Both sides in a bitter fight over campaign finance rules in the upcoming Longmont City Council election hailed a U.S. District Court judge’s decision this week as a victory.
The plaintiffs in the case said Judge Walker Miller struck a blow for the First Amendment rights of people to criticize candidates when he granted a preliminary injunction against portions of Longmont’s Fair Campaign Practices Act.
The plaintiffs’ lawsuit, filed in September, claimed the city’s requirements for reporting individual expenditures chilled their constitutional right to free speech.
“We are very, very happy the First Amendment was upheld in Longmont,” said Donny Ferguson, spokesman for the lead plaintiff in the case, Western Tradition Partnership. “Longmont politicians can no longer use an unconstitutional law to harass people who want to publicly discuss real issues.”
Western Tradition Partnership is a Colorado nonprofit that lobbies on land-use issues. Other plaintiffs included Longmont Leadership Committee, a nonprofit group formed to support and oppose candidates in the Longmont municipal election, and the Longmont Association of Realtors.
Longmont City Attorney Eugene Mei said Miller’s ruling actually left intact most of the city’s finance law.
“I fear that the public perception is that the tree has been cut down,” Mei said. “When actually it has only been trimmed a little bit at the edges.”
The rules were adopted in March and set contribution limits on City Council races as well as cutting back on the threshold to report independent expenditures from $1,000 to $100.
Independent expenditures are funds spent to promote a candidate without the candidate’s advice, consent or knowledge, according to the city.
The law also says that spending $100 or more in independent expenditures must be reported to the city clerk and all candidates in the affected race within 72 hours.
Anyone who fails to do so could be fined $200 a day for up to 10 days or until a report is filed.
Plaintiffs said the rules were too restrictive and the definition of “electioneering communications” too vague. But the threat of a fine was enough to discourage speaking out for a candidate, they said.
Miller’s ruling suspends some parts of the campaign rules until a full hearing can be held. There was no indication when that might happen.
Attorney Scott Gessler, who argued for the plaintiffs, said the judge stopped the city from going too far in muzzling critics of certain candidates.
“Karen Benker (a city councilwoman) has been going after anyone who speaks out against her,” Gessler said. “This decision is exactly what we asked for.”
But Benker said the judge let stand the most important parts of the rules, including filing expenditure reports within 72 hours. “It goes to transparency and who is behind all the money that is being spent on these races,” Benker said.
Monte Whaley: 720-929-0907
