An Important Local Campaign Finance Decision in San Diego

It's only been six weeks since I wrote about a campaign finance suit in San Diego, filed by the Republican Party of San Diego County, a former City Council candidate, a pro-business group, a union PAC, and a pollster. Yesterday the federal district court handed down an important split decision on the plaintiffs' motion for preliminary injunction.

It's a complex 27-page decision, so I'm just going to quote (with a bit of editing) from Rick Hasen's Election Law Blog, while noting that Hasen was co-counsel to San Diego in the case.

[T]he court upheld most of the challenged laws:
a. the $500 limit on individual contributions to candidates
b. the ban on contributions to candidates by non-human entitles (aside from political parties), including corporations and labor unions
c. the 12-month temporal limitation on contributions to candidates, whereby candidates cannot solicit or accept contributions more than 12 months prior to the primary for the position they are seeking

The court struck down limits on contributions to independent expenditure committees, relying heavily on dicta in Citizens United (I think the first court to do so).

It also held, in what I believe to be a holding of first impression, that political parties have a constitutional right to make contributions to candidates (even in non-partisan elections). The court relied upon dicta from the controlling opinion in Randall v. Sorrell to reach this result. The court stayed this part of its order to give the city a chance to enact reasonable contribution limits applicable to political parties.

Finally, the court held that the ethics commission's interpretation of the 12-month temporal limitation to include a candidate's use of her own funds to support her campaign was unconstitutional.

The question of limits on contributions to independent expenditure committees has been pending for some time in the Ninth Circuit in a case against the city of Long Beach. That decision could come at any time.

This is just a ruling on the preliminary injunction. The court could also change its mind on these issues in any final judgment.

See my recent blog post on contending op-ed pieces in San Diego on the city's campaign finance laws.

Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics

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