Court rules in favor of city in Harris campaign finance suit
An Allegheny County Common Pleas judge on Tuesday ruled against former city Councilwoman Darlene Harris in her attempt to throw out a fine for breaking Pittsburgh’s campaign finance rules.
The suit, brought by Ms. Harris in 2019, alleged the city’s rules went against the Pennsylvania Constitution after she was fined $4,150 by the city’s Ethics Hearing Board for refusing to file campaign documents during her unsuccessful re-election campaign for City Council that year.
Judge Joseph M. James disagreed with that assertion. “The
City of Pittsburgh has broad powers of regulation pursuant to its Home Rule Charter which gives the City power to regulate campaign finances,” he wrote in the seven-page opinion.
Citing a 2007 case in Philadelphia in which the state Supreme Court upheld the city’s campaign finance law, the judge said Pittsburgh’s rules are not pre-empted by the state constitution.
In that case, mayoral candidate Michael Nutter filed a suit to enforce city limits on campaign contributions against several people who were allegedly exploring candidacies. The defendants filed counterclaims that alleged
the Philadelphia rule was pre-empted by state law, Judge James wrote.
Although the trial court initially ruled in favor of the defendants, the appellate courts reversed that decision and affirmed the Philadelphia law. “It should be noted that since the 13 years since Nutter was decided, the legislature has taken no action to indicate that it was wrongly decided,” Judge James wrote.
Ms. Harris — an often controversial firebrand who first joined the council in 2006 — lost her long-held
District 1 seat in the 2019 Democratic primary to Bobby Wilson, who later won in the general election.
She also refused to comply with the campaign finance rule during a failed 2017 bid for mayor, according to court documents in the case.