Berkeley limits candidate donations to $290; ballot-measure committees face different rules

At the workshop, city officials contrasted Berkeley’s tighter contribution rules for candidate committees with more permissive rules for ballot-measure committees.

"If you're a candidate, you can only receive $290 from a single contributor, and you cannot receive contributions directly from businesses or labor unions," Newmanville said, noting that the $290 cap is an aggregate limit for candidate-controlled committees. He added that ballot-measure and general-purpose committees do not have the same per-donor cap, except for recall measures.

Packard clarified how PACs and joint-account contributions are treated and urged treasurers to investigate ambiguous sources. Officials warned that accepting funds from a business account is illegal for candidate committees and should be returned if identified.