Challengers Say They Favor Campaign Limits

[UPDATED] Local residents planning to run for City Council told Pasadena Now they believed in campaign limits, but so far they have not instituted personal limits.

Later this month the City Council will consider the state’s campaign finance law which caps individual campaign donations at $4,900. Historically, the city has not had a cap on campaign donations.

The decision will have a major impact on the June election when seats in District 3, 5 and 7 are decided.

Incumbents John Kennedy and Jess Rivas have announced plans to run in 3 and 5 respectively. District 7 Councilmember Andy Wilson will not seek reelection.

“I continue to oppose unlimited contributions because we need to do all we can to keep big money out of politics,” Rivas said. “Though Citizens United limits what we can do, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do anything. The $4,900 limit currently in place eliminates large donations from wealthy individuals, while still allowing candidates to raise what they need to reach voters.”

Newcomers to the local political spectrum also said they favored limits.

“I definitely believe that we need campaign limits in Pasadena because it gives people like me a better chance at raising funds for a grassroots campaign,” said Brandon Donte Lamar, who plans to challenge Kennedy in District 5.

Candidates cannot pull papers to qualify for the election until early next year.

Lamar said he has not set a personal limit on how much he will accept from individual donors, but does not plan to take money from one group.

“Only group at this moment I wouldn’t take money from is the Police Union,” Lamar said.

Lamar will face the uphill battle to unseat an incumbent, something that has only been done once in Pasadena politics since 1987, when Bill Paparian upset former Mayor Jo Heckman for her seat on the then-Board of City Directors, when her reelection was considered to be a safe bet.

The only other person to unseat an incumbent was then-Councilmember Victor Gordo, who challenged Terry Tornek for the mayor’s race. Gordo outraised Tornek.

Several residents claimed that campaign limits would remove corruption from local politics, although so far no local council members have been formally accused of corruption.

“I’ve been really excited to see so much public engagement around this issue,” said Jason Lyon who is running in District 7.

“I strongly support campaign contribution limits. I think we should take this opportunity to have a broader public conversation about other good government reforms, including local reporting of independent expenditures, a simpler public interface for searching campaign contributions, and term limits.”

Term limits would require charter reform by the voters.

Because he sits on the city’s planning commission, Lyon already cannot accept contributions from development projects he has voted on.

The matter of campaign finance limits came before the Legislative Policy Committee late last month. During that meeting, Gordo and fellow Councilmember Steve Madison also expressed concerns over independent expenditures.

Councilmember Gene Masuda also appeared concerned.

An independent expenditure supports the election or defeat of a clearly identified candidate, but is not made in coordination with any candidate or campaign.

The money can be used for ads, robocalls, mailers, yard signs and other communications giving a candidate wide visibility.

To make matters worse, independent expenditures are harder to track than campaign contributions.

According to Gordo, a hard to track $35,000 Independent Expenditure was filed and used against him by the California Apartment Association Housing Solutions Committee.

During a mayoral forum, former Mayor Tornek said he did meet with the group, but said he wasn’t aware of the expenditure until Gordo asked him about it.

Independent expenditures are designed to be independent from the candidate’s campaign and can be made without the campaign’s knowledge.

During the last election, Masuda said he was not aware of an independent expenditure filed by the Pasadena Police Officers Association which supported his campaign.

“Those will carry more weight,” Madison said.