CP: Kraus $$$ may be OK
Over at City Paper, new father Chris Potter puts the diapers down for a second to get into the similarly fetid world of Pittsburgh City Council and campaign financing.
We wrote yesterday that the Jeff Koch camp claims incumbent District 3 councilman Bruce Kraus has flouted the city financing rules approved in 2009. Potter takes the story a step further by noting fellow incumbents (and mayoral critics) Patrick Dowd and Darlene Harris have done the same thing . . . but are still OK. The final version of the ordinance defined covered elections as every "primary, general or special election," meaning the candidates can likely double-up their contributions every year like congressional candidates do.
So are Kraus and Dowd in the right? You could make a good case, although there is something weird about all this. [Dowd contributor Dan] Booker didn't make two separate contributions -- he made one. Kraus and Dowd are the ones who divided it, and since money is fungible, we'd have to take their word about which dollars got used when.
Not that it matters anyway -- as my post noted (via a statement from the longtime county elections director Mark Wolosik) the county does not have the power to enforce the ordinance. That (said bill co-author Bill Peduto) is partially because county exec Dan Onorato never signed on to similar county rules as expected.
We also asked city Soliticor Dan Regan for his ruling on these issues, but have not heard back.