Nutter pushes harder against attempts to change campaign finance law (The Next Mayor)

Ooh, check out Michael Nutter on Jim Kenney's attempt to soften his campaign finance bill.

Basically, Nutter says the electorate shouldn't buy a compromise -- and should insist Council stick with the original limits.

"Only in Philadelphia could a less bad law be considered better. With city indictments coming down like raindrops and one former councilman in jail, our elected officials should be trying to stop any effort to repeal the contribution limits."

Read his strongly worded release after the jump...

New Leadership. New Direction. A New Philadelphia.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Melanie Johnson

February 7, 2007 (215) 545-9700

(267) 984-2027 cell

melanie@nutter2007.com

NUTTER ISSUES STATEMENT ON COUNCILMAN KENNEY’S PROPOSED CHANGES TO
CAMPAIGN FINANCE BILL

Philadelphia, February 7, 2007— When Councilman Kenney introduced his bill in City Council last week to revoke the campaign finance limits, outraged citizens protested and condemned this move. In response to the protest, Kenney has announced his intent to amend his bill -- he now wants to substitute a “sliding scale” of donations that exceed the City’s campaign finance limits. However, this latest attempt to amend the campaign limits is just a back-door way to accomplish the same goal.

Only in Philadelphia could a less bad law be considered better. With city indictments coming down like raindrops and one former councilman in jail, our elected officials should be trying to stop any effort to repeal the contribution limits. City Council should stop fiddling with the law while Philadelphia is burning down from corruption and indictments. My good friend Jim Kenney has been a good councilman, but this recent effort is unfair to the public who voted overwhelmingly in 2005 to change the City Charter in response to City Hall’s pay-to-play scandals. The citizens of this city have had enough. I call on all of the mayoral candidates to publicly join me in rejecting this new effort to take our city back into the swamp of pay-to-play.

Our city deserves a clean election. We need to stop changing the rules and instead, we should be conducting a campaign. With barely 95 days left before the election, there is a race to be run and changing course in mid-stream is like changing the rules at half-time because you don’t like how the game is going. We should be talking about the issues and putting our efforts into making sure that we elect a Mayor who will be part of the solution instead of part of the problem. Philadelphia deserves better – let’s demand it.

###

PO Box 58550 • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19102

Phone: (215) 545-9700 • Facsimile: (215) 545-4088

www.NutterForMayor.com

Paid for by Nutter for Mayor, Kahiga A. Tiagha, Esq., Treasurer

Melanie Johnson

Communications

NUTTER FOR MAYOR

(215) 545-9700 office

(215) 545-4088 fax

(267) 984-2027

melanie@nutter2007.com

Comments (5)

jordon:

"Only in Philadelphia could a less bad law be considered better."

haha, it's nice when a politician expresses the public's eye view. i'm liking nutter more each day.

Posted by jordon | February 7, 2007 8:20 PM

Andy Daven:

Oh please, Nutter is being completely self serving. He's running as the "outsider" at the same time he's fighting for his life to stay ward leader of his own ward.

No integrity there.

Posted by Andy Daven | February 8, 2007 3:21 PM

Andy :

Team Campbell-Brady tried to boot Nutter because he is a reformer and outside the machine

Posted by Andy | February 8, 2007 4:00 PM

mike:

actually Dwight Evans offers the most sensible option in this regard which is what Kenney looks like he is moving to; realizing that pulling the repeal bill probably wasn't going to happen, Evans' proposal maintains some control over campaign finances and keeps things in check.

Posted by mike | February 8, 2007 5:40 PM

Dave

The cynic in me is tempted to think that Evans' proposal is a way to break our campaign finance reform and look like a hero in the process.

The truth is that this probably shouldn't be up for debate at all, especially not in the middle of an election. The camapign finance reform law was passed with full knowledge that Knox planned to spend millions on his campaign, so it's obvious that the push to change the rules in the middle of the game is a result of the fact he was initially written off and it now looks like he might win.

A more reasonable solution, IMO, would be to propose public financing of elections... after this election is over.

Posted by Dave | February 9, 2007 11:20 AM

Comments (5)

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