S.L. Council overrides Rocky's veto

For the first time ever, the Salt Lake City Council has overridden a mayoral veto from Rocky Anderson.

How Anderson will respond remains to be seen.

The council voted Tuesday to override Anderson's second veto of the city's new Campaign Finance Disclosure Ordinance. Anderson could challenge the law in court or let it stand, although Council Chairman Dale Lambert said a legal challenge was unlikely.

The ordinance was originally reviewed to make sure candidates couldn't spend campaign contributions for personal reasons.

But the council also decided to add a provision to raise the maximum amount one contributor could give to a mayoral candidate from $7,500 to $10,000 and from $1,500 to $2,000 for a City Council candidate.

Anderson thought that was too high and vetoed the ordinance. Of course, there are ways to get around the minimums anyway. Millionaire Bruce Bastian, for instance, gave Anderson $22,500 in the mayor's record-setting 2003 campaign where he raised $769,000. Bastian was able to funnel separate maximum contributions to Anderson's campaign through personal and businesses accounts.

Such funneling is legal and can't be banned because courts have found attempts to ban the practice unconstitutional.

After Anderson's first veto the council abandoned the increases and instead amended the ordinance to make sure that "coordinated" attempts to advertise for a candidate's campaign would have to be disclosed as a contribution.

The council's move came after Anderson coordinated an effort with the Yellow Cab Drivers Association to put window wraps on taxis during his re-election bid.

Anderson declined to claim the cab wraps as a free advertising contribution even though some industry experts said the wraps were worth some $60,000 in free ads.

The mayor maintained the new ordinance unfairly and unconstitutionally picked on taxis and made it too hard for candidates to figure out what things were advertising that needed to be claimed as a contribution and what were simply candidate support, like hanging a campaign sign in a business window.

With those reservations Anderson again vetoed the ordinance.

After overriding Anderson's second veto, the council tweaked the ordinance in an effort to mitigate some of the mayor's concerns and give candidates more direction.