Mayoral Race Raises Financing Questions for Municipal Elections

Mayoral candidate, state Senator and Alderman Ted Gatsas runs his campaign out of several small rooms in a building a short distance from City Hall.
One room is filled with campaign paraphanalia, including a supply of those signs one sees all over Manchester.
As of late September, he’d spent nearly $20,000 on them.
Campaign worker at the office: The third room is where we have our volunteers set up, they work on mailings, get out the vote, they work on phone calls, all sorts of stuff.
Gatsas has reported spending a total of about $40,000 on advertising, and about $15,000 on postage.
And overall, he has spent more than $100,000, to be mayor of Manchester.
It may sound like a lot, but it’s less than half the $232, 000 he’s received so far in campaign donations.
Eight donors alone gave him $10,000 each.
And it’s all legal.
Even though there are campaign contribution limits for statewide office, there are none for local office.
Gatsas checked on it himself with the Manchester City Clerk.
Gatsas: So, I can ask somebody for $100,000, and he can finance my campaign -- yes he can. As long as you declare it, you declare your expenses. You can get it from one contributor; you can get it from 400. We've got in excess of 300 people that have contributed to this campaign, so we've followed the rules as they're set down.
His opponent, Alderman Mark Roy has also received a $10,000 donation in in-kind contribution.
But his campaign has raised about fifth of Gatsas’s and his spending is far less.
The Manchester charter says that provisions of state election law apply to all municipal primary and general elections to the extent practicable.
But City Clerk Matt Normand says restricting campaign contributions is not part of it.
Normand: It is through reading of charter as well as past practice. We've never had any sort of restrictions on donations or expenditures, except that over $500 you're required to report your receipts.
Assistant Attorney General Jim Kennedy heads the election division.
He says state lawmakers have made some rules apply to local elections.
KENNEDY: ..One person-one vote, how the absentee balloting rules apply, that applies to city elections, but in so far as to political expenditures and contributions that individuals can provide on a local level to local candidates, our legislature has decided that it's not an area that they want to get involved in...
But Deputy Secretary of State David Scanlan says the issue of campaign finance has been cropping up more recently in local elections.
Scanlan: Until recent times, running as a candidate in a local election has not been a big money event. That I think is changing, especially in cities, where campaigns are becoming sophisticated and they're spending a lot more on elections. I think as that continues to happen you'll probably see more and mroe pieces of legislation filed in the future to try and regulate elections at the local level.
Ginny Schneider is with the Coalition for Open Democracy.
The organization advocates for campaign finance reform in the state.
She says large donations should raise red flags.
Schneider: Anybody who's voting should be looking at the money that's going into a candidate's campaign to see if they support those interests....we don't think any interest should be represented except the voters' interests, the individual voters.
Senator Gatsas defended his record on this issue.
Gatsas: Listen, my integrity is always on the line with every vote that I take, and I have no problem, if you've followed my history, that I've taken positions in opposition to people that have contributed to my campaign.
And says Gatsas, it’s a little frustrating for him to hear this criticism.
Because in the past, opponents have complained he used too much of his own money.
Gatsas: Now I say okay that's a fair thing. Let me go out and see if I can raise it because that certainly is an important issue. Now I have the ability to raise it and they say, Geez you're not raising it the right way. Well, what is it? Do you want me to spend my own? Would you like me to raise it? Or maybe we can do something different.
One change he advocates: faster disclosure of large donations.
But Gatsas says any campaign finance reform should be up for public discussion -- as part of an effort to revise the city charter.
Gatsas and Roy start off a series of mayoral debates at the NH Institute of Politics at St Anselm College on Wed, October 7th. .
For NHPR News in Manchester, I'm EG.