Politics

San Diego City's Campaign Contribution Limits Challenged

By Alison St John / Reporter

Published December 31, 2009 at 3:00 AM PST

This story was published more than 14 years ago.

Prominent San Diego Republicans want a federal judge to grant an injunction overturning campaign finance restrictions on next year’s City Council elections.

A coalition of Republicans says San Diego City's Ethics Commission’s campaign finance laws are unconstitutional. Michael Rosen, secretary of San Diego’s Republican Party, says the lawsuit seeks to lift the $500 contribution limits for city council races.

"We think this will benefit all political parties and all advocacy groups," Rosen said.

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But Jess Durfee, chair of the San Diego Democratic Party, says the campaign contribution limits create a level playing field for candidates.

“The Republicans are proposing to allow a few rich people in San Diego to start bankrolling their ideal candidate, and buy elections for them,” Durfee said.

James Bopp, the Indiana attorney who filed the suit on behalf of the Republicans, says he has already filed several campaign finance suits all the way to the Supreme Court, and won.

“Of the 100 campaign finance cases I’ve handled,” Bopp said. “We won two-thirds in the district courts, 90 percent in the Courts of Appeal and 80 percent of the cases I’ve argued in the U.S. Supreme Court.”

A San Diego Federal District Court judge is expected to issue a ruling January 25th.

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Four of the eight San Diego City Council seats are up for election in 2010, and three of them are currently held by Democrats.

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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.