Connecticut’s Government Administration and Elections Committee (which serves both houses of the legislature) will hear SB 1233 on March 7. The bill creates a petition procedure by which a group can transform itself into a qualified minor party.

If the bill were enacted, any group that circulated a petition signed by 1% of the last vote cast would become a qualified minor party. It could nominate by convention for any or all partisan offices in the state. The Working Families Party initiated this bill.

Connecticut is now one of only 12 states which lacks any procedure for a group to become a qualified party, in advance of any particular election.