On December 1, the Connecticut legislature passed Bill 2103, which provides public funding for candidates for state office. All candidates would need to raise considerable amounts of private money, in order to receive public funding. But members of parties which polled 20% for Governor in the last election would not need to do anything else to qualify, except to raise enough private donations.

Independent candidates, and nominees of parties that had not polled 10% of the vote in the last election for that same office, would need to submit petitions. For full funding, they would need to submit a number of signatures equal to 20% of the last vote cast; for partial funding, 10%.

Parties that had polled 10% for that office, but under 20%, would get one-third of the funding; if they had polled 15% at the last election, two-thirds.

The amount of money that all candidates need to have raised privately is $250,000 for gubernatorial candidates; $75,000 for other statewide candidates; $15,000 for State Senate candidates; and $5,000 for State House candidates. Since these thresholds are quite severe, it seems obvious to unbiased observers that any candidate who reaches these thresholds should qualify. There is no need to add additional qualifiers for disfavored classes of candidates.

The Helsinki Accords, which the U.S. signed, pledge all nations to “respect the right of citizens to seek political or public office without discrimination” and to “provide political parties and organizations with the necessary legal guarantees to enable them to compete with each other on a basis of equal treatment before the law.”