Price of one campaign for the vacant Ward 4 seat in the District Council: $195,395.
Raising most of that money from businesses outside of the wards: priceless.
After Adrian Fenty (D) was elected mayor of the District and Vincent Gray (D-At-Large) was elected chairman of the council, their former seats—representing Wards 4 and 7, respectively—became the centers of a special election starring 39 candidates and over $400,000. An extraordinary amount of that money has come from business interests outside of the contested wards, which pushes citizens to the margins of the democratic process.
Georgetown Government Professor Clyde Wilcox says that business contributions, among others, deserve a long, hard look.
“I think that it is always complicated to take contributions from business that might have interests before the city,” he said. “There are other types of money that are suspect also, but the business contributions are the most so because business is primarily seeking to maximize profit.”
But they are ubiquitous in this election, and their frequent origin outside of the wards in question only creates more problems.
Muriel Bowser, who is running for Fenty’s old Ward 4 seat with his endorsement, had picked up the most funds as of last week, clocking in at $195,395. More than 80 percent of her total and 55 percent of competitor and erstwhile mayoral candidate Michael Brown’s funds came from business interests outside of Ward 4’s Northeast D.C. boundaries, according to the Washington Post. Victor Vandell, a candidate to represent Ward 7 in Southeast, has raised 96 percent of his campaign funds outside of the ward.
Aside from the out-of-boundary issue, much of the money raised in both races comes from business donations, which is legal in the District. Of the money raised by Bowser from outside of her ward, $58,989 has come from businesses.
Business contributions to federal election candidates are illegal under federal law, but they are very common in state elections, according to the Campaign Finance Institute.
Common or not, business contributions to political candidates are a questionable practice. This allows profit-oriented businesses to unfairly influence the shape of public discourse in the District.
It should not cost $200,000 to be able to compete for a seat in the municipal government. It is imperative that campaign finance regulation be strengthened by limiting business contributions and establishing a system of matching funds for donations from individual citizens. Only by empowering the independent citizen to meaningfully contribute to campaign finance will the District government be able to hear the voices of their constituents over the cacophony of cash.
