Stonington — Republican First Selectman Rob Simmons has rejected a challenge by his Democratic opponent George Crouse that they limit their respective campaign fundraising to $6,000 each.

Crouse, who was defeated by Simmons in 2015, has issued a joint statement along with Democratic Town Committee Chairman Scott Bates and incumbent Democratic Selectwoman Kate Rotella, saying the limit would stop big money and outside groups from influencing the election.

Simmons, who raised $33,195 to Crouse’s $5,125 in 2015, said Monday he would not limit his fundraising.

“I have no intention of setting an arbitrary limit on any aspect of the campaign other than that we’ll follow all the rules and regulations meticulously,” he said. “I think it's unfortunate that Scott and George had to kick off their campaign with this negative attack. We’re not going to do the same thing.”

Crouse, who called Simmons’ rejection of the limit “too bad,” said he would adhere to the $6,000 cap.

“He’s going to have more signs and bigger signs than we will,” Crouse quipped.

While neither Crouse nor Bates could point to outside big money groups that influenced Simmons’ campaign in 2015 or could in November, Bates said special interest money and “shadowy groups” are trying to influence the outcome of elections across the country, even down to the local level.

“It’s time to reclaim our democracy from the grip of big money,” Crouse added in his statement. “It’s only fair to let each side have their voice heard. Let’s come together and do the right thing.”

Simmons defeated Crouse 2,893 to 2,093 in the 2015 election. At the time Crouse was serving as first selectman after serving the remaining 11 months of former First Selectman Ed Haberek’s term after Haberek resigned in December 2014.

In the announcement, Bates said that “Stonington Democrats believe big money has no place in local politics.”

“That’s why we are pledging to cap our campaign spending at $6,000 for this election. That works out to about $1 per voter, enough for a hometown campaign,” he said.

“The majority of our Democratic ticket are first-time candidates,” Bates said. We have a lot of young people running because they want to make a difference. We don’t want big money to drive them out of the process. Everyone deserves a fair shot.”

Candidates for lesser positions, however, typically raise little in the way of campaign funds.

Rotella agreed with Bates and Crouse, saying, “Limiting campaign spending seems like the right thing to do at a time like this. Money is tight and the last thing we need is to see big money spent on a local election.”

Simmons said his campaign would operate the same way it did two years ago, and he will file campaign finance reports with the state so everyone can see who donated to his campaign and how he spent their money.

He argued that limiting campaign fundraising doesn’t account for other nonmonetary, outside influence his opponent could use, such as having Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman and other prominent Democrats coming to town to support him or having labor unions offer their endorsements.

"Limiting one aspect of the campaign without limiting others is silly,” he said.

Bates, who is the deputy secretary of the state, said elections should be about candidates “speaking to Rotary clubs and going door to door,” not using big donations to run large numbers of radio ads and flooding residents' mailboxes with campaign materials.

“We want to have fair campaigns not dictated by big money,” he said.

j.wojtas@theday.com