Mayoral candidate sues over Austin's outside funding cap

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Austin mayoral candidate Doug Greco -- the former leader of Central Texas Interfaith -- filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the city over its rule that limits the amount of money local candidates can take from people outside of city limits.

That rule caps city council and mayoral candidates to an aggregate of $47,000 from outside donors, the lawsuit says.

"Why should my niece who will be voting for the first time, she's 18...why is she not able to donate to her uncle, but another candidate's niece in west Austin can donate to their campaign? That's not fair," Greco told reporters outside of the federal courthouse in downtown Austin Tuesday.

Greco and his attorney are asking that a hearing be set no later than early October to potentially allow that cap to be lifted heading into the November election. Greco is running against current Mayor Kirk Watson, former Austin City Council Member Kathie Tovo, Carmen Llanes Pulido and Jeffery Bowen.

A city of Austin spokesperson responded:

The City of Austin is aware of the recent federal lawsuit challenging its Charter provision limiting campaign contributions from donors outside the City limits. The City will respond to the lawsuit through the appropriate court process.

The challenged aggregate contribution limit was part of a voter-led initiative in the late 1990s to maintain the integrity of the City’s local council elections.

One-on-one with Greco

Grace Reader: I wasn't around when this rule was put in place, but my guess would be that the goal is to make sure that the folks who were funding these races would benefit from them -- they live in Austin. What do you say to folks who don't want your niece or someone from Pennsylvania sending you money?

Greco: Whatever the intended effect was in 1997 disadvantages the folks who need a broad base of support. The majority of Austinites have not grown up here, but we come here to work and make this a better city. I'm representing them as well. If we run for office after a lifetime of service here we shouldn't be disadvantaged because you grew up in the coal region of Pennsylvania or you grew up in Tyler, Texas.

Reader: Do you not ultimately think that this could set the precedent that, for example, a candidate down the road could get tens of thousands of dollars from someone in Colorado and have it really impact what's happening here in Austin?

Greco: Look we have $450 caps. So there are individual caps. Everything has to be disclosed. So if someone is taking money from developers that obviously have an interest in Austin but live outside, that has to be disclosed, what their occupation is. The check against it is the fact that those donations have to be disclosed.

Other candidates respond

Candidate Kathie Tovo reached out to KXAN in support of the campaign finance rule.

"Austin voters passed this campaign reform rule overwhelmingly because they didn't want our city politics dominated by outside special interests," Tovo -- a former Austin City Council member -- said. "Austin's campaign rules were passed to protect the power of voters. I support the law. We need reform to give Austinites more of a voice, not to open the doors to outside money."

Mayor Kirk Watson's campaign team declined to comment as did Carmen Llanes-Pulido.

"As someone that has been a plaintiff against the city and served this country to protect our rights, if Mr. Greco wants to take his issue to the courts, he is within his right to do just that," Jeffery Bowen said. "Hopefully, he realizes this also favors Mr. Watson in regards to how much he collected outside the city limits. I have questions about who set the limit and who determined the limit amount."

You can read more about each mayoral candidate here.

Greco trails Watson in donations

Mayor Kirk Watson pulled in more fundraising dollars than all of his opponents combined last reporting period -- from the first of the year until the end of June -- by a significant margin.

During that period, Watson reported $710,580.84 in contributions.

Greco was his closest opponent at $88,334.00 in contributions. Carmen Llanes Pulido gathered $71,007.00 and former Austin city council member Kathie Tovo fundraised $57,457.42. The final candidate, Jeffery Bowen had not yet filed when that report was due.

"We have the resources to get our word out around working-class families and standing up for civil rights. We’re continuing to raise money and, you know, we’re raising what we need to communicate our message," Greco previously told KXAN of that fundraising.