Folsom’s tight campaign limits reflect a screwy statewide non-system | Opinion
In Folsom, with a particularly active political microclimate, a resident can contribute no more than $150 to a candidate running for city council. In nearby Rancho Cordova city council races, that same resident can contribute up to $5,900.
That $150 limit in Folsom hasn’t been adjusted in 30-some years. But slowly, the city on the hill is thinking of allowing local money to catch up with the outside cash that has dominated local races for years.
As reported by The Bee’s Corey Schmidt, the city’s Ad Hoc Charter Review Committee is recommending to increase the per-campaign individual contribution limit to $750. On Tuesday night, the council dropped the proposed increase to $500. It would take a majority of the five-member Folsom City Council to place this charter amendment on a future ballot and a majority of voters to ultimately approve it. But this charter review committee has done its job by getting the proverbial ball rolling.
Individuals gave about $145,000 to city council candidates in the 2024 election cycle. That was dwarfed by about $200,000 spent by political action committees under far laxer contribution limits. If Folsom wants local money to have the greatest influence in local races, it should stop artificially constricting itself with one of the strictest contribution limits in California.
Why local campaign contribution limits vary wildly
Looking about, there is no logical pattern to the limits in the greater Sacramento region, where surveying local rules, the limits per contribution range from $100 to $25,000.
In Sacramento County, the capital city limits individual campaign contributions to $2,200 per city council candidate. A city not half its size, Elk Grove, has the same $5,900 limit as Rancho Cordova. So does Citrus Heights.
In Placer County, the cities of Lincoln and Rocklin also limit contributions to $5,900. Next door in Roseville, individual campaign contributions are capped at $500.
In Yolo County, the city of Woodland has capped campaign contributions at $1,000 since 2005. Davis, meanwhile, is a clone of Folsom, with a $150 contribution limit.
This disparity is entirely a function of just how much local democracy any city council wants to implement when it comes to campaign contributions by individuals.
Cities that adopt no contribution limits are then regulated by a 2019 state law that currently sets that limit at $5,900. That’s what most do. According to a 2024 review by Common Cause, only a third of cities have some local limit such as the ones in Folsom and Davis and Sacramento.
Nothing in this same state law prevents a city or county from allowing higher campaign contributions. That’s why in the city of Dixon in Solano County, city council contributions of $25,000 since 2020 have been perfectly legal.
The limits “should be outrageously high….so that by extension they don’t exist,” reasoned Dixon City Councilmember Devon Minnema at the time. The council mirrored a 2010 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, equating unlimited campaign contributions to be a First Amendment right.
Change can be tricky in Folsom
Folsom’s local politics are a world apart from those in Dixon, where three councilmembers in the middle of a pandemic can approve an intentionally outrageous campaign contribution limit. Campaign contributions in Folsom are embedded in the city’s charter. Only city voters have the authority to change how Folsom runs.
Any limit is unavoidably arbitrary. The proposed $500 limit sounds reasonable. Folsom voters, at times resistant to change, may go along. It would make our screwy way of governing these contributions a little saner.