Different races, financing

Check out the money raised for the two major offices being contested in Connecticut next year and you’d think the candidates for governor and U.S. senator were running in different states.

These races will be historic for very different reasons. The gubernatorial election will be publicly financed for the first time, while the Senate election will be conducted the old-fashioned way, with the candidates required to raise obscene amounts of money in what may be the most expensive race for any public office in the state’s history.

There is one similarity. The public may be tired of both incumbents, Sen. Chris Dodd and Gov. Jodi Rell, who are lagging behind potential opponents in fundraising, according to the most recent quarterly reports.

Rell, fresh from a legislative session in which she and the Democratic legislative leaders vied for least-effective laurels, has been similarly ineffective as a fundraiser.

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Dodd is not only behind Republican Rob Simmons in most polls, he was also edged out by Simmons in raising money in the past quarter. He has to be worried, too, about the wrestling lady, Linda McMahon, who has unblushingly announced she will spend whatever it takes to defeat Dodd and most of whatever it takes will be from her own very deep pockets.

Dodd raised $900,000, just $70,000 less than Simmons, but good enough for only second place, which is no place for an incumbent. However, neither of them may be capable of approaching the torrid fundraising, and more importantly, the equally torrid fund-spending pace already established by McMahon.

McMahon let it be known she was serious when she spent $2 million on TV ads in the first two weeks of her very early campaign. It’s been said she’s prepared to spend $30 million of her own money and anyone willing to do that against the highly vulnerable Democratic senator shouldn’t have trouble attracting a similar amount from Republican admirers.

Dodd, who raised $7 million to run against token opposition in 2004, may have to raise at least $20 million this time and there are some new obstacles. His once formidable ability to attract contributions from the industries he regulates as chairman of the Senate Banking Committee is somewhat reduced because donors, like Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, no longer exist and he has said he won’t accept money from firms that have received federal bailout money. In addition, every dollar he gets from these moneyed interests will be carefully scrutinized — and criticized — by the opposition.

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Rell, who claims she hasn’t decided about running next year, raised a pitiful $14,760 in the reporting period ending Sept. 30. Two of her possible Democratic opponents, Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz and Stamford Mayor Dan Malloy, raised more than $100,000 each in the same period, and while State Sen. Gary LeBeau was way behind them, he raised twice as much as Rell in the quarter.

These figures are not as paltry as they seem because, unlike the candidates for the Senate, candidates for governor need only to raise $250,000 in individual contributions of no more than $375 to qualify for public financing. Once they reach that plateau, the candidates will qualify for $1.25 million in public funds to fight it out in a primary. The winner will then get $3 million more for the general election.

And so, we have a gubernatorial election with limits on contributions, public financing and no contributions allowed from those doing business with the governor, like contractors and lobbyists. Then we have the race for the Senate, with big money, few restrictions, lots of contractor, lobbyist and other special interest money and all the baggage and potential for scandal that comes with these dollars. That’s the state we’re in.

Dick Ahles is a retired journalist from Simsbury. E-mail him at dahles@hotmail.com.

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