Rudy Marconi brought a message from Youtube to New Haven Monday night: His opponents may have millions to spend on the governor’s race, but he has a commitment to clean money.
Marconi is seeking government dollars for his run for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination amid a crowded field . He made the pitch for why that matters in a talk Monday night to a score of students at Yale.
“We need to get money out of politics,” he said. Some “79 percent of the people in Connecticut agree with me,” Marconi, Ridgefield’s first selectman, told the Yale students, citing a Zogby poll showing support for the Citizens Election Program.
Marconi has also pressed the clean-money theme in cheeky Youtube videos (like the one at the top of the story). A fellow Fairfield County Democratic candidate, Dannel Malloy, pressed a similar argument at a recent candidates’ debate.
Monday’s Marconi event, at Yale’s Branford College, was organized by the campus College Democrats.
Responding to questions after his extemporaneous speech, Marconi, a 61-year-old former businessman, keyed off rival and Greenwich businessman Ned Lamont’s remark to the same group last month that using public financing is like fighting with one arm tied behind one’s back.
Leonard Honeyman Photo
“No political office should be for sale,” he said. “There are a lot of good, good people in politics. People shouldn’t be made to feel you can’t afford to run,” said the candidate (pictured).
During his talk, he said he is using public money because it’s the right thing to do and “because I cannot afford to spend millions. I cannot afford to spend thousands.”
He explained that using public money doesn’t mean a candidate is destitute.
According to state rules, a candidate must raise $250,000 in contributions of $100 or less to qualify for $1.25 million in funding to seek a party’s nomination. A qualifying party nominee gets $3 million. The General Assembly can vote more money to a candidate who is up against a rival heavily funded with private money.
“There has to be a limit” on campaign spending, he said, citing the $16 million that Lamont spent on a losing U.S. Senate effort in 2006, and the $50 million that businesswoman Linda McMahon said she is willing to spend to gain U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd’s seat in the federal upper chamber. Former Ambassador to Ireland Tom Foley already has kicked in $2 million of his own money in his bid for the GOP gubernatorial nod.
Marconi talked about a series of videos he has uploaded to YouTube, including one showing the governor’s mansion and implying it was for sale. (Click on the play arrow at the top of the story to watch.)
In an interview after the meeting, a reporter asked if the videos have an edge.
“Sure they do. You know, we’re talking about the governor of the state of Connecticut; this is not running for a local election in a small, little town. You’re in the big leagues now,” he said.
“There is no doubt. Absolutely, we need to get money out of politics. We need to have a level playing field for people. We need integrity and honesty back. We shouldn’t have a U.S. Senate seat up for sale. Our governor’s mansion should not be for sale. We need to put a limit on what’s being spent. It’s wrong,” he said.
His efforts at raising the $250,000 to buy him into the public option were coming along slowly, he said.
“We’re getting there. It’s not easy. If some of our strategies work, I think we can. That’s the part of it that’s so difficult. A lot of people, I think, are somewhat frustrated, because …it doesn’t sound like a lot of money. You think: 2,500 people, there have to be 2,500 people in the state that are going to give. It’s tough. People will send you 50, they’ll send you 75 in a recession,” he said. Some 2,500 people giving the $100 maximum would equal the $250,000 he needs.
Although people support the public option on the surface, they are not willing to do anything to make sure it works, Marconi said.
“Some 79 percent in the Zogby poll support public finance on the surface,” he complained. “Because they all agree we need to get big money, special interest out of politics. They don’t want their government to be for sale. But what they don’t realize is that they want to be an active participant in the process. They need to look at a candidate and say, ‘ Rudy Marconi, he’s our candidate. I’m going to send him a check to help him.’ They don’t get that. They want the best of both worlds. They don’t want big money in politics, but they don’t want to spend any money to help make the system work. That is one of the problems with the system,” he said.
People won’t believe the system will work until a candidate is elected who does the job and is a product of public finance, he said.
Marconi has pressed another main pitch in his campaign: bringing tolls back to Connecticut highways. Read about that here.