City raises campaign contribution limits: San Mateo council candidates can collect more, lessons from contentious measure considered

Although the increase has been talked about for more than a year, it comes on the heels of an election when an abnormally large amount of money was sunk into a city election. Advocates for and against Measure Q — the failed citizens’ initiative to enact rent control — collectively raised nearly $1 million. The majority of the financing came from lobbyist groups such as the San Mateo County Association of Realtors and the California Apartment Association to oppose the measure.

The new campaign contribution limits will not affect elections regarding measures, but the recent interest in a San Mateo race did give the mayor pause.

“It’s a double-edged sword,” Mayor David Lim said.

On the one hand, allowing people to raise more funds could prove useful if they face opposition from lobbyist groups; on the other, it could also prevent your average passionate citizen from making their political foray if they don’t have a built-in hefty pool of supporters, he said.

“My fear now from the last election, is that people will take a look at it and say special interests can spend a lot of money, send out a lot of glossy fliers and win an election,” Lim said. “On the flip side, I have faith in our community that we have a very intelligent and engaged community and that they’ll chose councilmembers who really speak for our community and the values and what we care for.”

Lim said he didn’t pull the proposal off Tuesday’s consent calendar knowing that his colleagues had supported the issue during a recent study session.

If approved during a second reading, the ordinance would go into effect within 30 days. Theoretically, it could affect any councilmember or person planning to run for an office at any time. But in the near term, three seats are up for grabs in the 2017 election.

Deputy Mayor Rick Bonilla, Councilman Joe Goethals and Lim’s terms are slated to expire. Although there’s still time to decide, Lim acknowledged he’s leaning away from running for re-election citing more time with family as the primary driver.

Goethals said he believed Measure Q and the money dumped into the campaigns was an anomaly and felt council donation limits weren’t directly related.

Instead, he noted those who ran during the last council race in 2015 complained about the difficulty of raising funds with the restrictions. Plus, candidates could soon have to spend more to get voters’ attention.

“We, like many cities, are headed toward even-year elections, which means the number of voters you’re going to have to reach out to could be significantly increased. So I think those are real concerns and I think in order to level the playing field for everyone, you want to make it easier for people to raise money. Someone who is self funded or who’s backed by a big pocket would have a significant advantage over a person who has to raise the money from a lot of different sources,” Goethals said.

Bonilla, who was appointed to the council and elected in 2015 to serve out a two-year term remainder, noted it’s expensive to run a campaign. With the cost of postage having gone up 50 percent since 2004 but their contribution limits having sat stagnant, increasing contribution limits is about keeping pace with the times, he said.

“The simple truth is that the cost of running a campaign has gone up. It did go up consistent with the cost of living,” Bonilla said, adding the new limits are also about having more parity with the surrounding cities.

Other than Belmont, Burlingame and Half Moon Bay, San Mateo is the only city to have limits and currently has some of the lowest in the county, according to a staff report.

Bonilla said he felt comfortable raising the limits, but agreed he’d be concerned by the prospect of eliminating them.

“Money in elections is proving to be a major issue considering the sources of the money quite often; people have to pay to play,” Bonilla said. “Well here in San Mateo, everyone is limited to the same amount and that levels the playing field and it makes it fair and I think in that context, we’re still making ourselves available and certainly reaching out to all of the average voters in San Mateo.”

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