As noted earlier, on August 2, Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell vetoed SB 551. The Senate overrode her veto on August 5, by a vote of 24-10. The House will vote on whether to override her veto on Friday, August 13.
The bill adds a severance clause to the state’s public funding law. The current law says that if any part is unconstitutional, the entire law is void. If the legislature can add a severance clause, the program survives. Last month the 2nd circuit ruled parts of it unconstitutional, although it upheld the parts that discriminate against independent candidates and the nominees of new political parties.
The bill also doubles the amount of public funding for gubernatorial candidates who qualify for full public funding, from $3,000,000, to $6,000,000. The Governor vetoed the bill primarily because of that provision. Her veto message said the state can’t afford that money.
This sounds like exciting news. Richard, was the veto in
effect an item veto of all those sections deemed by Judge Underhill to be unconstitutional?
The veto is just a plain old old-fashioned veto of the entire bill. The Governor had complaints about several different parts of the bill.
Sorry, I think I was confused. I was thinking of the
original bill, deemed by Underhill to be unconstitutional (though that was reversed by the court of appeals). But the bill was really the one the
legislature passed to eradicate those unconstitutional
provisions. Is that right? If so, a veto override might
provide public funding legislation fair in its application even in the absence of further appeals.
The bill doesn’t fix the parts of the system that discriminate against independent candidates and new party candidates.