Lincoln Club Targets Nonpartisan Elections

The Lincoln Club of Orange County, long a bastion of wealthy Republican donors to state and federal candidates, has targeted a handful of cities that prohibit its contributions to nonpartisan local elections.

The club filed a lawsuit this week against the city of Irvine, alleging that barring the club from spending money in local races is an unconstitutional restraint on free speech.

A city law prohibits any association with dues greater than $320 a year from launching campaigns to support or oppose candidates and ballot measures. The Lincoln Club assesses its 300 members annual fees, which will be $2,000 each starting in January.

Other lawsuits will be filed in coming months against similar laws in Huntington Beach, Anaheim and Orange, said Lincoln Club President Michael D. Capaldi, a lawyer in Newport Beach.

“The core issue here is whether a club like the Lincoln Club or any other club has the right to get its opinion heard,” Capaldi said Friday. “These laws are just unconstitutional.”

Irvine Mayor Christina L. Shea said she was unaware of the lawsuit. She said City Atty. Joel Kuperberg warned when the contribution limits were adopted in 1995 that the provision limiting independent spending might be challenged in court.

“I support limits,” Shea said. “My concern has been that unions could come out, and they could spend big bucks on a candidate when it should be a level playing field.”

Kuperberg said the topic of independent spending has been discussed over the years at the city. He said it wouldn’t be appropriate to comment until he has read the lawsuit.

Though known most for its financial muscle in state and federal races, the Lincoln Club has become more active in local elections in recent years, worrying some that it could inject party politics into nonpartisan races. The club encourages its members to donate generously to favored candidates and causes during election years.

Many cities and the county, however, limit the ability of organizations to give money beyond donations from individuals. Outside groups often want to spend money on what are called independent expenditures, so named because they must be separate from--and cannot be coordinated with--any candidate or ballot measure campaign.

In 1990 before the Irvine ordinance was passed, the club spent $25,000 as an independent expenditure to defeat then-Mayor Larry Agran, a Democrat at the time. Agran, who now has no party affiliation, was elected to a council seat in 1998.

Two years ago, after the ban took effect, Kuperberg told Lincoln Club officer Howard Klein that the club’s proposed independent expenditure on behalf of two council candidates would violate the local ordinance. The club ultimately canceled its plans.

At the time, UC Irvine political science professor Mark Petracca raised questions about the legality of the club’s proposed spending. He said Friday that he wasn’t surprised by the lawsuit and that the limits on associations could be invalidated.

“The Lincoln Club is serving the public interest by challenging provisions which deserve to be tested,” Petracca said. “What’s uncomfortable, though, is they’re doing it at a level in which partisanship should have very little influence.”

All municipal and county offices are required under state law to be nonpartisan. If the Irvine ordinance is overturned, it would open the door to organizations like the Lincoln Club to inject party politics into local elections, Petracca said.

The lawsuit claims that the Irvine ordinance violates the club’s free-speech rights by barring its ability for independent spending. The club, formed in 1962, is a nonprofit, mutual-benefit corporation that has a political action committee through which contributions are made.

Capaldi said that the club is looking for ways to “continue to work for good government” in Orange County and that “we intend to be very involved in Irvine.”