Aurora amends campaign finance law ending mayor’s legal challenge
(The Center Square) – Aurora City Council approved amendments to its campaign finance ordinance on Monday after months of fighting a lawsuit from Mayor Mike Coffman.
The amendments remove prohibitions on donations from independent expenditure committees, recall campaigns, or conduits, which are defined as people who transmit donations on behalf of political organizations.
“The City Council enacted an extreme ordinance that was clearly designed to stifle my fundamental right to publicly support candidates or ballot initiatives just like any other American,” Coffman said in a statement. “This was a needless distraction from the critical issues facing Aurora that the Council and I must work together on.”
Coffman added that he supports the council’s efforts to reform parts of its campaign finance laws. For example, he has voiced support for parts of the ordinance limiting donations from individuals and committees to $1,000 for at-large council seats and mayoral races, and $400 for city council ward seats.
However, Coffman and the Public Trust Institute (PTI), the public interest law firm that represented him, argued that the provision limiting who the donations can be solicited from are unconstitutional.
In June, an Arapahoe County judge granted a preliminary injunction against the ordinance, ruling that “the challenged parts of the Ordinance stifle protected speech as well [as] the related right of association.”
The court also found that City Council’s attempts to limit the donations rested on a “dubious premise.”
PTI Legal Director Dan Burrows said in a statement that the city could have saved itself some money if it had just “listened to Mayor Coffman the first time around.”
“Instead, it took getting spanked by a judge before they rethought their decision to trample on basic First Amendment rights. Nonetheless, we’re proud to have represented Mike as he stood up for free speech,” Burrows added.
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