Blog: Public campaign financing in L.A. can’t be ‘incumbency protection’ – Los Angeles Times

That proposal remains in limbo. In the meantime, the council has adopted Council President Herb Wesson’s proposal to lower the threshold to $20,000 for council candidates — a $5,000 reduction. That was a modest tweak to make sure the new, more generous matching fund system is in place before the special election in June for the seat recently vacated by Councilman Mitch Englander. Wesson said he wanted the Ethics Commission to do a more thorough vetting of Bonin’s proposal before lowering the threshold further for all future elections.