Philly watchdog group calls for campaign-finance law review

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter: Getty Images PhotoA government watchdog group has urged Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter to form an independent panel to review the city's campaign finance law and give recommednations for how to improve it before the next local election cycle, The Inquirer reports.

The plea by the watchdog group, the Committee of Seventy, comes after a mayoral primary last year in which millionaire businessman Tom Knox provided vast amounts of his own campaign funding.

With Knox funding his own campaign, city law doubled the caps on individual donations to other candidates. But the committee noted that the so-called "millionaire amendment" could be endangered after the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday struck down a similar federal version of the provision.

Philadelphia is the only municipality in the state that limits campaign donations and expenditures, The Inquirer notes.