“Severing Money from Politics”
by Robin Tokmakian, LWVMP CFR chair
Campaign Finance Reform (CFR) committee began meeting January 2005 to study approaches to reduce the influence of money in politics. CFR has long been an important issue for the League and the issue is a huge problem nationwide as the corruption of public officials makes news regularly.
The November 2004 Board of Supervisors elections provided impetus for the committee because of the enormous amount of money contributed by those with financial business before the County - more than one million dollars.
From the LWV Campaign Finance Reform Action Kit 1997: “Passage of campaign finance reform legislation is essential to the League’s ability to achieve other public policy goals. It is the key to leveling the playing field between special interest groups and public interest groups such as the League on almost every social policy, environmental, governmental and international issue. CFR can and will have a direct impact on all the issues we care about!”
The CFR committee is an action committee, using longtime League positions on CFR to base its advocacy on. Locally, in 1997, the LWVMP adopted a position (and updated in 2005) that suggested guidelines for a model ordinance developed by the Center for Governmental Studies. The California State League has a position on CFR that advocates for “full disclosure of campaign contributions with effective monitoring and enforcement” and supports “realistic limits on contributions and expenditures”. It also supports “some public financing to candidates for state office through...direct government appropriations.” At the national level, the League’s CFR position “believes that the methods of financing political campaigns should ensure the public’s right to know, combat corruption and undue influence, enable candidates to compete more equitably for public office and allow maximum citizen participation in the political process.”
The committee finished early in 2006, and the board approved, a model ordinance (the text can be found at http://lwvmp.org). The model ordinance contains the following:
- Campaign donation limitations
- dollar amount
- restriction to individuals
- Enhancement of disclosure rules beyond the state mandated requirements
- Recusal requirements
- Enforcement and Oversight committee requirements
The City of Pacific Grove was the first jurisdiction to address the need for such an ordinance. The League was active in the writing of the language of the ordinance and the efforts to get it supported and passed by the City. The Pacific Grove ordinance places limits on campaign donations and also requires elected officials to remove themselves from a vote if they received a donation above $250 from someone who might benefit from their action. It is the first jurisdiction in Monterey County to have such an ordinance in place.
