Judge Rules Public Campaign Grants Can Cover Candidates Child Care Costs

Superior Court Judge John Cordani on Thursday ruled candidates for state office can access public campaign dollars to cover child care expenses, reversing a declaratory ruling by the State Elections Enforcement Commission that they could not. Full Cordani ruling here.

The court case was brought by Caitlin Clarkson Pereira, a Fairfield mother, who ran for state representative in 2018.

The decision opens the door for more parents to seek public office.

“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.”

The court decision involves Connecticut’s clean-money Citizens Election Program of publicly funded races that allows candidates to raise small dollar amounts for a larger pot of taxpayer money limiting special interest influence.

From the court decision.