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Rich Jacobs, of Fairfield, is handed campaign literature by Parker Pereira, 3, daughter of candidate for Fairfield state representative Caitlin Clarkson Pereira, during an afternoon of campaigning on Limerick Road in Fairfield, Conn. on Wednesday, August 22, 2018. Clarkson Pereira was denied her request to the State Elections Enforcement Commission to use her campaign funds to pay for child care.
lessPhoto: Brian A. Pounds / Hearst Connecticut MediaRich Jacobs, of Fairfield, is handed campaign literature by Parker Pereira, 3, daughter of candidate for Fairfield state representative Caitlin Clarkson Pereira, during an afternoon of campaigning on Limerick
... more
Rich Jacobs, of Fairfield, is handed campaign literature by Parker Pereira, 3, daughter of candidate for Fairfield state representative Caitlin Clarkson Pereira, during an afternoon of campaigning on Limerick Road in Fairfield, Conn. on Wednesday, August 22, 2018. Clarkson Pereira was denied her request to the State Elections Enforcement Commission to use her campaign funds to pay for child care.
lessRich Jacobs, of Fairfield, is handed campaign literature by Parker Pereira, 3, daughter of candidate for Fairfield state representative Caitlin Clarkson Pereira, during an afternoon of campaigning on Limerick
... moreA Connecticut appeals judge ruled Thursday that candidates for elected office can use public campaign funding to pay for child care while they’re campaigning, clearing the way for more parents to run for office in the state.
The plaintiff, Caitlin Clarkson Pereira, a Fairfield mother, ran for state representative in 2018. The state agency that oversees campaign finance laws rebuked her attempt to use public election grants to cover child care. The grants can be used to pay for travel and other expenses produced by a campaign.
“I am elated that the court ruled in our favor,” Clarkson Pereira said. “We have gone multiple election cycles without knowing the final verdict, keeping countless candidates from entering races because the expense of child care would be such a burden. I have always been confident this was the answer we should have received from the beginning, and it’s past time Connecticut officially joins all the other states that allow such an expense.”
In August 2018, Clarkson Pereira filed Connecticut’s first formal request to use a public-campaign grant to pay for election-related child care. She was the young mother of a three-year-old trying to balance parenting and her first run for elected office.
The State Elections Enforcement Commission denied Clarkson Pereira’s request, but she continued to fight. She sought a declaratory ruling from the elections body. In April 2019, the commission ruled public campaign funds from the Citizens’ Election Program cannot be used to pay a babysitter while a candidate is on the hustings.
A month later, Clarkson Pereira sought to overturn that ruling by filing a complaint in Bridgeport Superior Court.
On Thursday, Judge John L. Cordani decided “campaign funds may generally be spent to pay for child care costs incurred by a candidate as a result of campaigning as long as such payments are a direct result of campaign activity, reasonable and customary for the services rendered and properly documented by the campaign.”
Cordani found child care was a similar necessary campaign expense to others covered by the public election grants.
“Allowing reimbursement of child care expenses that arise solely as a result of the campaign and would not have existed absent the campaign serves the public policy embedded in the foregoing statutes of encouraging all types of people, including those with small children, to run for public office to ensure that all segments of our population are represented in our government,” Cordan wrote. “Similarly, it ensures that candidates with small children can play on an even playing field in the campaign as compared to candidates without small children.”
Clarkson Pereira was supported in her pursuit to change the ruling by the Federal Election Commission chair, Ellen L. Weintraub, and several state lawmakers and officials.
Her attorney, Alexander Taubes of New Haven, who took the case pro-bono, said “The court’s ruling will benefit the entire State of Connecticut and candidates struggling for fairness nationwide.”
The SEEC already allowed candidates financing their campaigns through privately raised funds to use those monies to cover child care.
The Federal Election Commission allows Congressional candidates to use campaign funds to pay for child care. States including Wisconsin, Minnesota, Texas, Alabama, and Arkansas also permit campaign funds to be spent on child care.
emilie.munson@hearstdc.com; Twitter: @emiliemunson
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Connecticut judge: Public campaign grants can pay for child care - CTPost
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