City Council Considers Campaign Contribution Limits

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published October 6, 2008 at 2:00 AM PDT

This story was published more than 16 years ago.

San Diego city council will vote today on whether to raise campaign contribution limits for candidates in city elections, starting next year. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

San Diego city council will vote today on whether to raise campaign contribution limits for candidates in city elections, starting next year. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

Campaign contribution limits for San Diego city races have remained the same since the 1970s. They are $270 dollars per contributor for city council seats, and $320 for the mayor and city attorney.

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San Diego Ethics Commission Executive Director, Stacey Fullhorst, says the proposal is to increase the limit for city council, mayor and city attorney to a thousand dollars.

She says that’ll help change the kind of candidate who has a chance of winning.

Fullhorst: That is certainly one of the goals of the proposal that by increasing limits there are grassroots type candidates who will be able to raise more money and be able to speak with a louder voice when they are trying to communicate with voters and challenge an elected official

Fullhorst says along with the higher contribution limits comes an extra disclosure requirement.

Till now candidates haven’t had to reveal money raised in the two weeks before an election till weeks later. Under the new law they’d have to disclose who contributed to their campaigns right up till the Friday before election day.

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Alison St John, KPBS news.

Alison St John

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.