BY LISA DONOVAN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Cincinnati City Council reopened the gate Wednesday for unlimited campaign donations.
Council voted 5-4 to repeal its 3-year-old campaign contribution limits. A bipartisan effort overturned the local campaign finance law, which limited contributions to $1,000 from individuals, $2,500 from political action committees (PACs) and $10,000 from political parties.
Democrats Minette Cooper and Paul Booth voted with Republicans Charles Winburn, Jeanette Cissell and Phil Heimlich to repeal the limits. The remaining Democrats — Mayor Roxanne Qualls, Todd Portune and Tyrone Yates — voted with Charterite James Tarbell to keep the law.
The repeal comes less than a year before council elections, and in plenty of time for incumbents and newcomers to fill their campaign treasuries. State campaign contribution limits don't apply locally.
The vote comes a month after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the city's appeal of its campaign spending limit law, which was ruled unconstitutional by lower courts.
For now, the campaign finance reform championed by Mr. Portune and other Democrats is dead in Cincinnati. Mr. Portune has repeatedly said that big money poisons the political process.
“The big spenders on council have opened the floodgates,” he said after the council meeting.
After the vote Wednesday, Mr. Portune shook hands with Mr. Winburn, who led the repeal of the limits. Mr. Winburn said he thought the ordinance encroached on First Amendment freedom of expression.
Either man potentially could be council's top-vote getter, a position that brings with it the mayor's seat. But the climb to the top is expensive.
Ms. Qualls spent $303,367 in the 1997 campaign — second only to Mr. Heimlich, who spent $456,352 for a failed effort to be mayor. He finished sixth.
The final vote on the contributions law had been delayed to this week, after a newly sworn-in Mr. Booth requested a week to study the measure. But in the end, the Democrat voted to repeal the ordinance.
In a statement after the vote, Mr. Booth said he supports the intent of campaign finance reform to clean up elections, but called the ordinance a “Band-aid solution.”
Mr. Portune said he is studying the possibility of a campaign finance-related measure on the May ballot. He declined to elaborate Wednesday.
