City Retains Limits on Campaign Donations : Elections: Anaheim council deadlocks on repeal of law that caps individual contributions in local contests at $1,000.

A 6-year-old Anaheim law that limits individual campaign contributions in local elections will stand for now.

The City Council deadlocked 2 to 2 Tuesday( on whether to repeal the controversial statute, which limits donations to $1,000 and authorizes investigations into campaign finance abuses.

George Adams, chairman of the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce’s political action committee, was among those who spoke against changing the ordinance. “I would like to see the $1,000 limit stay in place. It helps keep everyone in line and helps keep a level playing field,” he said.

On the other side was Councilman Tom Tait. “I’ve long felt that this ordinance should be repealed,” he said, arguing that limiting political contributions is tantamount to restricting speech in violation of the First Amendment.

He and Councilman Frank Feldhaus cast the two votes for repeal, while Councilwomen Shirley McCracken and Lucille Kring voted to let the ordinance stand.

Kring, who proposed the repeal earlier this year, said she changed her position after hearing support for the policy from members of the public and the business community.

Mayor Tom Daly abstained.

The law led to controversy after the 1996 election, when a special prosecutor was appointed to look into allegations that several city officials, including Daly, McCracken and Feldhaus, had violated it.

Charges were filed against them by special prosecutor Ravi Mehta, a former chairman of the California Fair Political Practices Commission, whom the City Council hired and later fired amid accusations that his investigation, which cost the city more than $300,000, had run amok.

The charges against Daly were eventually dismissed. Feldhaus paid a $10,000 fine for violating reporting requirements. McCracken paid a $6,500 fine for failing to list in a 1996 campaign report the occupations and employers of 35 contributors, as required by state law.

Still, McCracken said Tuesday that she could not support repeal of the law.

“Just because it’s not working well doesn’t mean that we have to get rid of it,” she said. “I am of the opinion that the $1,000 limit prevents any individual or corporation from putting too much pressure on a candidate by contributing an excess amount of funds.”

McCracken had supported a previous proposal to revise the law, but that was defeated when the council deadlocked on the issue at an August meeting.

Though fewer than 15% of California cities set limits on local campaign contributions, several in Orange County do so, among them Irvine, Santa Ana, Orange and Mission Viejo.

If no local ordinance addresses the issue, city elections are governed by state rules, which require full disclosure of contributions but do not limit donations.