HomeMy WebLinkAbout10-29-13 City Clerk Anthony Mejia1
Mejia, Anthony
From:Mejia, Anthony
Sent:Tuesday, October 29, 2013 8:44 AM
To:Mejia, Anthony
Subject:FW: Contribution limit article
Informational:
Election Campaign Review Committee members you may find the below article of interest.
Bcc: Election Campaign Review Committee Members Email Group
Anthony J. Mejia | City Clerk
City of San Luis Obispo
990 Palm Street
San Luis Obispo, CA 93401
tel | 805.781.7102
From: Dietrick, Christine
Sent: Monday, October 28, 2013 4:31 PM
To: Mejia, Anthony
Subject: Contribution limit article
This might be of interest to the campaign regulations committee, regarding a recent New York court’s action on
campaign committee contribution limits. Thanks!
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/25/nyregion/group‐supporting‐lhota‐can‐accept‐unlimited‐donations‐court‐
says.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20131025&adxnnlx=1382983380‐
EY4D09EgUc%204cLtm5Tc7DA&
Best,
Christine
J. Christine Dietrick
City Attorney
City of San Luis Obispo
805-781-7140
The information contained in this e‐mail message is intended only for the CONFIDENTIAL use of the designated
addressee named above. The information transmitted is subject to the attorney‐client privilege and/or represents
confidential attorney work product. Recipients should not file copies of this email with publicly accessible records. If
you are not the designated addressee named above or the authorized agent responsible for delivering it to the
designated addressee, you received this document through inadvertent error and any further review, dissemination,
distribution or copying of this communication by you or anyone else is strictly prohibited. IF YOU RECEIVED THIS
COMMUNICATION IN ERROR, PLEASE NOTIFY US IMMEDIATELY BY TELEPHONING THE SENDER NAMED ABOVE AT
(805) 781‐7140. Thank you.
October 24, 2013
Court Lifts Limit on Contributing to
Pro-Lhota PAC
By THOMAS KAPLAN
It looks as though the “super PAC” era is coming to New York.
A federal appeals court on Thursday ruled that a conservative group supporting Joseph J.
Lhota, the Republican nominee for mayor of New York City, can immediately begin
accepting contributions of any size because New York State’s limit on donations to
independent political committees is probably unconstitutional.
The ruling, 12 days before the mayoral election, is not likely to change the dynamics of the
race, given the wide lead of the Democratic candidate, Bill de Blasio, and a presumed
reluctance by many potential big donors to donate to an underdog candidate this late in the
game.
But an end to limits on contributions to independent political groups could have a much
bigger impact next year, when voters will decide whether to re-elect Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo,
a Democrat, and will determine which party controls the State Senate —a long-running
battle in which independent spending could make a significant difference.
“This could usher in an era where super PACs call the shots in campaigns all over the state,
not just in the city,” said David Donnelly, the executive director of the Public Campaign
Action Fund, which advocates public financing of elections.
Mr. Donnelly called the lawsuit challenging the limit on contributions to independent
committees “part of a concerted effort around the country to shred any campaign finance
laws that are still left.” Similar laws have been struck down in other states, after the Supreme
Court’s landmark campaign finance decision in the Citizens United case.
State law currently limits individual contributions to independent-expenditure committees
to $150,000 per year. The group that challenged that limit said that it wanted to help elect
conservative candidates locally, and was trying to protect its First Amendment rights. The
group, New York Progress and Protection PAC, said that an Alabama businessman, Shaun
McCutcheon, had pledged to contribute at least $200,000 to the group, and that other
donors were likely to make similar donations.
Page 1of 4Court Lifts Limit on Contributing to Pro-Lhota PAC -NYTimes.com
11/20/2013http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/25/nyregion/group-supporting-lhota-can-accept-unlimit...
“Even though time is quite short, they’ll make as vigorous an effort as possible in the
remaining time to raise and spend money for speech in support of Lhota,” said Michael A.
Carvin, a lawyer for New York Progress and Protection PAC.
Mr. McCutcheon, who is also at the heart of a Supreme Court case challenging caps on
individuals’ overall contributions to candidates and parties, does not appear to have given
money to candidates in New York over the last decade, according to campaign finance
records. But, in a statement issued on Thursday, he said, “I am very pleased that another
court has decided to rule in favor of free speech.”
New York’s campaign fund-raising laws are already much less restrictive than in many other
states. State-level contribution limits are unusually high, loopholes are ample and
regulations are rarely enforced. Government watchdogs have fought for years to change the
rules, but lawmakers in Albany have shown little interest.
Wealthy individuals seeking to donate large sums to New York politicians also already have
several techniques for sidestepping contribution limits. For example, Michael R. Bloomberg,
the billionaire mayor of New York City, has given millions of dollars to Republicans in the
State Senate by directing his contributions to a so-called party housekeeping account, which
can accept unlimited donations. And Leonard Litwin, a real estate developer, has legally
given hundreds of thousands of dollars to Mr. Cuomo by funneling the contributions
through limited liability companies.
“At the state level, it’s tough to imagine making things worse,” said Bill Mahoney, an expert
on campaign fund-raising at the New York Public Interest Research Group.
In New York City, an independent political committee has already played a key role in this
year’s mayoral campaign, giving Mr. de Blasio an advantage by financing a series of ads
sharply critical of the Democratic primary race’s onetime front-runner, Christine C. Quinn,
the City Council speaker, who then lost. There are now at least two independent committees
—including the New York Progress and Protection PAC —supporting Mr. Lhota, a former
chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and at least three backing Mr. de
Blasio, the city’s public advocate.
Mr. de Blasio has generally had a financial advantage over Mr. Lhota. From Sept. 17 to 30,
the last period for which campaign fund-raising data was available, Mr. de Blasio collected
about $650,000, while Mr. Lhota raised about $280,000. On Monday, Mr. de Blasio held a
particularly pricey fund-raiser, headlined by Hillary Rodham Clinton, at which donors who
promised to raise at least $25,000 were invited to a private reception.
Page 2of 4Court Lifts Limit on Contributing to Pro-Lhota PAC -NYTimes.com
11/20/2013http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/25/nyregion/group-supporting-lhota-can-accept-unlimit...
The de Blasio campaign, which has repeatedly sought to link Mr. Lhota to Republican figures
thought to be unpopular in New York, on Thursday released a Web video and a statement
pressing that attack. “Today’s decision will empower the right-wing billionaires, like the
Koch brothers, and Tea Party groups who support Joe Lhota to drown out the voices of New
Yorkers,” said Lis Smith, a spokeswoman for the de Blasio campaign.
Mr. Lhota declined to comment on the ruling, but his campaign released a lengthy
memorandum detailing ways in which Mr. de Blasio has benefited from independent
political committees.
The ruling, by a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second
Circuit, ordered a preliminary injunction that allows the New York Progress and Protection
PAC to collect donations of any size. “Every sum that a donor is forbidden to contribute to
N.Y.P.P.P. because of this statute reduces constitutionally protected political speech,” the
court held in a decision written by Judge Dennis G. Jacobs and joined by Judges Raymond J.
Lohier Jr. and John G. Koeltl.
The ruling reversed a decision issued last week by Judge Paul A. Crotty of Federal District
Court in Manhattan, who said issuing an injunction this close to the Nov. 5 election would be
too disruptive.
The appellate court ruling applies only to the pro-Lhota committee; the litigation over
whether the state’s limit is constitutional and will apply in future campaigns will continue.
But the appellate court said the challenge to the law had a “substantial likelihood of success,”
noting that many other federal courts had struck down similar laws.
“Few contested legal questions are answered so consistently by so many courts and judges,”
Judge Jacobs wrote.
The New York attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, a Democrat, had defended the law in
court, and he said last week that it was “unquestionably constitutional.” A spokesman for
Mr. Schneiderman, Damien LaVera, said on Thursday that the attorney general was “deeply
disappointed with this decision.”
And Lawrence D. Norden, the deputy director of the Democracy Program of the Brennan
Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, which seeks to curb the influence of
money in politics, said, “If this decision holds, there should be real concern that what we’re
going to end up with in New York State is what we have on the federal level, which is
candidates being sponsored like racehorses by very wealthy individuals.”
Page 3of 4Court Lifts Limit on Contributing to Pro-Lhota PAC -NYTimes.com
11/20/2013http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/25/nyregion/group-supporting-lhota-can-accept-unlimit...
But Terence J. Pell, the president of the Center for Individual Rights, which was co-counsel
for New York Progress and Protection PAC, called the ruling “a victory for the citizens of
New York.”
“With this decision, New York City voters will now get a more democratic mayoral race, one
with an even financial playing field,” Mr. Pell said. “This will result in a campaign where
ideas speak rather than money.”
Page 4of 4Court Lifts Limit on Contributing to Pro-Lhota PAC -NYTimes.com
11/20/2013http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/25/nyregion/group-supporting-lhota-can-accept-unlimit...