The Alameda County Board of Supervisors declined a proposal to substantially increase campaign contribution limits Tuesday.
The proposal, sponsored by Supervisors David Haubert and Nate Miley, would have increased the amount of money individual donors can give supervisor candidates from $20,000 to $40,000 per election.
It would have also increased the limit for donors giving to candidates for countywide offices like district attorney or sheriff from $40,000 to $60,000 per election.
Miley said that the limits haven’t been increased since they were adopted in 2010, after now-disgraced former supervisor Nadia Lockyer’s influential husband, former California attorney general and state treasurer Bill Lockyer, dropped $1 million on her campaign.
Since then, the cost to run a political campaign in the county has increased substantially and Miley said that without raising contribution limits, candidates will be outspent by independent expenditure committees and political action committees.
“They can put in as much money and skew an election towards their candidate, and as a candidate, your viability to compete would be diminished, diminished significantly, because the PACs and independent expenditure committees can raise umpteen amount of money from any number of sources and just dwarf your ability to be competitive, to get your message out,” Miley said.
Haubert: Low limits favor wealthy candidates
Haubert suggested that because cities and counties can’t limit the amount individuals spend on their own campaigns, wealthy candidates enjoy an outsized advantage, especially in places like San Francisco that severely limit contributions.
“Campaign contribution limits ensure that those with their own money will win and that more IEs will be spent,” Haubert said.
Current rules also favor incumbents, who tend to attract more donors and thus more money than challengers with less name recognition, Haubert said.
Miley and Haubert also offered to lower the amount of their contribution cap proposal if it would make it more palatable to their colleagues on the board.
Still, supervisors Lena Tam and Nikki Fortunato Bas remained skeptical — Elisa Márquez was excused — with both noting that Alameda County’s limits are already higher than other counties’.
“It’s just not clear to me now, in 2025, whether, since this is pretty much the highest campaign limit for a supervisor race in the state, whether or not this is something that’s needed, particularly in our county as compared to other counties,” Tam said.
Fortunato Bas said she thinks that raising the contribution limit would favor wealthy donors and that she’s in favor of implementing some kind of campaign finance reform.
“I would like to have public financing. I really want more people to run for office and there to be a level playing field.” Supervisor Nikki Fortunato Bas
“I would like to have public financing,” Fortunato Bas said. “I really want more people to run for office and there to be a level playing field.”
While the proposal failed, the supervisors did approve eliminating a county rule that prohibits candidates from having multiple open campaign finance committees.
Under the old rules, candidates are required to fully pay off debts from previous elections before opening a new committee in the county.