Weary lovers of democracy ~ The Board of Supervisors today voted today to remove $5 million from the public campaign financing fund. After all the work we put in to try to stop this ill-advised plan, it was disappointing, though I was still impressed and inspired by how many people took the time to help try to sway the Supervisors on this matter. The Supervisors themselves commented that they had received lots of contacts from constituents on the matter. Moving forward, we are planning to place a Charter Amendment on the ballot to protect the funds in the long term. In the near future, we are going to be seeking signed pledges from candidates for Supervisor in regards to this legislation and support for public campaign financing in general, should they be elected. We will be teaming up with other election reform organizations to distribute the results of the pledge to San Francisco voters. If anyone would like to assist with contacting candidates in regards to these pledges, please let me know. We want to do all we can to ensure a pro-public campaign financing majority on the Board of Supervisors into the future. This will be the first stage in a campaign to protect these funds -- and ultimately to expand the program to full public campaign financing for all City offices. Ultimately, Tom Ammiano, Chris Daly, Ross Mirkarimi, and Aaron Peskin supported us -- while the other 7 Supervisors -- Jake McGoldrick Gerardo Sandoval, Bevan Dufty, Sophie Maxwell, Sean Elsbernd, Carmen Chu, and Michaela Alioto-Pier voted against us. They even voted against a compromise proposal that would have only removed $3 million, instead of $5 million from the fund. While some of those who voted against us do not support public campaign financing at all, several others had cut deals to fund projects in their districts, which they were threatened with losing if they voted for this. The Mayor and Jake McGoldrick were ultimately the most responsible -- having been the ones to threaten the others with financial, political payback. And all those who voted in favor, were at best guilty of short term thinking -- not being able to see that this manuever was penny-wise and pound-foolish -- opening the door to a very dangerous precedent, and diminishing substantially the amount of money available for the next mayor's race, for a small amount of one-time funds. Thank you all again for the all the hard work on this issue. Its a disappointing setback, but will not disuade us in the long-term. Again, if you're interested in helping out with candidate pledges, please let me know. Rob Arnow San Franciscans for Voter Owned Elections www.voterownedelections.org 415-552-2229