Campaign spending limit candidates sweep Ukiah City Council election

Steve Scalmanini writes:
The three open seats on the five-member Ukiah, California, City Council were won on November 7th by the three candidates who ran as committed to the city's new campaign finance reform ordinance that was passed in June with help from the local Ukiah Valley Chapter of the Alliance for Democracy. There were three other candidates in the race, all of whom were supported by pro-development deregulation interests inside and out of the local county (Mendocino) and all of whom used the same political-consulting firm in sprawling Sonoma County to the south. So the race included three door-to-door, simple-brochure, spending-limits candidates and three multiple-full-color-glossy-mailings look-good-on-paper candidates.

The two top finishers were assured of victory early in the vote counting but third place was nip and tuck between the third spending-limit candidate and not one but two of the glossy candidates. But in the end all three spending-limit runners won, third place by only 0.44%--46 votes—after weathering aggressive attack ads on radio and by mail (both a first in town!) Whew--close one!

Members of the local Chapter were elated when the final results were posted after two weeks of counting. Several of us had worked on developing and passing the campaign finance reform law in June and on the campaigns for the three candidates that committed to the law. One member had been particularly effective by initiating a newspaper ad and Web site for the voluntary-spending-limits program (www.ukiahfairvote.org). Victory after all that is truly sweet, let me tell you! Work continues on a similar measure at our county level.