Wichita City Council postpones controversial vote on corporate political donations

An ordinance that would lift the ban on corporate political donations to city campaigns will go to advisory boards for input before the Wichita City Council votes.

City staff will present amended ordinance language to all six district advisory boards before bringing the proposal back to the council on March 5 for a vote that could undo the campaign finance reform finalized by the then-Democratic majority on Jan. 2 through an emergency declaration.

The council, which shifted members and majorities since then, deferred a vote on the ordinance Tuesday.

Democratic District 1 representative Brandon Johnson made the substitute motion to defer a vote after more than an hour of spirited public input and debate from the bench.

All four Republican and Libertarian members spoke in favor of restoring corporations’ and limited liability companies’ right to donate up to $500 to city candidates. But District 2 representative Becky Tuttle supported Johnson’s motion to slow down the process.

“I stated before I didn’t think last time was an emergency. I know there’s some difference of opinion,” Tuttle said. “But on Jan. 9, I did say that I wanted more community engagement and I asked why this hasn’t gone to the DABs. I don’t think that we can ever have enough transparency. I don’t think we can ever have enough community engagement opportunities.”

Libertarian Mayor Lily Wu joined the motion to defer, as did Vice Mayor Maggie Ballard and Mike Hoheisel, who championed the original campaign finance reform.

The council unanimously approved an amendment to the language of the proposed ordinance that would require campaigns to list either the owner of the limited liability company that contributes or the person responsible for the company’s political donations on disclosure forms filed with the Sedgwick County Election Office.

That amendment and the rest of the ordinance could be implemented with a majority vote of the council in March.

Before 2015, the city barred political committees, corporations, partnerships, trusts, labor unions, business groups and other organizations from contributing to candidates. But those restrictions were dropped in 2015, five years after the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Citizens United decision, which prohibits the government from restricting independent spending for political campaigns by corporations and other groups.

Public input

Community members had plenty to say about the campaign finance proposal during Tuesday’s meeting.

Wess Galyon, president of the Wichita Area Builders Association, asked the council to drop the restriction in the name of promoting a more involved citizenry.

“We have, over the years, encouraged businesses backed by citizen owners to get involved in the political process, get more engaged in having an influence over public policy,” Galyon said.

Celeste Racette, who ran unsuccessfully for mayor last year, said businesses already have an “outsized voice” in Wichita. She said preserving the ban on corporate donations is the only way to keep local elections competitive.

“When you’re outraised six to one and you’re a grassroots campaign with volunteers working the streets . . . you cannot compete with nearly a million dollars being spent on TV ads, mailers, flyers, paid staff, campaign strategists. It just ain’t possible,” Racette said.

She pointed out that there’s no restriction on the number of $500 contributions any one business owner can make from separate LLCs registered to the same address, creating an easy work-around for deep-pocketed donors.

Sedgwick County Republican Party Chair Deb Lucia said the ban does nothing to make elections more transparent, arguing that money would simply be diverted through other entities that aren’t required to disclose their donors.

“The emergency ordinance passed two weeks ago took control of our community away from the people that have invested in our city and that are the heart of Wichita, and hands the control over to outside influencers, special interest groups and PACs, whose donors are hidden from view with no transparency,” Lucia said.

Mark Barlow questioned why revisiting the campaign finance reform is such a high priority for the new council.

“I’m just not sure how much money y’all actually need to run for office,” he said.