Washington, DC – Nick Nyhart, executive director of Public Campaign, praised the Connecticut legislature today for passing a bill late last night that will strengthen the state’s historic Clean Elections law passed last year. The legislative “fix” will address several problems that could have severely compromised, or even eradicated, the law. Nyhart also blasted Congress for the weak lobbying reform bill that was passed in the U.S. House of Representatives.

“In the wake of the Duke Cunningham and Jack Abramoff lobbying scandals, our congressional leaders have done nothing but try and pull the wool over our eyes, while calling it transparency” said Nyhart. “Their so-called lobbying ‘reform’ bill does nothing to curb the direct big money influence that super lobbyists like Jack Abramoff wield over our elected officials. Fortunately, the public won’t be fooled.”

“While Congress was busy protecting lobbyists, the Connecticut legislature was genuinely conducting the peoples business,” said Nyhart. “Recognizing that last year’s historic Clean Elections bill had a few fixes needed, last night the Connecticut legislature passed a bill that will strengthen the law by addressing important legal technicalities, and strengthening provisions that dealt with PAC contributions. Political leaders in Connecticut should be proud and the rest of the country should take notice.”

The Connecticut bill, approved last night unanimously by the Senate and by a 122-23 vote in the Democrat-dominated State Assembly, has the support of Republican Governor M. Jodi Rell. The bill would allow public financing for campaigns to be frozen only if the campaign finance law is challenged and a temporary injunction of a week or more is issued by a judge after April 15. Further, the public financing system would be frozen only until Dec.1 of the same year. Prior to the fix, funding would have been frozen within 72 hours of a court order as a result of a challenge to any part of the Clean Elections law.

Public Campaign is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to sweeping reform that aims to dramatically reduce the role of big special interest money in American politics. To date, seven states and two municipalities have passed Clean Elections campaign reform. For more information, go to www.publicampaign.org.