Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and state Democrats appear to have successfully navigated an election law loophole that allowed them to inject money into the 2014 campaign using donations prohibited under Connecticut law.

So no one will be indicted. Congratulations.

However, the lack of criminal prosecution won’t eliminate the stench attached to the sordid campaign tactics. It remains to be seen how lasting and severe is the damage inflicted on Connecticut’s Citizens’ Election Program, the law intended to assure clean elections untainted by special-interest contributions.

Word that the investigation had closed came this past week from David S. Golub, who represented the Connecticut Democratic State Central Committee. Golub said the assistant U.S. attorneys conducting the probe informed him it had concluded without any indictments. The U.S. Department of Justice had no comment, which is its policy in such matters.

Federal election laws are infamously lax and easy to circumnavigate, making prosecution of all but the most flagrant violations difficult. A better case could be made for violations of state law, but a settlement curtailed that investigation.

Back in 2014 Malloy, seeking a second term despite approval ratings south of 50 percent, was in a tough rematch with Republican Tom Foley, the businessman he narrowly defeated in 2010. By attracting many small donations from citizens, both men qualified for $6.5 million in state funding for their campaigns.

The aim of giving politicians all that public money is to keep business, labor and other special interest money out of the process, leaving those elected beholden only to the citizenry, not the deep pockets who paid to get them elected. When candidates accept the public money, they swear not to take outside donations.

A Democratic legislature created the Citizens’ Election Program after the pay-to-play scandal that drove Republican Gov. John G. Rowland from office and into federal prison for one year. (Rowland is back in prison for a subsequent election law violation). A Republican governor, M. Jodi Rell, signed the law.

But in 2014 the Democrats got creative, seeking donations under federal campaign laws that were prohibited by Connecticut law and Malloy’s participation in the CEP. Technically, these federal donations are only for use in federal elections, meaning for U.S. Senate and Congress. Parties can also, however, use that money to get out the vote, providing the loophole the Democrats exploited.

Malloy also had another advantage: the Democratic Governors Association, which he chairs.

The Connecticut Post reports that the federal investigation focused on the use of about $1 million that the Democratic State Central Committee used from the federal account to supplement the $6.5 million Malloy received through the state’s public-financing program. Included in that $1 million were donations from contractors doing business with Connecticut, expressly prohibited under state law, but not federal rules. Democrats used that money to pay for fliers promoting Malloy’s re-election. The party characterized them as get-out-the-vote initiatives under the loose federal rules.

Hearst Connecticut Media has reported that, additionally, a dozen state contractors provided about $1 million to the Democratic Governors Association, which in turn funneled $3.9 million to a Super PAC that supported Malloy’s campaign.

In other words, the governor took the public money and got the benefit of special-interest money as well.

As for potential violations of the state law, Democrats and the State Elections Enforcement Commission last year reached a $325,000 settlement. In addition to the payment, Democrats agreed to set up a “compliance account” intended to prevent future directing of contributions from a federal account into state races.

The settlement is only binding on the Democrats, but the expectation is that Republicans would be unlikely to circumvent its intent for fear of the political backlash. We’d like to think Connecticut Republicans will continue to play it straight because that’s the right thing to do.

Will new tricks emerge in 2018? Who knows? But if the legislature is not willing to tighten state laws to keep special-interest money out of the process, there is no point in continuing public financing for gubernatorial races. That would be an unfortunate result. The intent of the clean elections law is a good one. If it falls apart, the Democratic chicanery will be to blame, a lack of indictments notwithstanding.