To All Candidates for the Office of Mayor of the City of Pittsburgh:
I declared I would maintain campaign finance contribution limits on day one of my campaign, and I have kept my word. Because I am committed to the people of this city, not large contributor, back-door influence peddlers of the past, I remain the only candidate to enforce federal limits.
Following in the footsteps of President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, I am choosing to hold to the federal fundraising guidelines so that the people of the city of Pittsburgh can elect our Mayor--not special interests. We all need to have a voice in our future and we need to know that no one will have special privilege with the Mayor because they contributed greatly to his or her campaign. The federal limits of $4800 per individual and $10,000 per PAC are fair limits, and for candidates dedicated to transparency in government this should be enough. These limits offer every single person from every single neighborhood in this city an opportunity to have a voice in who they want to lead us towards a green future full of jobs that can sustain a family, and safe places for our children to play.
I invite Mayor Ravenstahl and all Mayoral candidates to join me in utilizing the federal fundraising limits so that we can ensure that the Mayor is beholden only to the people of the city of Pittsburgh.
Sincerely Yours,
Franco Dok Harris
Independent Progressive
For Mayor
.
7 comments:
Thank you Dok for bringing a little integrity to Pittsburgh politics... It's about time someone steer this city in the right direction, and I for one am sick and tired of these back-room deals and pay-to-play politics! You've got my vote
The influence of big money is the reason why this city's going down the tubes. I'm beginning to think that Lamar Advertising and the big developers are the only ones that run the city. Too bad there aren't more people like this guy Dok Harris.
I like that somebody is finally taking the "for sale" sign off the mayor's office door. I voted for DeSantis last time around, but it'll be nice to have a candidate I can feel good about voting FOR instead of voting against the mayor.
This confirms what I've feared all along about Dok... that he's not serious about really trying to beat the mayor, and that he's looking to boost his credentials to run for City Council in four years.
Voluntarily limiting your own contributions--when we know that the mayor will not--is a good way to ensure that you aren't even competing in the same arena.
"Following in the footsteps of President Barack Obama.."
/snort
0bama had no guidelines or restrictions on who and how much they could contribute, much less following "Federal guidelines". It is a well-known FACT 0bama's campaign removed CC verifcation procedures, thereby negating any reasonable effort(s) to monitor and/or curtail tracing of "contributions"... I'd bet a good amount of 0bama's contributions came from overseas (illegal) and/or were in excess of campaign contribution limits (again, illegal).
Have to LMAO at a candidate limiting himslef/herself... I have NO problem with unlimited contributions as long as ANY and ALL contributions are disclosed within a reasonable time period.. say, 24-48 hours. ANY violation must include immediate forfeiture of current elected office and/or office elected to.
Also, what the heck is an "Independent Progressive"?
Early Returns pointed out that Dok has a bunch of contributors who exceeded his limit:
http://community.post-gazette.com/blogs/earlyreturns/archive/2009/07/22/harris-on-campaign-finance.aspx
Those six donors gave Harris a total of $14,600 over the federal limit he says he's going to follow.
He says he's limiting donations because he's committed to the "people of this city." But all six of those big donors live outside the city. Three of them live outside the state.
You're dropping the ball, Franco.
Post a Comment