One of the provisions of the ethics amendment, passed by two-thirds of City voters during the recent elections, limited campaign contributions to city candidates to $250 per person or business entity. Before the passage of the charter amendment, the limit was $1,000.
The language in the charter amendment appears to put the effective date of the campaign limits on the day that it passed.
This means after November 4th, 2014 anyone running for City Commission could only accept campaign donations that are $250 or less.
It appears this provision had an impact on one local elected official before it even passed.
On October 27th of this year, City Commissioner Scott Maddox filed paperwork with the Leon County Supervisor of Elections to open up a campaign account to finance his re-election to the City Commission. The election for his seat is just under two years away.
On November 10th, Commissioner Maddox filed a campaign report that shows he raised $41,925 on one day, October 30, 2014, just days before the enactment of the $250 campaign limit.
His campaign report shows that he collected 26 $1,000 campaign contributions and 24 $500 campaign contributions.
As of November 4th such contributions are now not allowed due to the passage of the ethics amendment. But before November 4th thes contributions were legal.
Also, if someone chooses to run against Mr. Maddox, moving forward that candidate will be limited to the $250 threshold.
What would Mr. Maddox’s $41,925 look like under the new campaign limits?
Tallahassee Reports did an exclusive analysis and discovered that Mr. Maddox’s contributions under the new law would have resulted in $16,275 – a difference of approximately $25,000.
The irony of this is that several people, including Commissioner Nancy Miller and Commissioner Scott Maddox, argued against the passage of the ethics amendment by taking the position that the campaign contribution limits would favor incumbents.
City’s Ethics Amendment Had Impact Before Passage, Maddox Raises $41,925 In One Day added by Staff on
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Tallahassee is a corrupt city, everyone knows it.
So what? Money is speech. People have a right to support someone politically as much as they like. Maybe people should stop voting based on advertisements and money.
Unfortunately you are correct. Our elections are decided by a few PR hacks who know how to dupe undecided voters ride the wave of low voter turnouts.
Their antics are becoming known be it by the high crime rate, CDA fiasco, elected officials who should not even qualify due to residency requirements, LCS construction mismanagement, and the latest, — a sexual predator was able to penetrate the LCS computer system. The usual suspects are self destructing day by day.
Scott Maddox does not live in his district which is illegal. He is ineligible to be on the ballot, but the people responsible for enforcing this look the other way. He is one of three elected officials who are serving illegally because they do not legitimately live in their districts. The districts that are represented by B. Proctor, S. Maddox, and Alan Williams have the highest rate of crime. They do their districts no favors.
incumbency favors incumbents.ask commissioners Katz and Ziffer incumbency favors campaign contributions. how to work the system favors incumbents.
any chance of seeing the names of the one-day contributors?
the activity here may or may not be legal and that will be determined. Meanwhile it is, ipso facto, unethical. ask ms keefe.
FYI:
This link will provide this campaign contributor list.
https://www.voterfocus.com/ws/wscand/candidate_pr.php?c=leon&el=16