The San Diego City Council’s Rules Committee Wednesday advanced campaign finance and ethics reform proposals intended to increase transparency and get “dark money” out of local politics.
The reforms were passed the committee unanimously and are headed to the full City Council.
They were proposed by Councilman Sean Elo-Rivera, who said they were part of his “Bring San Diego Politics into the Light” campaign to expose hidden political spending, close loopholes in campaign finance laws and increase accountability in local elections.
The two separate proposals, the Ending Perpetual Fundraising Ordinance and Exposing Dark Money and Banning Shadow Campaigns, follow the previously advanced Follow the Money Ordinance. The last proposal was advanced by the Rules Committee in August.
“Right now, a candidate can be bought and sold, and the public never gets to know who paid or how much it cost,” Elo-Rivera said. “Right now, powerful special interests can hide behind made-up names to disguise how much they are spending to influence elections.”
Elo-Rivera also said AI can be secretly used to fool the public about a real person’s position.
The packages seek to delineate clear starting points for fundraising before an election, one year, in this case. It also seeks to strengthen disclosure requirements for campaign funding, ban “shadow” campaigns that build up candidates before they actually declare they are running and require political advertising using artificial intelligence to clearly state that.
“Every election, wealthy developers and corporate interests hide behind shadowy committees, pretending to be community groups while spending millions to buy influence at City Hall,” said Brigette Browning, president of the San Diego & Imperial Counties Labor Council, AFL-CIO. “San Diegans deserve to know who is really trying to shape our government. When we bring politics into the light, working people win.”
The reform packages advanced Wednesday also emphasize making campaign finance information more accessible to the public, according to Elo-Rivera’s office.
“Information that’s hard to find might as well be hidden,” said Kim Knox, technology director and past president of the League of Women Voters of San Diego.
Knox said that FollowTheMoneySanDiego.org is a tool for San Diegans to see who is trying to influence city elections. It can compare contributions to candidates in each race, see political party contributions, and identify independent expenditure committees.
Elo-Rivera said San Diegans deserve to know who is financing political advertisements, where that money comes from, and whether spending is being used to influence potential candidates before they formally enter a race.
“San Diego is a sunshine city,” he said. “It’s time our politics worked that way too.”