In 1990, voters approved Proposition H and the financing of a public matching funds program for local candidates who agreed to limit their spending and the use of their personal funds in their campaign. Today, the City of Los Angeles has the most comprehensive campaign finance system of any municipality in the country. This report evaluates the impact of the City's program after since the passage of Proposition H, establishes a benchmark for future long-range evaluations, and highlights issues that should be addressed to further the program's goals. Parts II through VI discuss the City's campaign finance program and its impact, and identify emerging campaign finance issues. Part VII summarizes the report's conclusions and addresses issues that merit further action by the City Ethics Commission.
Candidates can run competitive campaigns and get their message out while abiding by spending limits.
Limiting off-year fundraising has successfully reduced the excessive fundraising advantage of incumbent candidates. Candidates report that the public matching funds program enabled them to spend less time fundraising and more time meeting with voters. Use of personal funds by candidates for their campaigns has increased and options for leveling the playing field between candidates who use excessive personal wealth in their campaigns and those who do not should be considered. City candidates overall relied more on individuals than on non-individuals to fund the bulk of their campaigns after the City's campaign finance reforms were enacted than had been the case previously. Candidates who qualified for the matching funds program and received public matching funds tended to rely more heavily on individuals than non-individuals to fund their campaigns than did candidates who did not qualify to receive matching funds.