Statement from CFB Executive Director Amy Loprest on Proposed Rule Changes

The Board was gratified by the decision rendered in March by Judge Richard Sullivan in the lawsuit brought by John Liu’s 2013 campaign for mayor. The decision firmly upholds the CFB’s ability to enforce the rules and ensure that all candidates play by them.

The decision states clearly that the Board’s determination to withhold public matching funds from the Liu campaign had “ample basis” in the law. In fact, the judge acknowledged the extraordinary circumstances that informed the Board’s determination: Never before in the CFB’s 25-year history had a campaign treasurer been convicted before the election of crimes relating to the campaign’s fundraising. Notably, Judge Sullivan dismissed “with prejudice” the claim that the CFB had treated the Liu campaign differently than other campaigns.

The Court allowed a single claim to survive this ruling. As the Court noted, the only remaining claim is a “technical” challenge to several words in a Board Rule that were not the basis for the Board’s decision not to pay the Liu campaign. Indeed, the judge wrote that the remaining claim “is not a referendum on whether the CFB’s denial of matching funds to Liu’s campaign in 2013 was justified.”

The Board has never relied on that specific portion of the Board Rule in its public funds determinations. Nevertheless, the Board wants to ensure the Rules provide the clearest possible guidance to participating candidates. The revisions proposed today will allow the CFB to inform campaigns of reporting and documentation discrepancies earlier in the election cycle, and will make clear that the Board may deny public funds for egregious conduct that is not otherwise enumerated in the Rule.