Expect ads to get nasty

With just days to go before the May 19 Democratic primary, secretive sponsors of the front-runners in the mayor's race are expected to finance slasher ads meant to weaken each other's support.

You may think you like former City Councilman James Kenney or State Sen. Anthony Williams, but wait until you're bombarded with sleazy brochures and TV ads questioning their ethics, positions, and loyalties.

The most worrisome ads are expected to come from a new breed of political organization that candidates are prohibited from working with directly. But that prohibition doesn't prevent Kenney and Williams from publicly stating that they want the attack ads to stop.

Blame the ads on misguided Supreme Court rulings, a moribund Federal Election Commission, and an uninterested Congress. Their actions and inaction have allowed political groups to masquerade as nonprofits that don't have to disclose their donors, which keeps people from knowing who is really trying to steer their votes - and why. Other groups, called super PACs, must disclose donors, but not often enough.

Laudably, City Council President Darrell Clarke is sponsoring a bill that would lift the veil on who is giving money to these groups, but unfortunately, even if the bill passes, it won't be in time to affect campaigning for the primary.

Clarke's bill requires corporations, nonprofit organizations, and other entities trying to influence voters to post contributions and expenditures six weeks before an election and every two weeks after that, which would give voters enough information to know who is trying to influence them.

The bill, however, does not cover donor disclosure during the crucial final days of a race, which is often when the most mud is slung. That's a weakness that Council could and should fix.

The bill carefully tiptoes around potential legal challenges from political operations pretending to be charities. But those groups are likely to challenge Philadelphia's election laws in the courts anyway. The city must continue to vigorously defend its statutes to ensure control over its own elections.

By sponsoring the donor disclosure bill, Clarke is trying to do what Congress should have done following the questionable court decisions that have allowed dark-money groups to have their way with elections. The rest of Council should stand with Clarke on this issue.

In the meantime, Kenney and Williams, both of whom say they support Clarke's bill, ought to prove it by speaking out against attack ads financed by groups that don't want voters to know who is putting up the cash.