Talk of campaign reform grows in Newport Beach

Newport Beach officials will consider forming a group to determine whether campaign reform is needed to maintain the integrity of local elected leaders.

Early this year, Councilman Keith Curry began floating ideas for a series of measures to change the time frame in which City Council members can raise money for reelection, establish a register of lobbyists and amend a city law to give the city attorney full power to enforce campaign rules.

Curry said he also will propose that any donation to a slate mail committee count as a donation to the supported candidates on a pro rata basis in an effort to keep candidates within the limits of campaign contribution laws. Individuals can donate up to $1,100 to any candidate in an election, according to city rules.

In response to Curry’s proposed reforms, Mayor Diane Dixon presented an idea Tuesday to create a working group of council members and other residents to look into current campaign procedures and recommend any changes.

“I’d like to study these issues and have citizen involvement and bring transparency to this discussion,” Dixon said.

The City Council voted 6-1 on Tuesday to have a full discussion of the topic at a later meeting. Councilman Ed Selich dissented, saying he doesn’t have a problem with the way campaigns are run in Newport and doesn’t think the council should spend time on the issue.

Curry said that when he started on the council about a decade ago, candidates did not start fundraising until the year of the election.

But council members who were elected in 2014 began raising money for the 2018 election last year, as did some other council hopefuls, according to campaign filings.

“This looks unseemly when we solicit funds from people invariably having business before the City Council, and it will encourage challengers to also start years early,” Curry said. “The result will be an unending campaign atmosphere that will detract from the work of the city and will coarsen the political discourse, as it has done in neighboring cities where this takes place.”

The proposed reforms could be another sign of how the tide of Newport politics has shifted since the November 2014 election, when a slate of candidates known as “Team Newport” swept the four available council seats. It was the first time in more than a decade that four newcomers had won seats on the City Council.

Dixon and Councilmen Scott Peotter, Kevin Muldoon and Marshall “Duffy” Duffield promised to rein in what they considered out-of-control spending by city officials. Verbal jabs among council members often replaced the mostly mild-mannered climate of previous councils.

Dave Ellis, a political consultant who ran the Team Newport campaign in 2014, said he’s in favor of robust discussions among council members.

“It’s healthy debate,” he said. “What’s wrong with 4-3 votes in Newport? That’s good governance. It shouldn’t be unanimous votes all the time.”

Ellis said he supports the council discussing creation of a task force as long as reforms aren’t discriminatory against one political group.

“It has to be a discussion that loops in everyone,” he said.

Curry said his proposals are not about the 2014 election but are focused solely on elected officials moving forward in a transparent and ethical direction.

“These reforms are not to find fault with any member of the City Council or any past practice or to relitigate the last election or to allow any group to seek political advantage,” Curry said. “If left unresolved, these issues will most likely manifest themselves with a completely different set of candidates in the future.”