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KT wrote yesterday: "McCracken Campaign Under Fire for Campaign Finance Violations." The basics was that McCracken had received about $8,000 more than he should have from out-of-town dollars. Leffingwell approached McCracken's campaign about this; McCracken's campaign said it was ridiculous; Leffingwell filed a municipal complaint, and here we are. In KT's post, one commenter, Tom Bombadil, wrote: Why is nobody asking a single expert to weigh in on this issue? It certainly seems like rampant mudslinging. I heard yesterday that the Leffingwell camp was going to file "criminal" charges, which 1. They don't have the authority to do and 2. That makes it seem all the more likely this is just dirty politics less than a week before the election.
While there is some question as to who Mr. Bombadil may or may not be, calling for an expert to weigh is worthwhile. After all, we could debate things back and forth all day -- but I'm not an expert, and neither is Tom. Jim Cousar, though, is an expert. In fact, another commenter in KT's original post, Jeb, even said: Would it be too much trouble for someone in the media to speak with Jim Cousar or another expert in election law about this?
To answer Tom and Jeb's request, here is a legal memo from Mr. Cousar about the situation, as provided by the Lee Leffingwell campaign (I wonder if Tom and Jeb will still accuse Lee of dirty campaign tricks now that their requests have basically been met). From Lee's website, Cousar wrote an opinion: SUMMARY
There is no legal basis in the City Charter for accepting additional out-of-town contributions, prior to the May election, once the cap has been reached. Neither the plain language of the charter provision (which allows additional amounts only in the case of a runoff election), the legislative history of the Charter, nor analogous provisions of other campaign finance laws support that theory. If a candidate has accepted more contributions from out-of-town contributors than the Charter allows, those amounts should be immediately refunded to the contributors.
You can read the full memo at Lee's website.
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