Defenders of a government of, by and for the people ~ We made a strong showing at Ethics today and the proposal to raid the public campaign financing fund was defeated -- for now. There were at least 14 of us in attendance for an early morning meeting, and all spoke very eloquently on the matter. Ultimately, our arguments triumphed over those of the mayor's representative, Phil Ginsberg, who had much longer to speak and respond to questions than any of us. His arguments were not compelling to the commissioners, perhaps in part, because they were filled with blatant untruths. While he claimed numerous times that the projections of the Ethics Commission showed adequate funding for upcoming elections were this proposal to pass, the reality was that these very numbers showed a $1.7 million - $4.3 million shortfall in the 2011 mayoral race. He also consistently claimed that the mayor's office was legally bound to provide future funding, even as the City Attorney on hand directly contradicted him multiple times. The vote breakdown was going to be 2-to-2, but it was not taken, as that would have been seen as a defeat for the raid proponents. Our friendliest commissioner was on vacation, and with her, we would have had a majority. I ran into the Mayor's representative in City Hall after the vote, and it seems as if, unfortunately, they may come back for a second try. I'll let you all know if that happens. We are going to put a Charter Amendment on the ballot within the next couple of years to protect the fund for good, but its too late for this election unfortunately, unless someone wants to fund the collection of 42,000 signatures within the next two weeks ; ) Commissioners Emi Gusukuma and Charles Ward both made strong arguments and ultimately went with us, while Susan Harriman and Jamienne Studley were against us. Thank you everyone for working so hard to protect the program, which we worked so hard to create. Those who stepped up for the cause early in the AM were -- Hal Looby, Vicky Liu, Patrick Doyle, Bob Planthold, Sonny Angulo, Matt Miley, Charles Kalish, Michael Goldstein, Barry Hermanson, Joe Lynn, Dave Wilbur and others -- please email me to let me know who I missed -- there were a couple people there I didn't know. Rob Arnow San Franciscans for Voter Owned Elections www.voterownedelections.org 415-552-2229