Comments
PASADENA POLITICS - Frustration is mounting in Pasadena at efforts by mayor Victor Gordo to obstruct reasonable limits on campaign donations backed by city residents and a city task force on good governance.
A variety of community leaders plan to address Pasadena City Council on Monday, Sept. 23, in support of lower contribution limits of $1,000 for Council candidates and $2,500 for mayoral candidates in the city.
The groundswell for the reduced caps, down from a maximum of $5,500 for all candidates, comes one week after Gordo killed consideration of an ordinance to enact the lower limits. His no vote deadlocked the Council in a 4-4 tally and scuttled the measure, in the works for three years and widely supported as a safeguard against corruption.
In March 2024, Gordo won re-election to a second term as Pasadena mayor, drawing large contributions from several wealthy donors in Los Angeles alongside political givers in Sacramento and from out of state.
One contribution that stands out is $5,500 from the Pasadena Police Officers Association PAC, which oddly has an address in Sacramento. Gordo has consistently challenged policy proposals to exert strong oversight of Pasadena policing.
Pasadena mayor Victor Gordo received a $5,500 donation from the Pasadena Police Officers Association PAC for his March 2024 re-election as mayor. Gordo is fighting efforts to lower the caps on contributions to city candidates to $1,000 for City Council and $2,500 for mayor.
This included, when Gordo served as Councilmember, repeated derailment of debate during an April 2016 Council meeting against establishment of an oversight commission to review use of force and evaluate police misconduct.
Public records of contributions to Gordo’s earlier campaigns, including his 2020 campaign for Pasadena mayor, show donations of $15,000 and even $20,000 from particular sources. In a twist of logic that mystifies some stakeholders, Gordo has defended taking such enormous campaign donations — which are 10 times the maximum allowed by candidates for L.A. County Supervisor — as a tool for leveling the playing field.
East Area Progressive Democrats (EAPD), which includes more than 50 members in Pasadena, urged City Councilmembers and the mayor to approve lower limits on campaign contributions. Councilmembers Rivas, Lyon, Madison, and Williams voted for the ordinance to do so. But Councilmembers Hampton, Jones, and Masuda along with Mayor Victor Gordo killed the ordinance on a 4-4 vote on Sept. 16.
At the August 16, 2021, meeting of Pasadena City Council, for example, Gordo justified taking huge donations from some donors as enabling him to challenge and defeat the previous mayor.
Gordo’s statements defy decades of evidence, experience, and common sense about the effects of large donations in campaigns for municipal governance. Watchdogs from Common Cause to East Area Progressive Democrats (EAPD) have warned Pasadena Councilmembers that failing to reduce the $5,500 cap on donations enables favor-seeking interests to leverage their large contributions for favorable action in city decision-making. Left unchecked, these high-dollar donations corrode public trust that Council members and the mayor are unbeholden to or unconflicted by the money they receive from players with a stake in their decisions.
Pasadena Councilmember Jess Rivas has made it her priority to improve ethics in city government and listen to residents and stakeholders to reduce the contribution caps.
“I am disappointed, but not surprised, that the Council has again refused to enact the will of the people who have been calling for reasonable campaign contribution limits for years,” said Rivas. “This is a commonsense reform that is badly needed to promote a more level playing field between candidates and to help minimize the influence, and appearance of influence, of big money in our local elections.”
Letter to Mayor Gordo and Councilmembers.
(Hans Johnson is a longtime leader for LGBTQ+ human rights, environmental justice, and public education. His columns appear in national news outlets including USA Today and in top daily news outlets of more than 20 states. A resident of Eagle Rock, he is also president of East Area Progressive Democrats (EAPD), the largest grassroots Democratic club in California, with more than 1,100 members.)
