A City Council committee voted 3-2 along party lines May 15 to limit political party contributions to $20,000 for citywide offices such as mayor and city ordinance and $10,000 to councilmember district elections.
This was forwarded to the full City Council for consideration which means Democrats will outnumber Republicans following the election of a Democratic councilmember in District Four.
There is now no limit to what political parties can contribute during elections. In 2012 the Republican Party gave its mayoral candidate Carl DeMaio $829,000, which included a $65,000 donation from U/T San Diego publisher Doug Manchester, according to the newspaper.
The Democratic Party gave Bob Filner nearly $237,500, according to material received by the committee. Currently, individuals can only contribute $500 per candidate, but they can give larger amounts if donated to a political party which can donate to any candidates.
Councilmember Kevin Faulconer made a motion to limit political contributions to $3,000 for Council races and $12,000 for citywide races, but only he and fellow Republican Mark Kersey voted for it and it was defeated in a 2-3 vote.
The Democrats on the Rules and Economic Development Committee said they thought those amounts were too low, and they passed a measure to allow for party contributions at $20,000 for citywide races and $10,000 for Council district elections.
“I think $10,000 and $20,000 is a reasonable limit and I do believe we do need to limit these contributions,” said 7th District Councilmember Marti Emerald.
Emerald made the motion to increase the limits and it was seconded by Councilmember Sherri Lightner. Councilmember David Alvarez also voted for it in a straight party line with the three Democrats in favor and the two Republicans opposed.
Faulconer said he would only vote for the motion if it included a recommendation by the Ethics Commission for a higher amount of donations. Emerald didn’t want to change her motion.
“There may or may not be a magic number. I don’t pretend to know what that magic number is, but I do support and have always supported campaign contribution limits,” said Faulconer.
The City previously had limits on what political parties can donate to elections, but they were struck down by a federal judge in 2010 as too low and unconstitutional. So when the 2012 election came along, there were no limits to political parties’ contributions and people like Manchester were free to donate to the Republican Party and thus give donations to DeMaio.
“There is no way to avoid the appearance of corruption when large, large amounts of money flood into our campaigns,” said Will Moore, general counsel to the local Democratic Party, to the committee.
“We’ve been warned we’re going to be sued if its $3,000 and $12,000. Maybe some people want to go down that path so that we get sued so that there are no limits,” said Alvarez.
“We want folks to be able to tell who is giving money to the various candidates when they run for office … and to have it be as transparent a process as possible,” said Lightner.
