You might remember that I wrote this last month about Mayor Jerry Sanders’ decision to turn down campaign contributions from developers and others with city business before the city of San Diego.
This issue popped up again in today’s Union-Tribune article. The Chargers, saying the mayor has taken a swipe at opponent Steve Francis by implying he is endorsed by the team, pointed out that a Sanders supporter solicited team owner Alex Spanos to give the mayor a campaign contribution.
Here’s what Sanders campaign consultant Tom Shepard had to say to the U-T:
Shepard added that the Chargers are on a list of donors from whom the campaign will not accept money because of their business relationship with the city.
So, this reminded me to follow up with Shepard and see if there was an actual list of potential donors that are forbidden from giving to the campaign.
Here’s Shepard’s response, via e-mail:
That’s not the way it works. The people from whom we don’t accept contributions is constantly growing as new issues come before the city. Each check we receive is reviewed by appropriate staff to determine if the donor currently has anything pending. If it’s determined that they do, the contribution is refunded. Obviously this is an imperfect process because the city is a large organization, and at any given time dozens or hundreds of people and businesses may have some sort of contact. If it is subsequently determined that a check slipped through, we refund it when we find out. You can review our disclosure reports to see checks that have been returned.