Guide to Raising Money for Local Office

Times Gazette: “If you do decide you need to raise money from other people to support your campaign, most people running for city or county offices do not typically conduct elaborate fundraising mailings like candidates for state or national office. Instead, they usually hold fundraising get-togethers, where they ask friends and supporters to come to their home, a friend’s home or a rented hall and pay anywhere from $10 to $100 to eat a hot dog on a stick with potato chips.

“In fact, if you serve anything more elaborate or costly than a hot dog on a stick with potato chips you have held a bad fundraiser. Some candidates believe that since they are asking people to pay $10 to $100 to attend their event, they should serve an elaborate meal. Sometimes they even have the meal professionally catered. The official political term for this is ‘dumb.’ The point is to raise money for your campaign, not to raise money for an elaborate meal.”

OH City Proactively Looks into Campaign Finances from Past Two Municipal Elections after Oversight Concerns Raised

“The city of Akron will hire an outside attorney to look at the campaign finances of mayoral and council candidates in the past two municipal elections.

“The attorney will look for any violations of Akron’s campaign finance rules, including the city’s contribution limits.

“‘If the outside attorney determines that a violation exists, the city will take appropriate measures to enforce the law,’ Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic and council President Garry Moneypenny said in a joint letter Monday to council Clerk Bob Keith.”

“The city has never before asked an outside entity to review campaign finances. Plusquellic and Moneypenny are taking this step after questions were raised during a public hearing last Monday about the oversight of the city’s campaign finance rules. Under the city’s charter, complaints are supposed to be made to the clerk of council and investigated by the law director, who is appointed by the mayor.”

“’This is about the public trust, transparency, and confidence in our system and I assure you that all appropriate measures to enforce the law will be taken,’ he said.”