Take the Special Interest Money out of Politics Lower Campaign Donation Limits
By Emerson Drake
A change in Modesto’s TIN CUP Ordinance (Time Is Now To Clean Up Politics) is coming up before the Modesto City Council and we need YOUR help. In 2005 the Modesto Chamber of Commerce asked the council to eliminate the donation limits candidates can receive before they are forced to recuse themselves or step back from discussion and voting on a subject a contributor brought before the council. It other words the Chamber wanted to make it so they could give many thousands of dollars to council members and they could vote for whatever the donor wanted.
Imagine where we would be if that had passed.
Instead the council decided to raise the limits from $1,000 to $3,000 before the cutoff limit was reached. Since then we have divided the city up into six districts lowering the cost of running for office. Unfortunately this has brought forth excessive amounts of special interest money into the campaigns of some.
There is another argument being made by Councilman Lopez in which he suggests to be a good council member you must have the intestinal fortitude to ask for $3,000 or you won’t be worth your salt on the council. But that isn’t how he plays the game. For insistence, he asked the Modesto Fire Fighters Union for $2,962 just under the limit before he would have to recuse himself. He also asked the Modesto Police Officers Union, the MPOA, for $2,750 again just under the donation limit.
The argument is being made you need $6,000 to mail a flyer but in checking Lopez’s campaign reports ( called 460,s) the costs of running a mailer are around $3,000.
After checking the 460’s of the most recent council races I discovered very few donations were made OVER $1,000 in fact, with only a couple of small exceptions (over by a couple of hundred dollars) all of the candidate’s contributions were below the $1,000 threshold EXCEPT for those of special interests. The special interest money came from unions, developers, and Lobbyists.
When comparing the money spent on council races a few other things became apparent. When developer money (especially Salida area developers “surprise surprise”) piled in on a candidate like Dave Cogdill Jr., he spent it like it was on fire. Councilman Cogdill spent $37,747 to get elected, took in at least 15 donations of $1,000 and his opponent spent about $2,000. Talk about a case of ego and overkill.
As a comparison Councilwoman Stephanie Burnside’s spent $23,000 and took six donations of $1,000 or more (two from Burnside Auto Body) and the rest were basically $500 and under. Her opponent Jenny Kenoyer collected one contribution of $500 and the rest were smaller. She raised and spent $13,000 on her campaign showing it can be done.
What the Bee didn’t mention in their recent article is the Modesto Fire Fighter’s Union made two independent campaign expenditures to Councilman Lopez’s campaign. They spent $2,000 in telephone calls in July and they spent another $6,000 in the final weeks of the race for mailers supporting Lopez. Todd Aaronson, Lopez’s major opponent, took in only six donations of $1,000 or more.
In other words Councilman Lopez out spent Aaronson by over 2-1 NOT counting the eight thousand dollars spent by the Fire Fighters Union. If special interests are going to weigh in so heavily we need to know about it. That will be my next attempt to update the TIN CUP Ordinance.
So if you can take a moment, please email this to your friends to make them aware of OUR opportunity to take Modesto out of the hands of the special interest groups be they Union, Lobbyist, OR Developer. Here is the list of Council emails I welcome you to write to:
mayor@modestogov.com jgunderson@modestogov.com dgeer@modestogov.com
dlopez@modestogov.com jmuratore@modestogov.com sburnside@modestogov.com
You can call them at (209)571-5169
Be an Engaged Citizen…!
A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.
Eye On Modesto 
To: Mayor Garrad Marsh, gnyhoff@modestogov.comCc: Brent Sinclair Director of Community and Econ Develop., Cecil Russell, Chris Murphy, Garth – Modesto Bee Stapley, Jeff Jardine Modesto Bee, Jessica Smart Office of City Manager, Joseph Kieta Modesto Bee, Modesto Planning Josh Bridgegroom, Patrick Kelly Modesto Planning Division Manager, Valley Citizen, ModestoBee Judy Sly, kvaline@modbee.com
To Mayor Marsh and City Manager Nyhoff cc. City Planners, Modesto Bee, community activists, StanCOG Date April 4, 2013
1. Re Bee report today of a survey to reach out to some 400 citizens– when your consultants have prepared their questions, will the city share them with the community at large so that we can at least send in emails or letters about our views?
2. Re reference in same article to a hearing on April 18 on the city “strategic plan” update– is a draft of that document available now so that we can look at it in advance? If not, when can such a document be made available (and may I have a copy)?
3. Comment in advance of April 18 hearing, for your consideration– there is a wide range of planning going on now, including the city general plan update, a refinement of the redevelopment plan, the COG regional (countywide) transportation plan (with SB375 mandates), the downtown “hospitality project” (which may or may not produce its own documentation about aspirations for downtown) and the city “strategic plan.” One of the most difficult challenges to public planners is to ensure its various documents have long-term consistency. A strategic plan, if specific enough, may be the best tool to ensure these several documents are mutually supportive–this should/could mean it has to anticipate and guide the development of the other documents. I hope we can review the draft city strategic plan with that in mind.
I request the City reply as soon as possible to questions one and two — on April 18 I will try to make the third point at the hearing, if necessary after review of the draft..
Thank you Bruce E. Jones 209/613-5074 brucejones424@msn.com Past regional planner for SRAPC (now SACOG)
Bruce E. Jones 209/613-5074 brucejones424@msn.com
Date: Thu, 4 Apr 2013 21:33:26 +0000 To: brucejones424@msn.com