A. Increasingly high campaign expenditures have become endemic in American politics, and campaigns in the City of Alhambra are no exception. Incidental to the high cost of election campaigning is the problem of improper influence, real, potential, or perceived, campaign contributions may have in local elections and policy making.
B. Equal and fair representation is paramount to democracy. A by-district electoral system helps to ensure compliance with the California Voting Rights Act and that all city residents are fairly and equally represented by councilpersons of their districts. Such a system is intended to preserve democratic institutions, foster responsible government, decrease the cost of running an effective City Council campaign and subsequently money’s influence in politics, and encourage greater electorate participation in the political and governmental process.
C. It is the purpose and intent of this legislation to:
1. Place realistic and enforceable limits on the amounts persons and other entities may contribute to political campaigns in Alhambra municipal elections;
2. Ensure and promote integrity, honesty, fairness, and transparency in municipal election campaigns;
3. Provide opportunity for all citizens to become candidates for city office unhindered by a need to meet increasingly high campaign costs;
4. Prevent impropriety, the appearance of impropriety, or the potential for corruption;
5. Place a premium on messaging, qualifications, and good governance rather than fundraising and power politics;
6. Alleviate the time, financial burden, and need for excessive fundraising while running for City Council by limiting both the geographic area in which candidates need to campaign and the number of voters which candidates need to reach, thereby emphasizing issues of importance to their constituents;
7. Better ensure that the demographic makeup of the city will be more equally and fairly represented by their elected leaders;
8. Incentivize councilpersons elected from their districts to better represent the residents of their districts;
9. Eliminate district vote dilution;
10. Diminish the possibility that a minority group would face dilution of their votes;
11. Encourage more candidates to run for City Council by removing monetary barriers, thus fostering more competitive elections;
12. Provide full and fair enforcement of all the provisions of this article.