There’s a reason they call election time “the silly season.”
But it doesn’t get much sillier than what’s going on with campaign finance in the Wichita City Council 1st District race.
Supporters of candidate LaWanda DeShazer are alleging that her opponent, Joseph Shepard, has violated a city ordinance capping contributions at $500. But the companion question is whether the ordinance itself violates state law, which would mean Shepard did nothing wrong, which is what his supporters are saying.
Both those things could be, and probably are, true.
And none of it matters in the real world, for reasons I’ll get to in a moment.
WICHITA’S code’s contribution limit is, as stated, $500. But earlier this year, the Kansas Legislature passed a law raising the limit to $2,000 for local races in cities over 50,000 population, of which Wichita is one.
So, does a candidate follow the city code, or the state law? Which takes precedence? Where does the true limit lie?
City Attorney Jennifer Magana insists that the city’s limit is the ruling law. But her case is weak.
“An ordinance is presumptively valid,” she told Eagle reporter Chance Swaim. “So it’s the city’s position this ordinance is in effect.”
But all that’s really saying is that the city plans to keep doing what it’s doing — right or wrong.
“There is a framework for home rule in Kansas,” Magana said. “There is a series of questions and processes, and I can’t really speculate on how this would play out until and unless there was a challenge in court.”
That’s inadequate.
It’s the job of a city attorney to analyze City Council actions and make judgments on what is and isn’t a valid exercise of municipal authority — and advise the members accordingly, even if that means sometimes telling them they’re wrong.
It’s not the job of a city attorney to sit back and tell the electeds whatever they want to do is OK, until somebody takes the city to court.
That’s especially true when it comes to election integrity.
Shepard has decided to comply with the city ordinance and return $620, rather than become the test case for money in politics. It’s the right call politically, but it doesn’t solve the underlying problem of the confusing mismatch between state and local law.
The city can pretty easily solve this problem if it wants to. There’s a provision in the Kansas Constitution called “home rule” that allows municipalities to opt out of state laws under certain conditions.
