"Akron is the city in the United States with the lowest contribution limits for municipal campaigns that have been approved by a federal court," said Plusquellic. "But limiting contributions to candidates does only half the job. We must also address the recent trend that allows political parties and support groups not affected by Akron’s campaign reform law to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in support of a candidate and do it anonymously."

The ordinance proposed by Plusquellic would add requirements to Akron’s campaign laws in the 45-day period prior to an election, and would apply to any candidate or issue. Among the new requirements are the following:

1. Any advertising message that refers to a candidate or uses his/her likeness falls within the regulation if it "advocates" or "endorses" a candidate or issue, or attempts to "inform or educate" a voter.
2. Any individual or any entity that buys newspaper ads or radio or television time for the defined purposes would be required to file "An Election Period Disclosure Statement" with the clerk of city council, within 48 hours of issuing the advertisement and include the name and an address for each person or entity that contributed in any way to the production, publication, or broadcast of the message.
3. Every advertisement for an issue or candidate must identify who paid for it.
4. Any individual or entity, except the candidate or the candidate’s committee, is prohibited from advertising in the ten-day period before the election.
5. The disclosure statement requires any donor to identify his/her employer.
6. Exempted from the requirements are communications that are issued by an individual acting alone, communications issued by an organization and sent solely to its members, and communications issued by government entities.
7. There are new penalty provisions---the previous ones having been struck down by the federal courts---making violations of the law a misdemeanor.

Akron’s charter was modified by voter referendum in 1998 to impose limits on donations to a candidate---$300 per donor for a mayoral candidate, and $100 per donor for a council candidate. In July, 1998 Mayor Plusquellic appointed the Task Force on Municipal Campaign Finances chaired by Richard Aynes, Dean of the Law School of the University of Akron. Two years later, Akron City Council passed and the mayor signed legislation recommended by the Task Force that limited contributions to ward councilman to $750, contributions to council at-large to $1,000 and contributions to mayoral candidates to $1,500. Mayor Plusquellic stated that the limits adopted by council were more closely in line with limits approved by federal courts at that time.

The reforms adopted by Akron voters were reviewed by federal judge Dan Polster, who in December, 1999 tossed out the contribution limits and held other parts of the reform law unconstitutional. In May, 2002, the U.S. 6^th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati upheld the contribution limits and left standing the District Court’s finding that other portions of the referendum provisions were unconstitutional.

In announcing the reforms, Plusquellic reflected on the spate of so-called "advocacy ads" that filled airwaves last fall in the race for the Ohio Supreme Court. The ads featured everything from poodles being micro waved to velvet hammers in commercials that were not run or approved by the candidates, but rather were paid for by outside organizations who were not required to either identify their donors or adhere to contribution limits imposed on candidates by the court itself.

"Even the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Ohio is fed-up with these kinds of ads," said the mayor. "What is more troubling is that these kinds of anonymously-supported negative ads have even filtered into our recent Summit County judicial elections. There’s no reason to think that political operatives won’t try to get them into the races for mayor and council. Anonymous ads like these are simply unfair and a threat to our democracy."

(proposed ordinance)

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