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Lee Leffingwell, candidate for Mayor of Austin, has loaned his campaign $58,837, the Austin American-Statesman reports. After a previous loan of $41,163 on January 16, that brings Leffingwell's total loans to $100,000. His campaign says Leffingwell always planned to loan at least this much to the campaign. Personal campaign loans are not unusual in Austin Mayoral campaigns, either. In fact, current Mayor Will Wynn loaned himself $90,000. As the Statsman points out, given the $350 per person limits and the state of the economy, raising money for city races is not easy. While the strict contribution limits had good intentions, they clearly are hurting voter turnout in Austin Municipal elections. Many have predicted that this year's elecion will have a turnout of about 13 percent. That is significantly lower than the 26 percent turnout we had in the 1994 Mayoral election (Bruce Todd and Daryl Slusher), the 23 percent turnout in 1991 (Bruce Todd and Robert Barnstone), and the 17 percent in 1997 (Kirk Watson and Ronney Reynolds). Of course, all three of those elections were before the contribution limits made it difficult to wage an aggressive campaign in a city of Austin's size, especially without a candidate dipping into their own pocket. In the coming years, it would be nice to see a conversation begin about raising the contribution limits to try to raise turnout in city elections and ensure that candidates do not have to loan their campaigns money to run aggressive races.
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