FightforRoom215

City, Nutter v. Fattah, Dougherty

A Commonwealth Court panel of judges will hear arguments tomorrow as it attempts to reconcile two legal decisions handed down last year by city judges that call into question the campaign finance contribution limits the candidates have been forced to follow.

The court will consider dueling legal decisions from Common Pleas Court judges Gary Glazer (for) and Allan L. Tereshko (against). Lawyers for the city and Michael Nutter (for) and lawyers for Chaka Fattah and John Dougherty (against) are expected to argue their sides.

Tereshko's decision came from a case where Nutter took Dougherty to court to force him to comply with contribution limits. Tereshko wound up ruling that the limits were unconstitutional.

Dougherty and Fattah both claimed in court that the city's contribution limits were pre-empted by the state's election code, which doesn't include any caps.

City Solicitor Romulo Diaz said that there is no pre-emption to contribution limits in the state election code and that the state's ethics code "expressly authorized municipal governments to amplify" the code.

Said Dougherty spokesman Frank Keel:

"John continues to pursue this issue because he firmly believes that the only way to ensure a fair and level playing field is to have statewide campaign finance reform."

Free TV

With his past efforts at trying to change campaign finance measures put on hold, Councilman Jim Kenney today got his Council colleagues to sign onto a resolution calling on local TV networks to give free airtime to candidates.

Said Kenney:

"Tom Knox jumped from 1 to 22 points in a matter of a couple of months, we’ve seen Bob Brady jump from 8 to 18 points in a matter of two weeks and since the other candidates cannot compete with Mr. Knox, I’m asking the broadcast stations to offer free air time in the public interest so that other people can define themselves and get their message and vision to the city, like Tom Knox is doing unrestrained."

Considering the cash cow that political advertisements are for the networks during election season - especially a loaded election season like this one - it's unlikely they'll comply. The only  rules the stations have to follow re: low-cost ads are following FCC guidelines to offer reduced price ads 45 days out from the primary. Ads are then sold at the lowest cost for an ad for a particular show.

Taking it to the max

The Daily News' Bob Warner reports today that Bob Brady may have found a loophole to get more than the maximum $20,000 donation allowed from political action groups.

Brady received 20 large from three different unions - the Metropolitan Regional Council of Philadelphia, Plumbers Union Local 690 and the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades' Washington office. He also picked up $20,000 from Unity 2001, which is run by a local ward leader and Brady staffer and...

Almost all of the money that Unity 2001 collected in 2006 - $52,500 out of $56,000 - came from the same three unions that made maximum direct contributions to Brady's campaign.

Brady's campaign says the congressman is doing nothing wrong:

"I don't see this PAC doing anything it hasn't done in the past," [spokesperson Andi] Pringle said. "If organized labor wanted to circumvent campaign-finance reform, the last place they would do it is with a PAC in the 34th Ward."

In other news, the Committee of Seventy is calling on the city's new Board of Ethics to investigate Chaka Fattah's spending. Fattah used money from his mayoral exploratory committee to pay for expenses for his actual mayoral committee.

Kenney backs down

Councilman Jim Kenney heard the footsteps and backed down from his plans to change the city's campaign contribution limits. No elimination, no Knox Amendment, no hellish decision from Bill Greenlee whether to pick between his base in the Democratic machine, or the city's progressives.

The four candidates without eight figures to throw around will have to stick to the donation limits of $5,000 from an individual and $20,000 from a group.

Kenney said he'll consider whether to return to the question of altering the limits later in the year, post primary day.  By that time, we'll know if Tom Knox really can buy his way into City Hall, as Kenney fears.

Kenney, by the way, tells Inquirer columnist Monica Yant Kinney that he's having trouble raising money for his re-election campaign for an at-large Council seat. Is a request for a loan from Tom Knox  out of the question?

More:
Metro Philadelphia
The Next Mayor
Inquirer

Greenlee in the spotlight

As Metro reported Tuesday, Councilman Bill Greenlee faces the steepest challenge of retaining his seat in November's election of the five at-large incumbents. He also may hold the deciding vote on Councilman Jim Kenney's campaign finance reform measures to be debated Wednesday by Council's law and government committee. (1:30 p.m.)

The two issues could be very intertwined, as Greenlee weighs the support of the Democratic machine - he's a ward leader chosen by other ward leaders to fill the late David Cohen's term last year - and the progressive voters that consider him one of their own. 

Of the five at-large Councilmembers up against a large slate of candidates in May, Greenlee's position is the most precarious, according to a poll conducted by fellow incumbent Juan Ramos.

Where he puts his vote on the campaign finance measure - seen by many political watchers as a help to Kenney ally Bob Brady - could mean a lot for Greenlee's chances in May. Vote to raise contribution limits, and he loses the support of progressives. Vote against raising contribution limits, and he angers the party leaders.

"He's stuck if he votes for it and stuck if he doesn't," said one local political watcher

Greenlee says he's still weighing the issues and looks forward to hearing all sides at Wednesday's hearing. He said he's "more in line" with Kenney's "Knox Amendment" bill than Kenney's attempt at eliminating caps.

The Knox Amendment

Councilman Jim Kenney caused a stink with his plans unveiled last week to eliminate campaign contribution caps after Tom Knox's big bump in the polls, purchased with $2 million of self-financed TV ads.

Not so fast, came the cry from other candidates (not named Brady or Fattah) and civic groups across the city.

As what was expected to be a "compromise," Kenney announced plans for a different amendment. This one, would add multipliers, much like McCain-Feingold, he said. He wouldn't give them up earlier this week but his bill introduced in Council Thursday would allow for steep multipliers, indeed.

Kenney’s legislation would double limits every time a candidate spent another $2 million of their own money on their campaign.  Wealthy businessman Tom Knox has already spent $2 million on TV ads and has said he would be willing to spend $10 to $15 million of his own money to get elected.
Under Kenney’s legislation, if Knox spent $10 million, limits would go up to $160,000 from an individual and $640,000 from a group. Individuals are now allowed to donate $5,000 and groups $10,000.

Call it the Knox Amendment. Every time a candidate (read: Knox) dropped another $2 million on campaign items, the contributions double again. And, with Knox's plans to invest as much as $15 million of his own scratch to climb to the top of City Hall and remove that "For Sale" sign there would pretty much no longer be a need for limits.

For the math challenged:

• If Knox donates
• 5 million, contribution limits go from $5,000 for an individual and $10,000 from a PAC to $20,000 and $80,000.
• $6 Knox millions = $20k from an individual and $160k from a group or PAC
• $8 Knox millions = $40k individual, $320k group
• $10 Knox millions = $80k individual, $640k group
• $12 Knox millions = $160k individual, $1.3 million group
• $14 Knox millions = $640 k invidiual, $2.6 million group

The largest donation so far in this campaign was the $200,000 given to Chaka Fattah from philanthropist Gerry Lenfest. That was before Fattah officially declared, during "The Great Candidate Debate" It's believed to the largest donation in

Philadelphia

history.

Michael Nutter came out swinging Wednesday...

"Only in

Philadelphia

could a less bad law be considered better. With city indictments coming down like raindrops and one former Councilman in jail, our elected officials should be trying to stop any effort to repeal the contribution limits."

...and the Committee of 70 chimed in with another round against Kenney...

“The new ordinance makes a total mockery of campaign finance reform,” said Zack Stalberg, head of the Committee of Seventy. “It is staggering to believe that Council would even consider changing the rules of the game in the middle of the mayoral primary. Will there be a new campaign finance law introduced next week, and the week after that? At what point does Council say ‘enough is enough’?”

Metro Philadelphia