Hartford - With outside groups spending nearly $17 million on Connecticut's tight governor's race, state lawmakers are considering what can be done to reduce the influence of third-party money on future state campaigns.

Common Cause of Connecticut has been reviewing the flow of independent expenditures in the days following the election. The accountability-minded group determined $16.75 million was spent just on the race for governor. Tens of thousands of dollars more were also spent on state representative and senate races.

Both Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and Republican Tom Foley qualified for public financing in the 2014 election. Each received a grant of about $6.5 million, after raising $250,000 in contributions of $100 or less, and were required to abide by strict spending limits. Malloy ultimately won the election.

State Rep. Ed Jutila, D-East Lyme, currently the co-chairman of the legislature's Government Administration and Elections committee, said he is open to ideas for reining in the outside spending if he is reappointed as co-chairman. The new legislative session opens on Jan. 7.

"I struggle to come up with a way to combat that directly, because we're kind of stuck with the Citizens United decision," Jutila said, referring to the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court case that essentially prohibited restricting independent political spending by corporations, unions and other groups.

According to its review of the independent expenditures in the governor's race, Common Cause found while the national Republican and Democratic governors associations contributed close to the same amount - more than $5.4 million apiece - to political action committees supporting either Malloy or Foley, Malloy ultimately benefited more from independent expenditures. The review showed about $11.25 million, a figure that includes the Democratic Governors Association's support, was spent either supporting Malloy or opposing Foley.

In contrast, about $5.5 million, a figure that includes the Republican Governors Association's support, was spent either supporting Foley or opposing Malloy.

"The special interest money flowing into the 2014 Connecticut election cycle threatens to undo the enormous good our campaign finance laws have done in recent years," Connecticut Common Cause says on its website.