
{"id":701,"date":"2007-08-02T08:53:50","date_gmt":"2007-08-02T16:53:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2007\/08\/02\/candidates-object-to-campaign-bill\/"},"modified":"2007-08-02T08:53:50","modified_gmt":"2007-08-02T16:53:50","slug":"candidates-object-to-campaign-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2007\/08\/02\/candidates-object-to-campaign-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"Candidates object to campaign bill"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>New rules for Carrboro campaigns sent back to House committee, measure will not pass this session<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>By Kirk Ross<\/strong><br \/>\nStaff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>A campaign finance bill that would limit the amount of contributions and lower the threshold for reporting contributors was pulled from the North Carolina House of Representatives calendar last week, making it unlikely the bill will pass this session.<\/p>\n<p>Senate Bill 488 \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Carrboro Campaign Regulation \u00e2\u20ac\u201d was re-referred to the House Election Law and Campaign Finance Reform committee at the request of Rep. Bill Faison (D-Orange, Caswell), after Faison heard concerns raised about the bill by Katrina Ryan and Sharon Cook, two candidates for the Board of Aldermen.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The bill is not specific enough,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Ryan said in an interview Wednesday morning. She called the bill, which would allow the town to set contribution thresholds and require contributors\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 names for those who give a candidate more than $20, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153arbitrary and capricious.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Ryan also objected to the fact that members of the Board of Aldermen would set the limits.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a badly written bill,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It needs to be reviewed and it needs a public hearing.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Sharon Cook, a member of the town planning board, said she also was concerned that the legislation had not had a proper airing. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153This just popped up,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Where did this come from?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Both Cook and Ryan filed earlier this month to run for the Board of Aldermen.<\/p>\n<p>The bill mirrors a similar measure passed for Chapel Hill in 1995.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, Mayor Mark Chilton said he was disappointed to see the bill pulled and was working to try and address concerns over the bill with Faison.<\/p>\n<p>Faison did not respond to an inquiry about the bill\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s status.<\/p>\n<p>Board of Aldermen member Dan Coleman called the effort to stop the bill \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a power move\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and said the objections raised could have been answered by he or Chilton if Cook and Ryan had asked. The bill is typical of state enabling legislation, he said, and would require a process with public hearings and discussion before any new limits and restrictions are set.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s very unfortunate,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Coleman said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an indication of a very adversarial style.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<br \/>\nHe said the bill was filed in early March and had been discussed as early as January at an annual breakfast meeting with the legislative delegation.<\/p>\n<p>Lydia Lavelle, a planning board member who is running for the Board of Aldermen, said she had hoped the bill would pass and was surprised at the move since it so closely paralleled the Chapel Hill legislation.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I support the bill,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153If it can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t happen in this session, then I hope it can in the short session.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Rep. Verla Insko, (D-Orange), who sponsored the bill in the House, said she thought it was \u00e2\u20ac\u0153interesting\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that the people who had objected to the bill were running this year for office in Carrboro.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a campaign issue,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The people of Carrboro ought to know the position of those who want to be their elected officials.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>As written, the bill would have become effective when signed into law. Ryan said that means it would apply to the current election.<\/p>\n<p>But both Coleman and Insko said it was never intended to apply to this year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s election. Once passed, Coleman said, the bill would have required a public hearing and discussion by the board on the details and rules.<\/p>\n<p>Insko said in light of it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s defeat this year, she and Faison will try to craft a new version of the bill with hopes of moving forward with it in next year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s short session. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s agreed to work with me to make it a consensus bill,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Insko said.<\/p>\n<p>Faison represents two northern Carrboro precincts, including recently annexed areas that are home to Cook and Ryan.<\/p>\n<p>Insko represents the rest of Carrboro except for St. Joe precinct, which is represented by House Speaker Joe Hackney (D-Orange, Chatham).<\/p>\n<p>In addition to concerns about the timing of the bill, Cook and Ryan both said they were worried about \u00e2\u20ac\u0153outside money\u00e2\u20ac\u009d flowing into local races.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We need to keep local campaigns conducted locally without a lot of outside money and influence,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Cook said.<\/p>\n<p>Ryan pointed to development money that helped fund Paul Newton\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s failed bid for a seat on the town board in Hillsborough and County Commissioner Mike Nelson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s run two years ago.<\/p>\n<p>Ryan said that Nelson had received about 60 percent of his financing from outside the county, a number Nelson disputes.<\/p>\n<p>In an email response to The Citizen, Nelson said Ryan was trying to use the issue to deflect attention from her attempt to kill a campaign finance bill while a candidate for public office.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Ms. Ryan is an active supporter of Lillian\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s List, an organization I also contribute to on a regular basis. Lillian\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s List helps elect Democratic Women to the NC General Assembly. It does so by funneling contributions from across the state into the campaigns of women they support. Nearly all of my out of county contributions came from lesbian and gay North Carolinians who understand that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s important to elect gay people to office,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he wrote. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Katrina\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hypocrisy on this issue is stunning. How can it be acceptable for Democratic women to support each other, even if they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t live in the district, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not acceptable for gay people to support each other?\u00c2\u00a0 Her position is offensive.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Ryan said language in the bill, which limits it to only in-state donations, might favor Nelson or a candidate favored by an out-of-state developer.<\/p>\n<p>Both Nelson and Lavelle noted that such restrictions have faced constitutional challenges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New rules for Carrboro campaigns sent back to House committee, measure will not pass this session By Kirk Ross Staff Writer A campaign finance bill that would limit the amount of contributions and lower the threshold for reporting contributors was pulled from the North Carolina House of Representatives calendar last week, making it unlikely the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}