The scandal du jour in the D.C. Council involves money orders being used to make campaign contributions. Now one councilmember wants to rein them in.

A staffer for Councilmember Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3) has confirmed that she will introduce legislation next week limiting money orders to campaigns to $25 a pop, the same amount allowed for cash contributions.

Money orders have become the center of a new controversy in D.C. politics, as a variety of candidates have accepted thousands of dollars of contributions of questionable provenance in the form of money orders. Last year, Councilmember Vincent Orange (D-At Large) accepted tens of thousands of dollars in money orders from businessman Jeffrey Thompson and his associates, leading good government advocates to fear that the money orders were simply no-so-discrete ways to get around individual contribution limits. Today the D.C. Office of Campaign Finance announced that it would audit Orange’s 2011 campaign.

Mayor Vince Gray’s 2010 campaign has also been accused of using money orders, and Councilmember Marion Barry’s (D-Ward 8) most recent campaign filing includes $3,000 in money orders—six worth $500 a pop. If Cheh’s bill passes, those would be illegal.