No doubt that Michael Nutter has rightfully earned a moniker as "The Ethics Guy."
After all, he wrote the legislation that re-created what is evolving into a vibrant and aggressive city Board of Ethics. He is also responsible, among other things, for the passage of a city law that limits how much money lawyers, architects, engineers and other typically big-donor types can contribute to the candidates of their choice - and still be eligible for no-bid city work.
But in one respect, Nutter, the Democratic mayoral nominee, is getting a wee bit more credit than he deserves.
Repeatedly.
For the record: Nutter is NOT the author of the law that led to Philadelphia's first-ever campaign finance limits.
Typical of the misunderstanding on this is the current issue of Governing magazine, which did a feature story on Nutter:
"Nutter may face trouble from other labor leaders because of a campaign finance law he pushed through the city council. The law restricts the amount that individuals and political action committees can give to any candidate. There’s no reason to assume that Nutter wrote that law to help himself, but in the primary campaign this spring, that is exactly what it did."
Even the Inquirer has gotten it wrong, in an editorial that ran today: "While a councilman, Nutter succeeded in enacting limits for the first time in this year's elections: $5,000 per individual donor, $20,000 per political-action committee in the mayor's race."
The real authors of the bill are City Council members W. Wilson Goode, Jr. and Blondell Reynolds-Brown. Their legislation was approved in 2003. It was subsequently amended in 2005 by Councilman Brian O'Neill, and also Nutter. Nutter sponsored two amendments, one requiring that can candidates file campaign finance reports with the city's newly-created Board of Ethics; and the other making sure the limits in this bill matched those in his no-bid contracts legislation.
To the credit of Goode, who has been more outspoken on campaign finance than Reynolds-Brown, he has taken no offense. "Post-primary, people want to him him a lot of credit," Goode says. Still, he adds: "He has been a partner, but the original law is mine."
One more thing. Here's an excerpt from Philadelphia Magazine's current issue on GOP mayoral nominee Al Taubenberger.
"The new laws were meant to put an end to City Hall’s pay-to-play scandals; now, no corporation that makes a political donation of $10,000 or more is eligible for a city contract worth more than $25,000."
Actually, corporate donations are prohibited in the state of Pennsylvania.
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