Cypress city leaders are looking to tighten campaign finance regulation for candidates running for city council ahead of November\u2019s midterm elections.<\/p>\n
While the city currently defers to the state\u2019s default limit of $5,900 per donor, per election, council members are eyeing a new limit of $1,250.<\/p>\n
Councilmembers approved that new limit in a 4-1 vote during their Tuesday night meeting. It will still need a second approval from city council members, and it would go into effect 30 days after that.<\/p>\n
Councilmember David Burke brought the item forward after drafting the changes with the city attorney. It was also discussed at the council\u2019s meeting last month.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe two primary reasons for campaign finance reform are to diminish the risk of pay-to-play politics,\u201d Burke said at the council\u2019s Jan. 26 meeting. \u201cThat\u2019s essentially where large campaign contributors, independent expenditure-makers, use a lot of money to support a candidate and then get favorable treatment in return.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe second is to improve transparency and give voters more information,\u201d he continued. \u201cI think most reasonable people agree that you should have some idea on who\u2019s actually spending money behind the candidates who are running for office.\u201d<\/p>\n
The council was originally considering a $500 limit before it was increased to $1,250 to appease officials who argued $500 was too low, like Councilmember Kyle Chang.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe this is an important piece of legislation,\u201d Chang said. \u201cI believe it\u2019s a step forward in the right direction when it comes to campaign finance reform.\u201d<\/p>\n
Councilmember Bonnie Peat voted against the changes after expressing concern about various details of the proposed ordinance language and arguing there was no rush to approve the changes that night.<\/p>\n
She argued the city should wait until every district in the city has an election before they start changing campaign finance rules.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Since the city transition to district-based elections, only two of the five election districts have held an election. Residents living in Districts 1, 2 and 5 will cast their ballots for their election district for the first time this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust to sum it up: I don\u2019t like this, and I was very clear on that last time,\u201d Peat said at Tuesday night\u2019s meeting.<\/p>\n
Councilmembers Peat, Burke and Rachel Strong Carnahan \u2014 who was appointed to the council in November 2025 \u2014 are set to term out at the end of this year.<\/p>\n
Mayor Leo Medrano said he suspected that criticism of the changes could actually be delay tactics.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think this is perfect,\u201d he said. \u201cI think we\u2019ll be visiting this again after the election and potentially changing some of the things, but I\u2019m afraid that these are, in some ways, delay tactics, since we\u2019ve been talking about this for so many years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cypress isn\u2019t the only city to review how much money candidates are allowed to accept toward their campaign in recent history.<\/p>\n
While Cypress is looking to decrease their limit, officials in Aliso Viejo went in the other direction \u2014 lifting the city\u2019s $1,000 to instead match the state\u2019s default of $5,900 at the end of last year.<\/p>\n