Campaign donation caps? Are you serious?
Like jumbo shrimp, campaign contribution limit is a bit of an oxymoron.
Donations given directly to candidates for governor are capped at $27,200 per election, or $54,400 for the primary and general elections. Direct donations to legislative candidates are capped at $4,100 per election. But the open secret is that politicians can easily skirt the limits. A preferred way in the 2014 campaign is to establish committees to raise money for ballot measures. The law permits donors to give unlimited sums to ballot-measure campaigns.
Gov. Jerry Brown has been busily raising millions to promote Proposition1, the $7.5 billion water bond, and Proposition2, which would keep budget spending under control and create a rainy day fund. We’re not saying that Brown is compelling contributions, but almost every major interest doing business in the Capitol is pitching in. The California Teachers Association and the Service Employees International Union have given at least $1 million each. In the $100,000-plus club are Wal-Mart, the Teamsters, building trade unions, Occidental Petroleum, California Hospital Association, Health Net, the California Dental Association and cigarette maker Philip Morris USA. Wal-Mart and unions are at war. Hospitals and health insurance companies provide for people who get sick from cigarettes. They put their differences aside for the good of California – and to ensure their access to the guy in the corner office.
Several state legislators have ballot measure accounts, too, allowing them to skirt contribution limits and link themselves with popular measures. Assemblyman Adam Gray of Merced, has been a key player in getting Proposition 1 on the ballot, and he’s gotten help to promote its passage – $35,000 from the California Independent Petroleum Association and $15,000 from Hilmar Cheese.
Assemblyman Henry T. Perea, D-Fresno, sent out invitations last month for a two-day golf fundraiser at the Ritz Carlton in Half Moon Bay seeking up to $40,000 per donor for Californians for Jobs and a Strong Economy. Several responded, including Hilex, the plastic bag maker battling the state’s plastic grocery bags ban.
Charles and Molly Munger, the children of billionaire Charles Munger Sr., can give $4,100 to individual legislative candidates. But Charles Jr. gave $1.2 million to the California Republican Party, and Molly gave $225,000 to the California and Los Angeles Democratic parties. Parties, in turn, pour hundreds of thousands into individual Assembly and Senate races – presumably including the money being funneled by the Republican Party into Jack Mobley’s challenge to Gray in the 21st district.
Voters thought they were approving campaign finance limits in voting for Proposition 34 in 2000. But politicians wrote the measure. Thank goodness California has strong public disclosure rules; it’s our only real way to keep track.
This story was originally published October 23, 2014 at 5:17 PM with the headline "Campaign donation caps? Are you serious?."