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The problem of ever increasing campaign expenditures has become a serious, if not disastrous, reality of American politics, and campaigns in the city are not excepted. Incidental to the high cost of election campaigning is the problem of improper influence, real or potential, exercised by campaign contributors over elected officials.
It is the purpose and intent of the city council in enacting this chapter to place realistic and enforceable limits on the amounts individuals may contribute to political campaigns in municipal elections; to insure and promote integrity, honesty, and fairness in the decisions of public policy; to insure that funds and services donated to a candidate or campaign committee are used solely for lawful campaign purposes; to insure a level of discussion of public issues adequate for a viable political campaign and to provide opportunity for all citizens to become candidates for public office unhindered by a need to meet exorbitant costs; and to provide full and fair enforcement of all the provisions of this chapter.
In seeking to establish such realistic limitations, it is the intent of the city council to promote a broader and more open participation by all citizens in the electoral process and it is in no way intended that such limitations should act to deprive or restrict any citizen in the exercise of rights guaranteed under the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution.
(Ord. 401 § 1(part), 1987).