Students Rally for Campaign Finance Reform by Ben Abelson (Contributing Writer)
Students from Wesleyan and other schools gathered outside a West Hartford
country club Thursday night to rally for campaign finance reform. Organized by
Students for Campaign Finance Reform (SCFR), they protested a fundraising event
held inside by Connecticut Governor John Rowland (R). People paid $250-$1000 to
attend the invitation-only event, according to SCFR member and founder Benjamin
Wyatt-Greene ’02.
“[The protest] went really well...all of these wealthy contributors in their
luxury SUVs and beamers were going in, and there’s 100 students standing
outside singing ‘Home on The Range’ re-written with campaign finance reform
lyrics,” said Rebecca Solow ’04, also an SCFR member.
The fundraiser had a country-western theme, a point on which the SCFR members
decided to capitalize by giving their protest the same motif, according to Solow.
The members dressed in country-western garb and wielded signs that read
“Rowland Puts the Buck in Buckaroo.”
Other members of SCFR declared the event a success, citing large numbers and
publicity. “We had at least 100 [people there]...we filled up the sidewalk,
got on a bunch of news stations—it went on the AP wire, in the Courant, some
of our members got interviewed both by TV stations and papers,” Wyatt-Greene
said.
The protest was peaceful and orderly. While there was a police presence, no
conflicts with the law occurred.
“We wanted this to be very professionally done; we contacted the police
beforehand so that it was very clear what we were doing. We didn’t want there
to be violence or have anyone get arrested, we felt that would have been
counterproductive,” Wyatt-Greene said.
Channel 8 News, which covered the event, estimated that around 70 students
protested.
Students from Central Connecticut State University, Connecticut College, Yale,
Trinity, University of Connecticut and Quinnipiac also protested with the
Wesleyan students, as members in a collegiate SCFR coalition, according to Solow.
According to the mission statement on the SCFR website, “A fundamental reform
of our democracy is needed. Full public funding [of elections]...would remove
much of the influence of money from public policies and allow officials to spend
their time understanding policies rather than making sales pitches.”
Governor Rowland has repeatedly made stands against campaign finance reform. The
Associated Press quoted Rowland as saying, “As long as you’re going to take
money away from taxpayers to pay for campaigns, it will not get my support and I
don’t think the people of the state support that either.”
On May 5th, 2000, Rowland vetoed a campaign finance reform bill passed by the
Connecticut General assembly. Students staged a sit-in at his office in response
to the veto. This event, according to Solow, provided the impetus for
Wyatt-Greene to help form SCFR.
“In 2001 the bill was stalled in committee by Governor Rowland and the
Republican legislatures,” Solow said. “This year we’re trying to pass [the
bill] again; it looks like we have enough support to do it, the question is
whether or not Governor Rowland will choose to sign the bill. He probably will
choose to veto it, but there is an election coming up.”
Besides press coverage, the protesters sought to inform donors about Governor
Rowland’s ethical lapses, according to Wyatt-Green.
“We were trying to let a lot of the fundraisers know that Governor Rowland was
being hypocritcal. He had said when he first got elected he was going to support
[public financing of elections], then he vetoed it, now he’s raising a huge
amount of money to get re-elected a third time. He outspent his opponent in the
last election by nearly 3 to 1. This is a system which is definitely working in
his favor and scratching his back,” Wyatt-Greene said.
According to Solow, those willing to shell out a thousand dollars for Thursday
night’s event were given some time to speak with the Governor, albeit in a
small group.
Opponents of Campaign Finanace Reform, including the American Civil Liberties
Union, say that money is a form of communication and to disallow people to spend
it would be a violation of free speech laws.
Governor Rowland’s office could not be contacted.
