Campaign Board Won't Speculate
January 8th, 2009
The City’s Campaign Finance Board doesn’t deal in hypotheticals, according to its most recent advisory opinion.
Issued today, the opinion refused to comment on a request from Councilmember Peter Vallone Jr., who asked whether he would be able to “unfreeze” a campaign account if a race for higher office opened up after next week’s term limit-inspired deadline.
Candidates for 2009 must notify the board by Jan. 15 on whether they will continue races for higher office or freeze their accounts until the 2013 contest and seek re-election instead. The shuffle, which we delve into deeply here, is due to the extension of term limits, approved by the City Council in October.
Because different offices have different contribution and spending limits, the board decided to allow people to freeze their accounts and start new ones if their election plans had changed due to term limits.
In this case, Vallone had been a candidate for Queens borough president, until it became clear the current occupant, Helen Marshall, would seek a third term. Vallone decided to run for re-election to his Astoria council seat, but, according to the opinion, he wondered if — hypothetically — Marshall decided to drop out, whether he could access his old account and run for higher office.
The board didn’t bite.
“The request involves an event that, at this point, is highly speculative and involves numerous unknown variables,” the opinion states. “The Board does not believe it is appropriate to provide detailed guidance on this hypothetical event at this time.”
The opinion does give Vallone an option to return to the board if this hypothetical situation actually came to fruition. Then they may opine on the subject in detail.
Unlike Vallone, most members that had eyed higher office are sticking with their bids (i.e. Melinda Katz, David Weprin and David Yassky for comptroller, Bill Thompson for mayor, etc.).
The opinion, or lack thereof, may apply to the recently minted re-election candidate: Councilmember Jimmy Oddo, who had planned on running for Staten Island borough president, until James Molinaro announced yesterday he would run for a third term.
By Courtney Gross on January 8, 2009, 3:09 pmIn category: Electoral Politics, Governing, Law, Public Finance | No Comments »



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