Barring an appeal [UPDATE: Fattah will appeal the decision] and different decision from the Supreme Court, there will be no drastic changes to the city's campaign finance rules before the May 15 primary.
A panel of Commonwealth Court judges ruled today that the city's finance limits ($5,000 from an individual, $20,000 from a PAC) are legal and not preempted by any state laws.
Chaka Fattah challenged the rules in court last month, arguing that the city didn't have the authority to impose its strict rules. Raising money (vitally important in all elections, but especially now that there's a millionaire in Tom Knox self financing his campaign) has become a lot more difficult for the candidates because of the rules.
Michael Nutter and the city argued for the finance limits in court, while Fattah's lawyers argued against them.
Sayeth the court:
Because there is no indication of legislative intent to preempt the field of campaign finance as it relates to campaign contribution limits for local elective office, the Court concludes that the Ordinance is not preempted by state statute.
Lawyers for labor leader John Dougherty also lost their fight to have Nutter removed from the ballot; Dougherty argued that Nutter's suit against him last year officially made him a candidate, before he resigned from Council.
More from Dan at The Next Mayor;and the full decision here.
shame on Fattah for shamelessly pushing this lawsuit. if Chaka had dropped this case months ago, the ethics board and the city could have focused on enforcing the limits instead of defending them. where is the outrage that the frontrunner (ie our likely next mayor) fights so hard to not follow the rules?!?!?
Posted by: WardWatcher | April 02, 2007 at 10:05 PM