It's official: All four candidates for Salt Lake City mayor have decided not to abide by the city's voluntary campaign contribution/spending limit.
Dave Jones Wednesday became the last candidate to opt out of the $375,000 limit, saying that abiding by it while everyone else didn't "would put my campaign at a serious disadvantage."Jones and Ross Anderson previously signed documents with the city recorder agreeing to abide by the voluntary limit but changed their minds after Jim Bradley and Stuart Reid announced they would not be bound by it.
City ordinance allows for such reversals.
The ordinance, a new one that is being applied for the first time in this campaign, has created considerable opportunity for candidates to accuse one another of violating its mandatory provisions (such as the $7,500 limit on individual contributions) or condemn each other for not abiding by the voluntary $375,000 limit.
In fact, the early stages of the campaign have been dominated by bickering over the law much more than by issues ofcity governance.
Of the four candidates, Anderson has been the most vocal.
Upon Bradley and Reid's signing of a document earlier this month declining to abide by the voluntary limit, Anderson immediately declared his intent to opt out of it, too, saying the limit wouldn't work unless every candidate was bound by it.
Jones took longer to decide. He said there would have been some political benefit to taking the high road, being able to say he was the only candidate who was abiding by the limit, but ultimately came to the same conclusion Anderson did -- political reality dictated that he needed the freedom to match the spending of his fellows.
All four candidates say they don't intend to spend much more than the $375,000 anyway, but that they want the freedom to do so if necessary.
Mayor Deedee Corradini, who is not seeking re-election, spent close to $600,000 in her 1995 contest, outspending opponent Rich McKeown by about $200,000.
Reid says the voluntary limit favors those who have already established name recognition. Jones said that may be the case early on in the campaign, but becomes less of an issue later.
Some candidates have attempted to soften the possible negative impact of opting out of the limit by vowing, for example, to limit personal contributions to the campaign (Bradley), or to disclose campaign contributions more often than the ordinance requires (Jones).