The all-Democratic Columbus City Council last night appointed to the panel an African-American female assistant city attorney who has worked on housing issues.
38-year-old Shayla Favor takes the seat vacated by Jaiza Page, an African-American female who worked on housing and blight issues during her time as an assistant city attorney. Page is now a Franklin County judge. Favor was selected from a pool of 15 finalists. A Republican has not served on council since the early 2000s. The other 14 finalists will be considered to replace the outgoing Mike Stinziano. Both will have the advantage of incumbency when they run for election in November. Both will also benefit from Council's large campaign war chest.
Council last night also approved legislation creating a 12-thousand-700-dollar campaign contribution limit for individuals and groups, after delaying a vote last year. No one has spoken publicly in favor of the measure, with government watchdog and Democratic groups saying it does nothing to eliminate city hall's pay-to-play culture. The measure requires anyone running election ads to disclose the funding source and requires the filing of campaign finance reports for contributions of one thousand dollars or more. Cleveland and Cincinnati are among the cities that have lower contribution limits. Public records show sixty percent of the money used by city hall officials in their campaigns comes from only four percent of their contributors.
