Friends of Democracy ~ sorry it's taken us so long to get this information to you. The budget deals were so complicated that even after they were voted on it took us some time to sort out what actually happened.

Thanks to your help and pressure, the Board of Supervisors ended up restoring $1.3 million of the $2.3 million the mayor had raided from the public campaign financing fund. They also set aside another $1 million, which is on reserve to be used for either public financing, or the Convention Center. That will be decided later in the year.

Despite the fact that not all the funds were restored, as we had hoped for, and had been promised, we are still happy that a good chunk was. We do realize that in such a difficult budget situation, getting over half restored was a significant victory. But, because of additional cuts coming down the line later this year, there is still a possibility that Mayor Newsom may try to raid the public financing fund again -- so we have to stay ever-vigilant.

In addition, since the allocation this year is a million dollars short of what is needed, the Board of Supervisors will have to add a million dollars extra in next year's allocation to ensure that there is enough money for the mayoral race in 2011.

Can you contact Budget Chair John Avalos to thank him for restoring some of the funds, and ask him if he can direct 50% of the $1 million on reserve to the public financing fund?

Supervisor John Avalos
john.avalos@sfgov.org
(415) 554-6975

We'd also like to send our thanks to Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi and Supervisor Chris Daly who worked hard to see this restoration happen.

Rob Arnow

--
San Franciscans for Voter Owned Elections
www.voterownedelections.org
415-552-2229


“I also believe that if we’re serious about change, we need to have a real discussion about public financing for congressional elections. Because even if we can stop lobbyists from buying us lunch or taking us out on junkets, they’ll still be able to attend our fundraisers – and that’s access the average American doesn’t have.”

— Barack Obama, August 2, 2007