PHILADELPHIA — A former Democratic city councilman who is running for mayor has filed an appeal of a judge's decision that struck down the city's campaign-contribution limits.

Candidate Michael Nutter filed an appeal in Commonwealth Court on Dec. 15. He said yesterday that he hoped the city would join the appeal because "the corruption scandals of the past four years were the result of too much money in the political system."

A spokesman for the city said it was reviewing the decision and had not decided whether to join Nutter's appeal.

A city judge had set aside the campaign-contribution limits last week after finding that state election code pre-empted such local rules.

For now, most of the Democratic primary candidates pledged to follow the limits until the court proceedings are finished.

Common Pleas Judge Allan L. Tereshko ruled Dec. 13 that the city's ordinance limiting campaign contributions was unconstitutional. He sided with labor leader John Dougherty and U.S. Rep Chaka Fattah, a Democratic congressman running for mayor, in their counterclaim of a lawsuit filed by Nutter.

Nutter originally filed his lawsuit as part of an effort to get potential mayoral candidates to comply with contribution limits of $2,500 per individual and $10,000 per business or political action committee. He has since withdrawn the suit, but Tereshko said Dougherty still had a right to have his counterclaim heard.

In his ruling, the judge cited the fact that the state Legislature had enacted a comprehensive legislative scheme under the state election code, which regulates campaign contributions.

"The Pennsylvania Legislature did not enact legislation delegating to municipalities the ability to enact its own legislation regulating political campaign contributions," he wrote in the ruling.

Because the Philadelphia campaign ordinance limits political campaign contributions, it is "directly contradictory to a power retained by the Pennsylvania Legislature," Tereshko wrote.

Dougherty's attorney, George Bochetto, said the ruling "is the law" unless it is successfully appealed.

"We need campaign finance reform, but we can't do it on a patchwork basis," Bochetto said Dec. 14. "You have to do it at a state level. ... Every little rinky-dink town in the world can't have their own set of campaign finance laws."

Susan Burke, an attorney representing Nutter, said she believed the city has the power to regulate its municipal campaign-finance laws.

"We are going to continue our efforts to eradicate the pay-to-play culture in the city of Philadelphia," she said.