Connecticut mom's push to use public campaign grants to pay for child care nixed by all-male elections commission

April 03-- Apr. 3--A Connecticut woman who juggled the responsibilities of being a young mother with running for the state legislature was dealt a setback Wednesday when state election officials ruled publicly financed candidates cannot use campaign grants to pay for child care.

The State Elections Enforcement Commission, which is comprised of five men and no women, voted unanimously to uphold a prohibition on the personal use of public election grants that includes child care expenses.

Candidates participating in Connecticut's popular public campaign financing program would have to get the state's clean elections law changed to allow for child care expenditures, the commission ruled. Candidates can use privately raised political contributions for child care, the ruling stated.

"We don't have the authority to just automatically change our regulations," said Stephen Penny, a commission member. "It's a long and convoluted and lengthy process."

Caitlin Clarkson Pereira, a Democrat who ran unsuccessfully in the 132nd House District in Fairfield in 2018, vowed to forge ahead with her crusade and said she is not ruling out a court challenge.

"This is not the end of this road," Clarkson Pereira, 33, said immediately after the commission's vote.

The earliest that the legislature would be able to take up the issue would likely be next year because no related bills have been submitted during the current session, which ends in eight weeks and has been dominated by fights over the state budget and electronic highway tolls.

"If they say no, we'll still fight," Clarkson Pereira told her 4-year-old daughter, Parker, while the commission deliberated in a closed-door executive session.

Clarkson Pereira requested the ruling after a commission lawyer informally advised her she could not use public campaign funds to hire a babysitter for her daughter.

It's the part of a national debate whether child care expenses incurred by candidates can be paid for out of political coffers.

A number of prominent women in politics have showed solidarity with Clarkson Pereira, from Hillary Clinton tweeting her support last week to Clarkson Pereira getting phone calls from Liuba Grechen Shirley, the 2018 congressional candidate from Long Island who successfully petitioned the Federal Election Commission to use private contributions for child care expenses.

Massachusetts, West Virginia, Oakland, Calif. and Tucson, Ariz., ban the use of campaign grants for child care, while Maryland and Minnesota allow it.

In New York City, privately raised funds used toward qualifying for public campaign financing can be used for child care, but matching public grants cannot.

Clarkson Pereira received $28,150 from the voluntary Citizens' Election Program for her challenge of Republican state Rep. Brenda Kupchick. To qualify, she had to raise $5,100 from individual contributors in increments of no more than $250.

Neil Vigdor can be reached at nvigdor@courant.com

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