Interesting Campaign Contribution Limit Article

With the Newport Beach City Council 2008 elections a year away, and the impeding campaigning a few months from starting, the issue of Campaign Contribution Limits will no doubt be raised. Especially since two of the 2006 combatants raised (including loans), and spent, over $100 grand EACH for a City Council seat.

At a $500 contribution limit per contributor, getting $100k (or even $70k plus a $30k loan) is pretty impressive

Back in January, Councilwoman Gardner brought this issue up a discussion point.

In the OCBlog.net, this issue of Campaign Contribution Limits is excellently brought up again in a Blog Entry called, "Campaign Contribution Limits – Good Intentions – Unintended Consequences."

Although it's focus is in the County of Orange races, the unintended consequences sections can certainly be related to Newport Beach:

Unintended Consequence #1 - One of the biggest is that the campaign limits may only help wealthy candidates run for election, as there are no limits on how much a candidate can spend on their own campaign.

That is especially true in Newport Beach, where one Council candidate put in more money into his campaign than many other candidates raised.

Unintended Consequence #2 - Independent Expenditure Committees or General Purpose Campaign Committees.

Again, that happened pretty extensively as more money was spent by these two types of committees (including the Police and Fire Unions) than many candidates spent on their own.

Unintended Consequence #3 - ANY committee be it candidate controlled or otherwise (IE or GP), to notify all candidates of any mail 24 hours in advance with a copy of the piece within the last 16 days before the election.

In talking with the City Clerk during the last 2006 election, while it is required to provide to her a copy a any mail piece during this period, no one really does it, nor is it enforceable, especially with the Independent Expenditure Committees, where finding out the responsible party is like looking for a needle in a stack of needles.

Unintended Consequence #4 - Election attorneys, consultants and other campaign jobs. With the laws being what they are and changing all the time…there is certainly enough job security. A candidate for any office today would be foolish not to have a good attorney, treasurer and consultant at hand.

Uber-political consultant Dave Ellis is responsible for 6 out of the 7 current City Councilmembers, as well as countless previous Councilmembers and Mayors. In the past two decades, the Newport Beach City Council races have been run and won with the help of Political Consultants and their cadre of Political helpers.

This has also driven the costs of running a successful campaign through the roof as well.

Whether the 2008 elections will be as expensive as 2006, we'll see.