Connecticut § 9-709 - Joint campaigning by candidates for offices of Governor and Lieutenant Governor.

§ 9-709. Joint campaigning by candidates for offices of Governor and Lieutenant Governor.

Sec. 9-709. Joint campaigning by candidates for offices of Governor and Lieutenant Governor. (a) For purposes of this section, expenditures made to aid or promote the success of both a candidate for nomination or election to the office of Governor and a candidate for nomination or election to the office of Lieutenant Governor jointly, shall be considered expenditures made to aid or promote the success of a candidate for nomination or election to the office of Governor. The party-endorsed candidate for nomination or election to the office of Lieutenant Governor and the party-endorsed candidate for nomination or election to the office of Governor shall be deemed to be aiding or promoting the success of both candidates jointly upon the earliest of the following: (1) The primary, whether held for the office of Governor, the office of Lieutenant Governor, or both; (2) if no primary is held for the office of Governor or Lieutenant Governor, the fourteenth day following the close of the convention; or (3) a declaration by the party-endorsed candidates that they will campaign jointly. Any other candidate for nomination or election to the office of Lieutenant Governor shall be deemed to be aiding or promoting the success of such candidacy for the office of Lieutenant Governor and the success of a candidate for nomination or election to the office of Governor jointly upon a declaration by the candidates that they shall campaign jointly.

(b) If a candidate for nomination or election to the office of Lieutenant Governor is campaigning jointly with a candidate for nomination or election to the office of Governor, the candidate committee and any exploratory committee for the candidate for the office of Lieutenant Governor shall be dissolved as of the applicable date set forth in subsection (a) of this section. Not later than fifteen days after said date, the treasurer of the candidate committee formed to aid or promote the success of said candidate for nomination or election to the office of Lieutenant Governor shall file a statement with the proper authority under section 9-603, identifying all contributions received or expenditures made by the committee since the previous statement and the balance on hand or deficit, as the case may be. Not later than thirty days after the applicable date set forth in subsection (a) of this section, (1) the treasurer of a qualified candidate committee formed to aid or promote the success of said candidate for nomination or election to the office of Lieutenant Governor shall distribute any surplus to the fund, and (2) the treasurer of a nonqualified candidate committee formed to aid or promote the success of said candidate for nomination or election to the office of Lieutenant Governor shall distribute such surplus in accordance with the provisions of subsection (e) of section 9-608.

(Oct. 25 Sp. Sess. P.A. 05-5, S. 10; P.A. 13-180, S. 12.)

History: Oct. 25 Sp. Sess. P.A. 05-5 effective December 31, 2006, and applicable to elections held on or after that date; pursuant to P.A. 13-180, “campaign treasurer” was changed editorially by the Revisors to “treasurer” in Subsec. (b), effective June 18, 2013.

There is no evidence that Subsec. (a) was designed to encourage or discourage nonendorsed candidates for Lieutenant Governor from choosing a particular running mate, rather, the clear purpose is to limit expenditures of candidates for Lieutenant Governor and Governor who are running on the same ticket to amount that the candidate for office of Governor is authorized to spend under election program; campaign expenditures by one candidate in the campaign for general election effectively benefit both candidates; phrase “[a]ny other candidate for nomination or election to the office of Lieutenant Governor” means any candidate for Lieutenant Governor other than an endorsed candidate who is running jointly with the endorsed candidate for Governor, including a nonendorsed candidate for Lieutenant Governor who is running jointly with a candidate for Governor, endorsed or not, and an endorsed candidate for Lieutenant Governor who is running jointly with a nonendorsed candidate for Governor. 297 C. 764.