Now, common sense would say that campaign limits are good because it would keep one person from "buying" a potential City Councilmember.
However, since I don't have too much common sense, I must say that this was a good thing which other Cities should follow.
And here is why.
Newport Beach has a $500 per person Contribution Limit.
In the 2006 election, two victorious Councilmembers raised (and loaned themselves) over $100k with those limits.
Every person who contributes more than $100 to a candidate gets their name placed on a report for all to see.
There are no secrets there.
However, two side effects of these contribution limits arose.
1. The biggest side effect of Contribution Limits - Independent Expenditure Committees. There were many Independent Expenditure Committees, who had NO contribution limits, who anonymously spent lots of money in Newport Beach in 2006. The contributors to those Committees are not on the City of Newport's site, instead you'd have to dig a little bit deeper (onto the State of California's site) to see who contributed to those causes. In many cases, one wealthy person (or her companies) funded the IE's hit pieces. Also in many cases, these Independent Expenditure Committees were controlled by one person (who just happened to be the Political Consultant for many present and past Councilmembers). The Contribution Limits for individual candidates were circumvented, having the Contributors be able to fund hit pieces sent out by Randomly Named Neighborhood groups.
2. Only the wealthy can effectively compete. In addition to raising tens of thousands of dollars, a wealthy candidate can pour in tens of thousands of their own money into their race, making more signs and sending out more mailers. Would a wealthy candidate still do that if there were no contribution limits? Maybe. However a popular candidate might not have to do that if they could have people donate whatever they want.
The simple fact is that its become very expensive to run in Newport Beach, for both the City Council and for the School Board.
To even the playing field, you would need to get rid of Contribution limits.
Both candidates would raise the same amount of money, but then the wealthy candidate pours in tens of thousands of their own dollars and un-levels the field.
Wealthy contributors could then contribute whatever they wanted to for the candidate they like.
The difference? I could click here to find out who contributed it.
To find the contributor to an Independent Expenditure Committee takes much more effort.
Could one person "buy" a candidate? Sure.
But at the first hint of impropriety, and the Councilmember goes to jail.
Very unlikely.
You get rid of the Contribution Limits and you get rid of the Independent Expenditure Committees and make it a race between candidates ONLY.
As it should be.
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