Things you can legally do, in Coronado, with a credit card:
1- Vote for “Canine Mayor” to support PAWS of Coronado
2- Pay the parking meters on Orange Ave.
3- Buy a Navy SEAL a drink at McP’s
4- Pay the Transit Occupancy Tax with your hotel bill at the Del
5- Pay your greens fees at the municipal golf course.
6- Enroll your kids in the Jr. Lifeguard program
7- Pay for your daughter’s wedding at the City-owned “Nautilus Room” in the Community Center
8- pay your sales tax when you rent a boat from Seaforth Boat rentals
9- pay for your annual gym membership at the Community Center
10- pay for one of 76 courses offered by the Recreation Department
What MIGHT sentence you to jail if you use a credit card?
Express your First Amendment right, to support a candidate, by donating to her campaign with a credit card
Comments 4
Some day soon I’ll write up my bizarre experience with the city of San Diego Ethics Commission’s full audit of my little campaign for mayor in 2005. I conservatively estimate they spent $9,000 to extract a $250 fine from me for technical violations and a couple minor errors. And I DO mean “bizarre.”
Government certainly knows how to discourage citizens from running for office. Though I’m SUURRREEEE that’s not the intent.
One of the silliest articles and stories I’ve read in a long time. How is the public interest served by that restriction and — more prominently — by the subsequent inquiry?
Great post, Brian.
Coronado’s campaign finance ordinance does not define “check” nor does it distinguish between paper or electronic checks – this is where the original ambiguity originated from.
Several months ago I made a request that City Council clarify the language so that all forms of contributions allowed by the FPPC were also allowed to Coronadans or make it clear that only paper checks were allowed. The Council refused to even consider the request. The Mayor claimed that requiring paper checks was not too burdensome and implied that explicitly allowing electronic contributions could advantage one candidate over another (presumably me over my opponent).
The only way to have a legal resolution on the matter was to formally request the special counsel review it so I personally made the request to have the counsel review my mayoral campaign.
The special counsel’s narrow interpretation of our ordinance makes Coronado the only city in San Diego county and one of only a few in the entire nation that only allow old-fashioned paper checks.
Because cashiers checks and money orders are not allowed by the FPPC, I have no means easily available to donate to my own campaign.
All pretty darn silly if you ask me.
I dodged a bullet on this. I’m “old school” in my contributions — writing checks rather than using my credit card. I want the full amount of my modest donations to go to the candidates (and to his or her consulting firm).
I’ll admit it — I DID give money to Richard Bailey’s race. Only my old-fashioned preference for checks caused me to avoid committing (another) misdemeanor. The Coronado PD SWAT team will not besiege my Scripps Ranch home after all.