Campaign Spending Limits
— by Jeffrey Wisniewski — 18 June 2009 — Comments Off
This is something that may have to be brought up again in an even year (when people will care), but the idea of voluntary spending limits for local campaigns is an interesting one indeed. The City Council of San Ramon has just approved such a spending limit (by law, it must be “voluntary”), and based the figure on the number of registered voters in the previous election. The math is simple: $1 per voter.
In Hercules, there were just under 12,500 registered voters in the 2008 general election. If Hercules were to adopt a similar voluntary spending limit at $1 per voter, that would mean $12,500. Councilmember Ed Balico easily won re-election last year, unmistakably helped by blowing away the field by raising “just shy of $14,500” (in 2008 alone).
The latest projections suggest “a Hercules population of 34,900 by 2035,” so the exact figure in any given election year would be a moving target (and likely increase). Over time, the consideration for inflation and increasing the $1 per voter limit may be necessary. However, for a small city like Hercules, such a low cap is probably appropriate and would certainly better represent clean elections and clean government.