San Diego leaders are continuing to try to crack down on corruption in city politics with a new set of transparency rules for campaign spending that got a key committee approval this week.
The reforms aim to fight what Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera calls dark money from unclear sources and “shadow” campaigns in which candidates skirt disclosure requirements by delaying when they officially file to run.
The plan, which still needs approval from the City Council, would also revamp fundraising timelines to make them equal across all city races by establishing consistent starting points.
Elo-Rivera, who is spearheading the effort, said they are an attempt to push back on wealthy and powerful interests he says are trying to buy city elections.
He said city disclosure rules simply haven’t kept pace with new tactics.
“We believe these are straightforward and common-sense reforms,” Elo-Rivera said. “It doesn’t tell anyone what they can and can’t say. It just makes sure that when money is talking in our elections, San Diegans know where that money is coming from.”
On dark money, the proposal would require campaign committees to disclose on mailers and billboards the names of their top five individual contributors — not just the name of the committee.
On shadow campaigns, the proposal would require a candidate who received support before officially declaring their candidacy to immediately file a “look-back” disclosure and reveal who funded all that preliminary support.
This would also apply to a second type of shadow campaign — when committees reward politicians for votes they make or actions they take by thanking them or praising them on a billboard or mailer.
“A wealthy candidate’s allies can spend big money promoting them for months before that person ever declares, and voters never see who paid for it,” Elo-Rivera said. “Front groups can move money through layer after layer of organizations, so the name on the mailer tells you nothing about who’s really behind it.”
The council’s Rules Committee unanimously approved the proposed reforms Wednesday.
But the committee required Elo-Rivera to return for a second approval once he’s worked out details of the reforms with City Attorney Heather Ferbert — instead of going straight to the full council.
“The cause is certainly very noble, but I think there’s a lot of nuance that people are going to need to puzzle out,” said Council President Joe LaCava, explaining the rationale for the second committee hearing.
LaCava said an example would be how a campaign would handle a change in who the five biggest donors are. He asked whether they would have to reissue a mailer to update the top five.
This is the second set of changes to be proposed from what Elo-Rivera has called his “Campaign Finance and Fairness Package.”
The first set of updates, which would require faster disclosure of money spent to influence city decisions and ban contributions from registered lobbyists to city campaigns, will be presented to the full council for approval in the coming weeks.
Elo-Rivera said this week that he’s also planning a third set of reforms.
The entire package was initially proposed as a ballot measure, but Elo-Rivera shifted gears to a city ordinance in the spring.
One key difference: An ordinance can be changed by a simple vote of the council, but an approved ballot measure can’t be changed without another public vote.
As an example of the kind of shadow campaign he’s targeting, Elo-Rivera pointed to Richard Bailey’s ongoing run for the District 2 council seat.
Supporters of Bailey sent multiple mailers, featuring a picture of Bailey and his signature, weeks before Bailey officially declared himself a candidate.
Bailey said by text Thursday that those preliminary mailers, which criticized city spending and other policies, are protected free speech under the First Amendment.
“It is concerning that an elected official would try to silence criticism of local government from an ordinary citizen,” Bailey said without identifying who paid for the preliminary mailers. “If the city pursues these regulations, it would result in another embarrassing legal defeat.”
Elo-Rivera said he thinks other candidates in the future will copy Bailey’s tactic because city rules give candidates an incentive to do so.
“I don’t think this is the last time we will see this game played,” Elo-Rivera said. “We don’t want to leave the current rules on the books any longer than they need to be there, because they are being exploited as we speak.”
Bailey is facing Deputy City Attorney Nicole Crosby in a November runoff.