An Important Local Campaign Finance Decision in San Diego
It's only been six weeks since <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/campaign-finance-suit-san-diego" target="”_blank”">I wrote</a> 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 <a href="http://electionlawblog.org/archives/thalheimer-pi.pdf" target="”_blank”">an
important split decision</a> on the plaintiffs' motion for preliminary
injunction.<br>
<br>
It's a complex 27-page decision, so I'm just going to quote (with a bit
of editing) from Rick Hasen's <a href="http://electionlawblog.org/archives/015297.html" target="”_blank”">Election Law
Blog</a>, while noting that Hasen was co-counsel to San Diego in the
case.<br>
<ul>
[T]he court upheld most of the challenged laws:<br>
a. the $500 limit on individual contributions to candidates<br>
b. the ban on
contributions to candidates by non-human entitles (aside from political
parties),
including corporations and labor unions<br>
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<br>
<br>
The court struck down limits on contributions to independent
expenditure committees, relying heavily on dicta in <i>Citizens United</i>
(I think the first court to do so).<br>
<br>
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 <i>Randall v. Sorrell</i> 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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
This is just a ruling on the preliminary injunction. The court could
also change its mind on these issues in any final judgment.<br>
</ul>
See my <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/escalation-ethics-war-san-diego" target="”_blank”">recent
blog post</a> on contending op-ed pieces in San Diego on the city's
campaign finance laws.<br>
<br>
Robert Wechsler<br>
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics<br>
<br>
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