Daily News of Los Angeles: Campaign Ordinance Revocation Suggested

By Angela M. Lemire

A city official is calling for the repeal of a campaign ordinance that forbids anonymous political mailings and advertisements.

City Attorney Carl Newton has recommended that the Santa Clarita City Council abolish a code regulating campaign disclosure, after finding that state and federal courts have invalidated similar ordinances on grounds they violated freedom of speech.

The council will discuss the matter at its regular meeting today, scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall.

In a memo to council members, Newton - who studied the ordinance after concerns over anonymous mailings arose during the April 1998 city election - described laws pertaining to disclosure requirements for political mailings and advertisements as “in a state of flux.”

He cited a 1995 U.S. Supreme Court case, McIntyre vs. Ohio Election Commission, in which justices ruled in a 5-4 decision that First Amendment rights prohibited the government from requiring the identification of campaign sponsors on fliers.

“The framers of the constitution, according to the court, felt that political opposition should be allowed to distribute campaign material without fear of reprisal from the government,” Newton said on Friday.

Another case, Griset vs. Fair Political Practices Commission, currently is pending appeal before the California Supreme Court. The legal community expects the state case to follow precedent set by the nation’s highest court in 1995, he said.

“Until the controlling law is solidified, it appears best to repeal the city’s ordinance,” Newton advised council members in his memo.

Anonymous campaign literature last week caused a stir when fliers opposing the William S. Hart Union High School District’s proposed $ 52 million bond turned up on Valencia doorsteps days before the Nov. 2 election, but listed no individual, committee name or mailing address as the source.

The bond, Measure A, fell short of grabbing the two-thirds majority approval at the polls by 179 votes, but supporters remain hopeful that absentee ballots to be counted this week will secure a win.

Measure A campaign manager Karl Frisch this week said campaign charges might be filed against the individual or group for distributing the anonymous fliers without a declared committee, if they suspect any campaign laws had been violated. Campaigners are gathering information to make that determination, he said.

But Newton, who was unaware of the anonymous Measure A fliers, said his concerns stemmed from complaints the city received in April of 1998 regarding disclosures of campaign sources that had been affixed to the backside of campaign signs, rather than the front.

Mayor Jo Anne Darcy said her campaign signs had been questioned and recalled other disclosure disputes that sprung from the April 1998 election, including when political foes accused her of circulating anonymous campaign mailings that attacked another council candidate. Darcy denied involvement and attempted to track the source to clear her name, but the fliers’ origin remains a mystery.

“There were hit pieces on a lot of people that were anonymous,” Darcy recalled. “It made me angry that I got accused of such politics. I don’t campaign that way. If there’s any way we can enforce it legally, so people have to disclose the name or mailing address of the sponsor, I hope we can do it.”

November 9, 1999 | Filed Under News Mentions, School Bond 

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