Stop big money in local politics
Updated: Jan 21, 2022
We SUCCESSFULLY advocated for delay in the proposed changes to ordinance amending Chapters 2.115 related to Election Campaign Contribution Limits, but we still need to let the Supervisors know NOT to raise contribution limits for the district attorney, sheriff and assessor to the outrageous sums of $25,000. While County Supervisors agreed to keep the public financing rules, we still need your voices to speak up against big money in local politics!
Candidates ultimately raised 40% or more of their total campaign funds from a single source.
This means that these candidates can be swayed by large donors with specific interests. Common sense campaign limits stop egregious buying influence of our elected officials. Our district attorney and sheriff are the most important local criminal justice office holders and this ordinance increases the limits making them some of the highest in the entire state, almost as high as the governor’s contribution limits of $31,000! According to the County Administrator's analysis, larger counties have far lower limits!
LA County: $1,500
Orange County: $2,100
San Diego: $500
Santa Clara: $1,000
Kern County: $1,500
We know big money ALREADY influences our elected officials:
DA Ann Marie Schubert has accepted over $400,000 from police unions, including $16,000 in the days following the shooting of Stephon Clark
Sheriff Scott Jones accepted donations from vendors seeking contracts for Sacramento County jails including: Global Tel*Link Corp, Inmate Calling Solutions, and Keefe Commissary Network - who profiteer from basic goods and telephone calls from inmates to families
Independent expenditure committees, while not perfect, cannot coordinate with candidates campaigns and thus ensure some degree of separation between officers and donations.
Without change, we know that future elections will bring more of the same. Moreover, these limits are being introduced so that the district attorney and sheriff can avoid new state law AB 571 that would set the limit at $4,700.
Take Action
Submit a public comment to your board of Supervisor by November 17 to let them know you want to LIMIT the effects of BIG MONEY in our politics. Ask them to set the same contribution limits as other large counties at $2,000 and ensure the people’s voices are heard through voting not contributions!
Email Sacramento County Board of Supervisors:
District 1: Phil Serna SupervisorSerna@saccounty.net
District 2: Patrick Kennedy SupervisorKennedy@saccounty.net
District 3: Susan Peters SupervisorPeters@saccounty.net
District 4: Sue Frost SupervisorFrost@saccounty.net
District 5: Don Nottoli NottoliD@saccounty.net