-endorsed candidates that they will campaign jointly. Any other candidate for nomination or election to the office of Lieutenant Governor shall be deemed to be aiding or promoting the success of such candidacy for the office of Lieutenant Governor and the success of a candidate for nomination or election to the office of Governor jointly upon a declaration by the candidates that they shall campaign jointly.”
Since you have to include both of those sentences together, “Any other candidate for nomination or election to the office of Lieutenant Governor” clearly means everyone but the PARTY ENDORSED candidate who is Boughton. Since Boughton is party endorsed, he is NOT “any other candidate” which means he CANNOT campaign jointly with Fedele.
Fedele’s campaign had made a series of serious errors ever since he got in this race. The first big one was not properly planning his fund raising efforts to ensure he raised the $250K by July 16th. Secondly, he figured that “teaming up” with Boughton prior to the convention would guarantee that both of them would come out of the convention as the party endorsed candidates. If that were true, Tom Foley would have nothing to complain about BUT Fedele’s campaign grossly underestimated their delegate support and he would up with less than 30% of the delegates and failed to capture the endorsement. Then he figures he can sweet-talk the SEEC into issuing him an unenforceable “Advisory Opinion” and everything will be A-Okay because the SEEC thinks they can make up their own rules and to hell with the law. As I’ve said before, I actually kind of feel bad for Mike Fedele because the SEEC sold him down the river BUT on the other hand, if Mike Fedele had simply raised the minimum amount to qualify for his taxpayer funds in the first place, we wouldn’t even be having this discussion.
I have a message for you Ken Langley: You clearly have no clue and no idea what you’re talking about.
Sorry Ed, try reading the ENTIRE statute. Section 9-709(c) addresses two situations.
First, it REQUIRES the endorsed candidates to combine their finances “upon the earliest of the following: (1) The primary, whether held for the office of Governor, the office of Lieutenant Governor, or both; (2) if no primary is held for the office of Governor or Lieutenant Governor, the fourteenth day following the close of the convention; or (3) a declaration by the party-endorsed candidates that they will campaign jointly”. (None of which has happened).
Second, it ALLOWS other candidates for Governor and Lieutenant Governor to voluntarily combine, by filing “a declaration by the candidates that they shall campaign jointly”.
That is exactly what Fedele and Boughton did.
Here is the entire section, including the parts that the Foley folks like to ignore:
Sec. 9-709. Joint campaigning by candidates for offices of Governor and Lieutenant Governor. (a) For purposes of this section, expenditures made to aid or promote the success of both a candidate for nomination or election to the office of Governor and a candidate for nomination or election to the office of Lieutenant Governor jointly, shall be considered expenditures made to aid or promote the success of a candidate for nomination or election to the office of Governor. The party-endorsed candidate for nomination or election to the office of Lieutenant Governor and the party-endorsed candidate for nomination or election to the office of Governor shall be deemed to be aiding or promoting the success of both candidates jointly upon the earliest of the following: (1) The primary, whether held for the office of Governor, the office of Lieutenant Governor, or both; (2) if no primary is held for the office of Governor or Lieutenant Governor, the fourteenth day following the close of the convention; or (3) a declaration by the party-endorsed candidates that they will campaign jointly. Any other candidate for nomination or election to the office of Lieutenant Governor shall be deemed to be aiding or promoting the success of such candidacy for the office of Lieutenant Governor and the success of a candidate for nomination or election to the office of Governor jointly upon a declaration by the candidates that they shall campaign jointly.
Ken,
You’re still left with the fact that a good chunk of funds were raised from double dipped donors. As has been pointed out elsewhere, Fedele’s interpretation of of CEP essentially halves the minimum amount of money and the minimum number of donors a candidate for governor must raise now… strategically, it will now be in a candidate’s best interest to wait as long as possible to officially declare a joint campaign, so they can double tap people along the way. If Mike was really doing this on the up and up, why didn’t he and Boughton officially declare their joint candidacy immediately following the issuance of the SEEC’s advisory opinion?
Although Dan Malloy has also accepted public funding, Mike Fedele is the only candidate running as a member of the GOP who has done so, a party that constantly and consistently decries cradle to gave entitlements, and overgenerous government benefits. Make no mistake, CEP is a government entitlement program; Mike’s campaign is seeking to become a recipient of a political welfare program. If Judge Aurigemma rules in his favor today, I hope he at least has the decency to write a ‘thank you’ note to John Q. Taxpayer.
Sorry Fuzzy- I guess you forgot about Jerry Farrell, Jack Orchulli, and Jeff Wright, all statewide GOP candidates participating in the CEP.
Not to mention Corey Brinson, before dropping out was participating in the program
As well as hundreds of GOP State Rep and State Senate Candidates.
Hearing that these people are non to happy with Foley trashing the program.
Sue, apologies. They should be lumped with Fedele as well as political welfare recipients as well. Sorry for the oversight.
* My comment regarding him being the only member of the GOP to do so was in reference to the governor’s race.
Ken, thanks for provide the whole statute this time because now that you’ve done that, it proves you are 100% wrong.
Yes, the statute requires that taxpayer funded campaigns for Governor and Lieutenant Governor must campaign jointly IF THERE IS NO PRIMARY OR CONTEST FOR THE NOMINATION or IF THEY ARE BOTH PARTY ENDORSED. The ‘any other candidate” part allows a non party endorsed candidate for LG to campaign jointly with anyone who will let him or her including the party endorsed candidate for Governor.
The reason the statute is written that way is because AFTER the candidates are nominated, they are on the ballot together but BEFORE they are nominated (before the primary) these are TWO SEPARATE CONTESTS and the law allows the party endorsed candidates to campaign jointly or “any other candidate” for LG. Mark Boughton is NOT just “any other candidate” so the only person he may campaign jointly with is the party endorsed candidate for Governor.
The real question is why couldn’t Fedele and Boughton raise their 250K and 75K respectively? Malloy and Wyman did and they ARE NOT campaigning jointly before the primary. The will after the primary assuming they both win the primary BUT that’s why the law is written the way it is, taxpayer funded NOMINEES must campaign jointly as you pointed out but we won’t know who the nominees are until after the primary.
It’s amazing that you’re too stupid to see it that way.
Sue, if all three of the candidates you mentioned don’t “qualify” by this Saturday, none of them will be taking part in the taxpayer funded campaign system so it’s a bit presumptuous for you to state that they are.
As of July 1st, Orchulli has raised $2,300.00 so he needs another $73,000.00 by this Saturday. Farrell has raised $61,000.00 so he only needs another $14,000.00. Jeff Wright has raised $24,000.00 so he too needs another $51,000.00.
Now I’m going to just take a wild a$$ed guess here but I highly doubt Orchulli or Wright will be participating in the taxpayer funded system this year. Farrell looks like he could possibly pull it off but could come up short by July 16th.
Unless of course the SEEC figures out some way to break the law again and allow them to participate.
As far as Republican legislative candidates who are participating in the program, they all voted against this bill when it passed. They’re choosing to participate now does not mean they agree with the program, they’re participating because they’re practically forced to. I haven’t heard a single Republican legislative candidate who is “non (sic) to(sic) happy with Foley trashing the program.” If you know of one Sue, please let us all know. All the ones I talk to who are participating are glad to see Tom Foley making an issue about this incredible waste of taxpayer money. While I have not spoken to Edith Prague about this directly, my guess is she agrees with Tom Foley that this program should be abolished.
ED- Not true. Those candidates (Wright, Orchulli, Farrell et al) are not in a primary so they don’t have the July 16th deadline.
Damn you are dumb.
Oh they are pretty pissed Justin..oops sorry, I mean “Ed”..
Ed (Bill) the cut off for the General Election candidates who intend to qualify for Public Financing is:
SEPT. 23, 2010.
No wonder Foley’s campaign is such a mess..
Yes Sue, I stand corrected, you are right and I am wrong. However I’m not “Justin” or “Bill” as you keep insisting. You’re free to keep taking shots at the dark as to my identity on that one all you like but it makes you look awfully “dumb” as you say.
Where are you getting “September 23, 2010” from? The general election deadline is October 8, 2010.
Geez, if you want to call me out for being wrong (which is fine, I have no problem admitting it when I’m wrong), you ought to try being right yourself.
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