Move to increase campaign donation caps hits snag in Oakland City Council

A proposal to temporarily increase campaign contribution limits for the November election has stalled, after the City Council failed to meet a quorum for the legislation’s passage.

The change, proposed by Councilmembers Janani Ramachandran and Kevin Jenkins, would have increased campaign contribution limits to $800 from individual donors and $1,500 from political committees until 2027. It passed its first reading on Oct. 1 in a 5-2 vote, but at the second reading, which was scheduled for last week, several council members were absent, and the meeting was canceled.

The cancellation further strained an already tight timeline for the proposal. Had last week’s meeting occurred, the increase likely would not have gone into effect until three weeks before Election Day. Now the soonest implementation of the change — if it were to pass — would be just a week before the election. 

“I’m very reluctant to schedule this, given the staffing capacity it would take to do the outreach … and potentially deal with any campaign violations,” Council President Nikki Fortunado Bas, said at the Oct. 10 Rules & Legislation Committee meeting. 

Bas and Councilmember Noel Gallo voted against the proposal at the first reading. Bas was also one of several council members who did not attend last week’s meeting, preventing a quorum from being met.

Ramachandran and Jenkins withdrew the item at the Rules meeting.

Neither have responded to multiple requests for comment. While Ramachandran has publicly said she hopes to reintroduce the item at a future meeting, it remains unclear when that could happen. 

Ramachandran and Jenkins initially proposed the increase to contribution limits in response to the tumultuous implementation of Measure W, which among other things, lowered contribution limits to $600 from individuals and $1,200 from political committees. The measure, which passed in 2022, also was supposed to implement “Democracy Dollars,” a voucher-based public financing program for candidates. But amid Oakland’s budget crisis, Democracy Dollars was postponed. 

Ramachandran and Jenkins said this created a funding gap for candidates, which they hoped to close by increasing contribution limits to near their pre-Measure W levels. Critics, including members of the Public Ethics Commission, worried that an increase this late would disproportionately benefit candidates with strong networks to wealthy donors.

Oakland Council set to increase campaign contribution cap for three years, saying the limit isn’t fair to candidates