MEMORANDUM OF LAW IN SUPPORT OF PLAINTIFFS' MOTION ...

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state’s 151 Assembly seats. 5In these offices, whether it is for mayor of Hartfordrepresenting 121,578 residents or a single-town Hartford house seat, representingapproximately 21,000 residents – candidates have two paths to the ballot. They cansolicit the town committee or local party caucus endorsement, § 9-390, or they have theopportunity to file petitions with the signatures of 5% of the party’s registered voters inthe district. § 9-405, 9-406. From the view of political activists and candidates inConnecticut, the 5% petitioning requirement is significant enough to keep frivolouscandidates off the ballot, but it is not burdensome for a serious challenger. See, e.g.,Rapoport Decl at 19 (describing his petition campaign to get on the primary ballot tochallenge a Democratic party leader in House District 18 in 1984); Caplan Decl. at 5(describing his work with candidates conducting petition campaigns in the late 1980s). Itis a simple requirement, easily understood by candidates and voters.2. Primary Ballot Access in Multi-Town DistrictsBy stark comparison, candidates seeking ballot status in statewide or multi-townraces face a series of difficult and often insurmountable hurdles just to obtain ballotstatus. The multi-town districts not only include all federal and statewide offices, butalso for instance, a Darien state House district that happens to cross the border to take ina small portion of Norwalk. See Redistricting Report (House District 141). UnderConnecticut law, candidates in these multi-town districts must compete for and win at5 Until re-apportionment following the 2000 census, the Senate had one single-town seatfor 20 years. Until 1980, five of the Senate’s 36 seats were single-town seats. In theAssembly, from 1972-1980, 83 of the 151 districts represented single-towns. From 1982-90, there were 82 single-town districts, from 1992-2000, 72, and, for the next 10 years,beginning with the 2002 election, there will be 77 single-town districts. See McLoughlinDecl. at 6; 2001 Redistricting Maps (available athttp://www.cga.state.ct.us/red/maps.htm).6
least 15% of their convention’s delegates in order to win a place on the primary ballot.Conn. Gen. Stat. §§ 9-400, 9-416. 6But winning those delegates requires any candidatewho is not the clear party favorite to complete a byzantine and burdensome process thatinvolves the wooing of town committee members for several months, running a preprimaryprimary unique to Connecticut (the “delegate primary”), and then campaigningamong the selected delegates before the convention. See, e.g., Campbell Decl. at 7-18;Caplan Decl. at 6, 8-18; Nielsen Decl. at 9-12; Rapoport Decl.at 24. Forincumbents, the process invariably is a cakewalk, but for the candidates who seek tochallenge an incumbent, the hurdles and convoluted requirements are almostinsurmountable. See, e.g., Nielsen Decl. at 7-8; Caplan Decl. at 6; Campbell Decl. at 7-19.a. The town committees and endorsed delegate slatesThe first phase in a campaign for primary ballot access in Connecticut’s multitowndistricts usually begins as early as January of the election year when the membersof the party town committees, such the Greenwich Republican Town Committee or theEast Lyme Democratic Town Committee are chosen. See, e.g., Nielsen Decl. at 7, 9;Caplan Decl. at 9; Campbell Decl. at 7. Any candidate must try to secure the supportof the district’s town committee members because in most towns, the town committeeschoose the endorsed delegate slates for the convention. See, e.g., Rapoport Decl at 3;Caplan Decl. at 10.To win at least some support from the town committees, candidates mustcampaign among the town committee members in the months leading up to the selection6 Each town in the district is apportioned delegates to the convention based on party rule.7
Page 1 and 2: UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURTDISTRIC
Page 4 and 5: TABLE OF AUTHORITIESAnderson v. Cel
Page 6 and 7: a grueling, months-long process tha
Page 8 and 9: single-town state house districts w
Page 12 and 13: of delegates, which takes place, by
Page 14 and 15: outsiders trying to achieve ballot
Page 16 and 17: 14; Byrnes Decl. at 5. In short, i
Page 18 and 19: Decl. at 10-11; Rapoport Decl. at
Page 20 and 21: in multi-town districts, out of a t
Page 22 and 23: for delegate slates, is more burden
Page 24 and 25: Rapoport Decl. at 15. Notably, the
Page 26 and 27: I. THE BALANCE OF HARMS TIPS OVERWH
Page 28 and 29: primary ballot access while multi-t
Page 30 and 31: activities. See Statement of the Fa
Page 32 and 33: Not one state has legally-mandated
Page 34 and 35: McLoughlin Decl. at Exhibit C. But,
Page 36 and 37: 2. Connecticut’s unique and uniqu
Page 38 and 39: In addition, the court’s assessme
Page 40 and 41: In contrast to the court in Tansley
Page 42 and 43: The classification at issue here -
Page 44: e granted.CONCLUSIONFor all the for

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