[EL] Ban on contributions by developers

[Fredric Woocher]

There was a Ninth Circuit case from many years ago, written by Judge Norris, that held a similar ban or limit on contributions from developers to be unconstitutional – I think it was from Santa Barbara – because the law allowed unlimited contributions from citizens opposing the development project.  I forget the exact details and the name of the case, but perhaps you can find it with this information.  I think it was from the 1980’s or 1990’s.

Fredric D. Woocher
Strumwasser & Woocher LLP
10940 Wilshire Blvd., Ste. 2000
Los Angeles, CA 90024
fwoocher at strumwooch.com<mailto:fwoocher at strumwooch.com>
(310) 576-1233
From: Law-election [mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] On Behalf Of ben.sheffner at gmail.com
Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2019 10:46 AM
To: law-election at UCI.edu
Subject: [EL] Ban on contributions by developers

The Los Angeles City Council is considering imposing a ban on contributions to candidates for city office by real estate developers. Is anyone aware of similar regulations, and challenges to them?

Here's a description of the proposal from the LA Times:

https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-developer-donations-20190115-story.html

Under the proposal, real estate developers would be barred from giving to city candidates and officeholders once they have turned in an application that requires city approval or other action, provided that the request involves building or adding more than 4,000 square feet of floor area for residential projects or 15,000 square feet for commercial projects.

The donation ban would last until a year after a final decision is made on the application, the proposal said. The restrictions would apply to the owner of the property being developed, including principals of any legal entity that owns the property.

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