Candidates in future county elections are one step closer to having the size of their political contributions limited. Allegheny County Council’s Committee on Government Reform approved a bill Tuesday to place federal limits on candidates running for county office. The measure now heads to the full council.
The ordinance would cap individual contributions at $3,300 and political action committee contributions at $5,000 per election cycle, though those numbers will change each time the Federal Election Commission updates contribution guidelines for federal candidates.
The limits would apply to candidates running for county executive, county council, district attorney, treasurer, controller and sheriff, as well as any PACs created to support or oppose county-wide ballot referendums.
The city of Pittsburgh has already implemented similar restrictions.
If passed, the county ordinance won’t take effect until 2025, when there are fewer races on the ballot than this year.
“If we're going to implement this in any cycle, that's the time to do it, because there's going to be less on the ballot, there's going to be less people running,” said Democrat Tom Duerr, who introduced the bill. “If there's any kinks to work out … we'll have a good time to figure that out before the next county executive race, the next controller race, the next district attorney race, and the next at-large county council races as well.”
Duerr said that although more campaign finance reform should take place on the federal level, the bill provides a way to curb big money in local races.
In the event that an ultra-wealthy candidate donates $100,000 or more to their own campaign or related PAC, the limitations for all other candidates would double. That would allow them to collect $6,600 from an individual and $10,000 from PACs.
Duerr noted that this election cycle, some candidates have received large financial contributions from a small number of wealthy donors.
“The idea behind campaign finance limits is pretty simple,” he said. “More power back into small-dollar donors than these small amounts of large donors who are donating six-figure sums to candidates and having undue influence in our elections – and, potentially, undue influence in our government as well.”
Republican Sam DeMarco worried Tuesday that the law might add more strain on the county elections division and give incumbents with name recognition an advantage. But Duerr said the limits are meant to help non-incumbents.
“We’ve had incumbents in this county who’ve had years and years of uncontested races being able to build up massive war chests because there’s no campaign finance limits here,” he said, adding that it’s typically easier for incumbents to raise money than it is for an unknown challenger.
The measure now heads to the full council, where it may need to receive a supermajority to become law. County Executive Rich Fitzgerald told PublicSource in February that he’s likely to veto the bill “because it could put county officeholders at a disadvantage in non-county races.”
Duerr also introduced a bill this week to limit outside spending in county races. That was referred to council’s committee on government reform.
