I notice that while I was on vacation, Republican City Councilwoman Liz Brown proposed an ordinance that would prohibit companies from contributing to the mayor's campaign while they are being paid by the city or participating in a city bidding process. An Indiana Election Division official says the ordinance would be illegal because rules on campaign finance are governed by state law. Now she's submitted an altered proposal:
The proposal by Brown, R-at large, would prohibit contractors doing business with the city from making political contributions to all city elected officials and any candidates running for a city office.
The previous version dealt only with incumbent mayors.
I suppose that's a little "fairer" than the original proposal, but it's still a bad idea, whether or not state law might trump it. There is the same First Amendment concern here that exists for the campaign finance "reform" adopted by the federal government. Contributing to election campaigns is a vital part of participation in the democratic process, and we should be very skeptical when the amounts and who gives them should not be controlled by elected officials who have a vested interest.
The right approach is full disclosure of all contributions so that voters know who is beholden to whom and can vote accordingly. The disclosure rules have to be absolutely clear and simple and applied to all candidates all the time, and the penalties for noncompliance have to be severe enough to be taken seriously.
