Seattle Press Editorials

Keep $400 as the Limit for City Campaign Contributions

The Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission wants to raise the contribution limit from $400 to $800 for candidates to city offices. At least some of them do. The recommendation passed the commission 5-3 with two members not present. Two members are going to file a minority report. The commission's recommendations and the minority report go to a City Council committee July 6.

In the last few elections, the average contribution has been $100 or less. There are very few contributions in the $100 to $300 range, but there have been a lot of $400 contributions.

If City Council approves raising the limit to $800, chances are that many of those $400 contributors will move up to the next level. The smaller contributors will lose their influence in proportion to the larger contributors.

An increased limit also gives another big advantage to incumbents.

The current contribution limit helps to level the playing field among candidates from different financial circles. And we think the $400 limit compels candidates to go out and get a lot of people committed to their campaigns-committed enough to write a check. With an $800 limit, candidates won't have to ask as many people to raise the same amount of money. That's bad for democracy.

Should we make it easier for incumbents and people with lots of well-off friends to raise campaign contributions? That's the question the City Council will be asked. They should resist the temptation to say yes.

Flags fly over Adobe Plaza during the Fremont Fair.

Thanks to the Fremont Arts Council and the Fremont Public Association

First of all, let's never forget that the gala, world-famous Fremont Fair is a fundraiser for our finest local poverty fighting machine, the Fremont Public Association (FPA). A small percentage of the money we spent on beer, games and gimcracks last weekend goes to help the hungry, the homeless, the battered and beleaguered of our communities. The flags on the plaza were a vivid reminder of the underlying purpose of Fremont Fair frenzy. But the FPA deserves the praise of everyone in the community for the spectacular job they do in putting together a festive, entertaining and original summer party that thousands of people can enjoy. Thank you, Fremont Public Association.

This year's parade was absolutely awesome. The number of volunteers building floats, sewing costumes and marching, dancing, stilt-walking, bicycling, wheelchairing, pushing floats and playing music must have been in the thousands. We owe a great debt of gratitude to the Fremont Arts Council for this annual living tradition; their coordination of a chaos of volunteers and tasks has created the mobile, mind-boggling spectacle that makes Fremont a synonym for creativity and community.

It was a great fair and parade.

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