Huntington Beach elections are about to get more expensive.

The newly seated majority on the City Council recently approved a significant boost in campaign contribution limits for elected city officials — one of the first acts by this new council.

Limits were extended from $620 to what is set at the state level for legislature candidates, $4,900. And the city’s figure is now tied to what is set for Assembly and Senate candidates — meaning, if it is increased for those candidates, it will for Huntington Beach’s as well.

New Mayor Tony Strickland, who served in the Senate and Assembly, said this would enable newer candidates with less name recognition or endorsements from outside spending groups to be more competitive in city races.

“You’re not going to get rid of money out of politics, but what you are going to do is empower candidates where the money goes directly to them, and the citizens know who that money goes to, and then they can make their educated choice,” Strickland, the architect of the measure, said.

Supporters argued raising the limit will eliminate what’s called “dark money,” referring to money spent in politics where the donor is not disclosed. (The move by the council does not prevent third-party expenditures in races.)

Strickland was joined by his fellow conservatives — Grace Van Der Mark, Casey McKeon and Pat Burns — in approving the campaign contribution limit raise.

“What we’re trying to do is give control back to the candidate instead of relying on independent expenditures to be in a successful race,” Van Der Mark said.

Councilmembers Rhonda Bolton, Dan Kalmick and Natalie Moser opposed the change.

Moser said she is not inherently opposed to a “reasonable increase,” but wanted greater context on what other nearby and similar cities have done.

“Personally, I want people who are your regular residents to feel like they have power and can make a difference,” Moser said. “This does the opposite of that.”

Former Huntington Beach Mayor Connie Boardman pointed out that Assembly and Senate members represent a vastly larger number of people in their districts than Huntington Beach City Council members.

“Campaign limits are there to help provide a level playing field to encourage a variety of people from a variety of backgrounds to run for City Council,” Boardman said. “Raising this to (nearly) $5,000 per donor would obliterate that.”

Raising the campaign contribution limits was just one item on a robust and contentious agenda the City Council tackled ahead of the holiday season. The cacophonous meeting was often interrupted — during the public comment and agenda periods, alike — with cheers and jeers.

The City Council tackled a bevy of other priority items for the new conservative majority, from increasing the city attorney’s salary to moving toward prohibiting anonymous code enforcement complaints.

The four new council members have highlighted four areas of focus: giving the city attorney more leeway to fight state mandates, such as housing requirements; combatting homelessness; building up the police force and making “crime illegal again;” and supporting small businesses.

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