Ethics Reform in Tallahassee, Rejection of Election Overspending by Big Contra Costa Employer

Two big local ethics/election stories come from Contra Costa, CA and Tallahassee, FL.

Ethics Reform Package Features a Different Sort of Public Campaign Financing Program
According to an article this morning on the Tallahassee Democrat website, by a 2-1 margin Tallahassee voters approved a charter amendment that will (1) create a seven-member ethics board with the power to investigate ethics complaints and levy civil penalties, (2) lower the campaign contribution limit from $1,000 to $250, and (3) institute one of the few local public campaign financing programs. (I was consulted about the amendment, and made recommendations for improving it.)

The public campaign financing program is the most unusual part of this ethics reform package. The brain child of Lawrence Lessig, a Harvard law professor and founder of United Republic and Rootstrikers, it provides up to a $25 rebate to Tallahassee citizens who make campaign contributions. The goal is to encourage small contributions which, in conjunction with a low contribution limit, will end any appearance of impropriety with respect to contributions, while allowing candidates to raise sufficient small contributions to get their message out.

There are very few local public campaign financing programs. The two major ones, in New York City and Los Angeles, provide matching funds to candidates, which turn small contributions into much larger ones (I administered a public campaign financing program in New Haven, which provides both matching funds and small grants). The Tallahassee program tries to take the opposite approach. Rather than making small contributions larger, it tries to nudge people into making small contributions by rebating up to $25 of the contributions they give. Since candidates do not get public funds, there is less disclosure and administration required than in other such programs.

The result will be an interesting local tryout for a program Lessig would like to be instituted at the federal level.

Another Huge Independent Expender Is Rejected by Local Voters
Contra Costa's largest employer, Chevron, spent $3 million trying to get into office a group of candidates sympathetic to its oil refinery in town (see my blog post). According to an article on the Contra Costa Times website this morning, Chevron's disproportionate independent spending led voters to select progressives who are critical of the refinery. As in Coralville, IA (where the spending came from the Koch brothers), disproportionate spending by outsiders or, here, a big company have not gone over well in the community.

According to the article, the refinery was not the principal issue in the election. The biggest issues were the city's budget deficit, a proposal to help underwater homeowners out of their mortgages by using the city's power of eminent domain, and "the infamously unruly City Council meetings." So it's hard to know how big a role the Chevron expenditures had. But they certainly didn't get them what they wanted.

Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics

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