On September 10, the Vermont Progressive Party filed an amended Complaint in Corren v Sorrell, 2:15cv-58. The amended Complaint charges that Vermont campaign finance law is unconstitutional, when it prohibits political parties from spending even one cent on their nominees who have qualified for public funding. The case was originally filed on March 20, 2015, in an attempt to stop the Vermont Attorney General from fining the party’s nominee for Lieutenant Governor in 2014, Dean Corren, $72,000. The Attorney General says that Corren, because he qualified for public funding, could not receive any type of support from any political party. The Attorney General says that when the Democratic Party sent out an e-mail inviting recipients to a rally at which Corren would be speaking, that was a “contribution” to the Corren campaign. Corren in 2014 was not only the Progressive Party nominee for Lieutenant Governor; he was also the nominee of the Democratic Party. Vermont permits fusion.
The amended complaint says the state law violates the U.S. Supreme Court opinion Randall v Sorrell, which in 2007 struck down Vermont contribution limits.
This is the AG’s complaint.
http://ago.vermont.gov/assets/files/Civil/State%20v%20Corren%20Complaint.pdf
There was considerable communication between the Corren campaign and the Vermont Democrat Party (VDP) about how they could comply with the public finance law, while supporting Corren in more than a generic way.
There was a discussion about having Dottie Deans, the VDP chair, sending an e-mail blast praising Corren. The VDP lawyer said that would be a violation of the public finance law since the e-mail to 19,000 targeted persons had a monetary value.
The Corren campaign then suggested that they could be billed for the e-mail, or that perhaps the e-mail could mention other candidates.
The purpose of the e-mail was not to promote a rally at which other candidates would attend. It was to promote Dean Corren’s candidacy.