More Corruption in Hartford? No Surprise There

The latest from Hartford is that the state agency that oversees campaigns and election laws is filing suit against the Connecticut Democrat party over alleged violations of the campaign finance laws.  In Connecticut, campaigns for state office are financed with public money.  In the last election for governor, each party got a bit over six million dollars in funds.  For federal elections, however, the state public financing laws don't apply, so the parties can collect all sorts of contributions for those races.  Those funds for federal elections, however, are not allowed to be used in the state campaigns.  Despite that, in the 2014 race for governor, the Democrats took money from their federal race accounts and used it for campaigning in the state race.  The Democrats don't even deny this, but they claim that since there was some small print that explained to voters how to find their polling places, it was okay to use the federal funds.  They argue that the bulk of the campaign materials which went on at length about the race for governor was just extraneous material.

There really is no reason why the has to be so much corruption in Hartford.  Sure, our state does not rise to the level in New York where it seems everyone in Albany is under indictment or investigation.  Nevertheless, why can't the politicians just follow the law?  It's not a hard thing to do.  Six million dollars to run a campaign in Connecticut is a huge sum; there was plenty to do a great job.

The real truth is that we need to get a new crop of political leaders.  This time it would help if we found a batch that were actually honest.