Supporters of clean elections ~
A lot has been happening with public campaign financing in San
Francisco in the last couple of weeks. There are two important
proposals moving forward as we speak, one to raid the public campaign
financing fund, and one to significantly improve the Board of
Supervisors program.
Dangerous proposal to raid the public financing fund:
This proposal, coming out of the Mayor's office, will be heard by the
Ethics Commission on Monday Nov. 5
(election eve) at around 5:30pm, so we really need as many
of you as can
make it to turn out and make sure that it is soundly defeated! Please
mark your calendars if you
haven't already! You can read more about this at
www.voterownedelections.org/raid.html
There are also credible rumors that
the Mayor's office, worried that they may not succeed at the Ethics
Commission and the Board of Supervisors, are considering a February
ballot initiative to raid the fund.
The more we can show our strength now, the less likely this
proposal is
to move forward. Of course, if it does we are ready to stand up and
fight for clean elections, but we would prefer to not have to put our
energy in this direction. So please, also contact the Mayor and ask him
to back off of his attacks on public campaign financing and focus his
energy on the important issues facing our City.
Please contact the Mayor's representative on
this issue, Wade Crowfoot, at 702-5212 or wade.crowfoot@sfgov.org
Important proposal to improve Board of Supervisors program:
The Board of Supervisors public campaign financing program is outdated
and does not provide candidates with enough matching funds to be truly
effective. As a result, candidate participation in the program has been
dropping. A very important piece of legislation to raise the level of
matching funds will going to the Board of Supervisors for a vote on
Nov. 6. In order to pass, the proposal needs 8 out of 11 votes -- so we
need you to start contacting the Supervisors to ensure their support.
Please contact Supervisor Bevan Dufty. Supervisor
Dufty has generally been a supporter of campaign reform and valiantly
stood with us previously when we created the mayoral public financing
program. But because the Mayor is currently trying to raid the public
campaign financing fund and because Dufty and the mayor have a close
relationship, we want to ensure that Supervisor Dufty hears from us and
knows that there is a powerful constituency for public campaign
financing in San Francisco.
554-6968 or
Bevan.Dufty@sfgov.org
Please thank him for his past support and ask him to please support the
legislation to improve the Board of Supervisors public campaign
financing program. If you're looking for talking points check out:
http://voterownedelections.org/improve_our_democracy.html
After you've done that, please email or phone your personal district
Supervisor. Their contact info is here:
http://sfgov.org/site/bdsupvrs_index.asp?id=7271