Nutter asks the questions (The Next Mayor)

Sometimes, in a political campaign, you get a lot of press releases that sound OK, but are actually pointless. So-and-so is promoting jobs by going to a groundbreaking, so-and-so is bravely taking a stand against crime. They sound good, but there's more politicking than policy there.

This was not the case with Michael Nutter today.

The declared candidate made a presentation to the city's new Board of Ethics. He has a set of detailed questions about how candidates should account for the excess money they have collected before they officially declare their candidacy. (Contributions to a candidate in this election are subject to limits of $2,500 from an individual donor and $10,000 from a political committee -- limits that will double on Dec. 16.)

Are escrow accounts needed to segregate the excess money? Should excess money be returned? Do the candidates have to prove they did either?

The board of ethics has said clarifying and doing the hard work of enforcing the city's campaign finance laws -- hey, what's more fun than filings? -- would be its first priority.

It is worth pointing out that Nutter, who had to resign from City Council to run for Mayor, was the first declared candidate. And, while he was in Council, he wrote the legislation that created the Board of Ethics. It is also worth pointing out that he pointed that last fact out, in the first paragraph of his press release.

Comments (1)

Dave

I've been wondering this myself. What's the point of most of the other candidates raising money over the limit if most, if not all, the spending will happen after they declare, at which point the money they raised will technically be illegal?

While I'm at it, what happened to Saidel's money, now that he's out of the race? Will he be giving it all back? Saving it for next time he runs for office? How, if at all, do Philly's rules differ from state rules? Federal rules?

This is the kind of stuff I had never given much thought to until I moved to Philly and started following what was going on in politics. It makes me kind of curious.

Posted by Dave | December 5, 2006 3:31 PM

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