Former candidate for lieutenant governor Dean Corren is asking a federal court to block Attorney General Bill Sorrell from pursuing alleged campaign finance violations against him.
In a Monday filing in U.S. District Court in Burlington, Corren is seeking a preliminary injunction to stall Sorrell’s civil suit in state Superior Court and asks for a declaratory judgment that Corren’s campaign did not break the law.
Corren, a Progressive who won the Democratic nomination through a write-in campaign, initially sued Sorrell in federal court after learning that Sorrell was investigating his campaign and planned to take enforcement action against him.
Corren qualified for more than $180,000 in public financing in his unsuccessful bid to oust Republican Lt. Gov. Phil Scott. Accepting public money prohibited Corren from “soliciting” or “facilitating” further contributions to his campaign.
In a civil suit filed in Washington Superior Court, Sorrell alleges that an “email blast” from Democratic Party chairwoman Dottie Deans on Corren’s behalf amounts to an in-kind contribution of $255. In court filings, Sorrell cites emails between Corren’s campaign and the Democratic Party, which Sorrell says show Corren solicited the donation.
Sorrell is seeking up to $72,000 for two violations, accepting and not reporting the in-kind email contribution. The two violations carry penalties of up $10,000 each, and state law requires publicly financed candidates to return public money unspent at the time of a violation, which in Corren’s case could be as much as $52,000, according to the AG’s office.
The Vermont Democratic Party has agreed to pay up to $10,000 for not reporting the email as an in-kind contribution.
In this week’s filing, Corren’s attorney, John Franco, says that Sorrell’s case is arguably “the most significant threat to the electoral process and First Amendment rights that Vermont has seen in decades,” leading Corren to seek protection under the Civil Rights Act.
Corren’s filing argues that the Vermont Democratic Party’s email fits within exemptions to the campaign finance law, and as a result Sorrell’s attempt to penalize Corren is in bad faith.
Specifically, Corren cites a passage from session law, or the regulation as passed before it is written into statute, that states, “Exempting certain activities of political parties from the definition of what constitutes a contribution is important so as not to overly burden collective political activity.”
The statute includes an exemption to the definition of contribution for “the use of a political party’s offices, telephones, computers, and similar equipment,” and according to the filing, the VDP email is covered by that exemption.
Corren is also seeking to have portions of the law struck down as unconstitutional violations of the First Amendment. The filing claims Sorrell’s case will have a “chilling effect” on electoral activity, and asks the court to consider the consequences for the upcoming 2016 election cycle. No candidate will seek public financing if they face “inadvertently or unintentionally triggering a campaign finance tripwire.” Candidates who take public money will not only be “competitively under-resourced,” but also “hermetically sealed” off from others “lest s/he risk personal financial ruin.”
Assistant Attorney General Megan Shafritz said her office has not been served with the filing, so she could not comment on the specifics.
However, the Attorney General’s Office opposes a preliminary injunction or any effort to prevent it from enforcing campaign finance laws. Sorrell has said he will fight to have the case thrown out of federal court and heard in state Superior Court, which he argues has jurisdiction over the enforcement of state law.
The federal court has “first-acquired” jurisdiction over the case, according to Corren’s filing, because it involves state law potentially infringing on First Amendment rights, and “ancillary jurisdiction” because of its authority to supervise and enforce its own rulings on Vermont’s campaign finance laws.
Sorrell has said the state will “vigorously pursue” the case against Corren as part of its commitment to “even-handed enforcement” of campaign finance laws. The Attorney General’s Office will file its response to Corren’s suit in federal court by the end of May, unless the court schedule changes, Shafritz said.
