ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : A Vote in Two Cities for Cleaner Politics

By now, it should be clear that voters in Orange County favor limits on campaign expenditures. Orange County and several local cities, including Irvine and Orange, have such restrictions. Two more cities, Anaheim and Santa Ana, have reform measures on their November ballots. Both ought to pass them.

The flood of dollars in politics is a phenomenon at all levels of government. In Congress, heavyweight contributors influence public policy by giving lavishly to incumbents and candidates. At City Hall, the maxim that all politics is local has special meaning when special-interest money infects the process of community decision-making.

Campaign contributions at county and municipal levels have influenced the public’s business in recent years. So disgusted were county voters last June that they overwhelmingly approved a campaign financing measure that capped contributions at $1,000 from any single source during an election cycle and extended campaign restrictions beyond the Board of Supervisors to include candidates for top county offices.

That vote reflected the prevailing national mood of dissatisfaction with politics as usual.

Now this sentiment has found its way into the two Orange County localities that have campaign finance measures on the ballot.

Anaheim’s Measure H is somewhat frustrating because it crawls toward reform. This is one city that ought to be headed in that direction at a full gallop.

By making its measure advisory, Anaheim is only putting off until another day the legislation that it inevitably needs. But it should pass the advisory measure anyway. The measure would limit individual contributions to mayoral and council candidates to $1,000 per election.

Look no further for supporting evidence than the very council that would be asked to pass legislation. Councilman Irv Pickler, the biggest fund-raiser: more than $636,000 since 1984. Mayor Fred Hunter: more than $575,000 during that time. William D. Ehrle: more than $574,000 since 1987. Tom Daly: more than $299,000 since 1988. Bob D. Simpson: more than $146,000 since 1990.

In all, more than $2 million was donated to the five current members of the Anaheim City Council since 1984, according to computer-assisted research by The Times Orange County Edition.

And council members were criticized earlier this year for accepting tickets from Disneyland in amounts that exceeded the state limit of $250 in gifts a year.

One developer gave council members thousands of dollars in contributions even as they were considering an environmentally sensitive project in a canyon.

Santa Ana, in contrast, is going straight ahead to reform. It voted unanimously to place on the ballot Measure U, which would limit campaign contributions to $1,000 per source per campaign cycle and would make violations a misdemeanor.

There also is Measure S, which would prohibit council members from participating in any council decision involving any donor who contributed $250 or more in a one-year period before the decision.

Both are welcome local reforms that would allow Santa Ana to address campaign financing violations itself, without needing to rely on state officials.

Indeed, the flood of money on Main Street is every bit as insidious as it is on Capitol Hill. At least Anaheim and Santa Ana are considering measures to begin fighting the disease.