Denver Mayor Michael Hancock speaks to supporters during a fundraiser Jan. 15, 2015, at Rosenberg’s Bagels & Delicatessen in Five Points. (Jon Murray, The Denver Post)
Colorado Common Cause and several other local groups say they soon may unveil a proposed ballot initiative aimed at reining in campaign contribution limits and creating a public financing system for Denver city elections.
“We’re at a historic point now in terms of both low faith in government and its accessibility to regular people,” says Peg Perl, senior counsel to , which is among the groups working on the potential measure for city voters in November. Add to that the flood of money in last year’s municipal elections, when Mayor Michael Hancock raised more than $1.3 million and , and Perl says the result for many voters is disillusionment.
Details for a ballot measure are still in flux, but Perl said the group could start the review process with city officials as soon as early May. After firming it up, the groups would file it with the Denver Elections Division and begin collecting petition signatures to get it on the ballot.
When Perl and associate director Katie Dahl spoke Wednesday morning to the Denver Board of Ethics, they outlined some potential proposals — including dropping contribution limits from $3,000 to $1,000 for mayoral candidates, from $2,000 to $750 for other citywide candidates and from $1,000 to $400 for district-level City Council candidates. Those are close to the limits that candidates to state office typically face in Colorado in an election cycle.
Perl said adopting the state and federal bans on corporate and union contributions to candidates also may be part of the mix.
Denver’s campaign finance rules haven’t been updated since the 1990s, Perl said. And the groups — which also include , (CoPIRG) and — see the limits as too unwieldy. They echo community activists who complained last year about developers and other interests contributing maximum amounts to council candidates and Hancock, who faced no well-funded opponent for re-election.
The other side of the coin, potentially, would be public financing that advocates say would provide an incentive for candidates to build wider bases of funding support from small-dollar donors. Denver has no such system now.
But Perl said after Wednesday’s meeting that the groups are looking at local programs that exist, including in New York City. In , candidates receive $6 for every $1 contributed by an individual who lives in the city, up to $175. The program is funded by city taxpayers.
Other potential provisions in the ballot measure could include stronger ethics and — areas where the Board of Ethics in recent months, including on strengthening gift limits for elected officials. So far, no council proposal to change the Code of Ethics has resulted.
Dahl and Perl sought the ethics board’s input on some potential ballot measure provisions that would affect the board. Those include creating a nominating commission to vet candidates for board positions before the mayor or council appoint them as well as prohibiting ethics boards members from contributing money to Denver municipal candidates, as some have done.
“A lot of this is about bringing the different areas of Denver’s law in campaign finance or election funding or ethics closer to the gold standard across the nation,” Perl told the board. “That’s the messaging and the plan, more so than there’s some big scandal we need to fix.”
If the groups drive forward with a ballot initiative, it could spark spirited debate in Denver city politics in a presidential election year that’s already sure to foster high interest and high turnout.
