Election Reform Should Go Beyond Slate Mailers

Re “Ordinance Proposed to Limit Slate Mailers,” Letters, April 14:

While I was somewhat surprised, I welcome Irvine Councilman Greg Smith’s sudden change of mind regarding election reform in Irvine. Two years ago, I was one of the speakers urging the Irvine City Council to allow a reform initiative in the November 2000 election. Smith proposed to spend taxpayers’ money to file a lawsuit to keep the initiative off the ballot. Fortunately for him, the initiative fell short by 89 signatures.

If Smith is sincere about true election reform, he should demand that all campaign contributions over $1 be reported, along with the name and city of the contributor. In the last Irvine election, contributions of less than $100 did not have to be reported. As a result many pro-airport advocates contributed $99 to some council candidate without voters’ knowledge.

Sam Castelo

Irvine