{"id":228178,"date":"2026-03-20T07:07:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T07:07:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/228178\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T07:07:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T07:07:13","slug":"san-diego-councilmember-proposes-campaign-finance-reform-measure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/228178\/","title":{"rendered":"San Diego councilmember proposes campaign finance reform measure"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN DIEGO (FOX 5\/KUSI) \u2014\u00a0A proposed ballot measure<\/a>\u00a0to enact\u00a0local campaign finance reform advanced the San Diego Rules Committee on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Introduced by San Diego Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera, the measure proposes\u00a0guardrails limiting the\u00a0potential influence\u00a0of lobbying and Political\u00a0Action\u00a0Committee (PAC) money in local government.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoney in politics is not an abstract concern,\u201d Elo-Rivera shared in a statement. \u201cIn San Diego, it has a concrete shape: outside groups spending hundreds\u00a0of thousands of dollars on mailers, text campaigns, and social media targeting live City Council votes \u2013 with no requirement\u00a0to\u00a0disclose\u00a0that spending until after the vote is over.\u201d<\/p>\n

Currently, the\u00a0City Municipal Code<\/a>\u00a0requires lobbying firms and\u00a0organization\u00a0lobbyists to\u00a0file disclosure reports every calendar quarter.\u00a0Candidates and campaigns are also mandated to file disclosure reports.<\/p>\n

Elo-Rivera\u2019s initiative would require real-time disclosure of lobbying on city policy,\u00a0ban\u00a0city lobbyist\u00a0campaign contributions to officials they lobby\u00a0and\u00a0disclose\u00a0\u201cshadow campaign\u201d disclosure requirements.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the measure\u00a0may require self-funded candidates\u00a0running for\u00a0office to\u00a0disclose\u00a0the extent of\u00a0their spending\u00a0and\u00a0independent expenditure advertisements to list their top five funders on their ad.<\/p>\n

Rosa Olascoaga Vidal, deputy chief of strategic initiatives\u00a0for Elo-Rivera, presented the measure\u00a0to the\u00a0committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cVoters are making decisions at the ballot box and through their elected officials without knowing who is spending money to influence them,\u201d Olascoaga Vidal shared.<\/p>\n

She\u00a0shared that\u00a0the city does not have a way of tracking this spending in real time.<\/p>\n

The measure is modeled after similar laws that have been upheld in higher courts, according to Elo-Rivera.\u00a0He specifically mentioned Rhode Island\u2019s\u00a0political donor disclosure law<\/a>, which was\u00a0upheld by a Federal Appeals Court.<\/p>\n

After receiving support from the Rules Committee, Elo-Rivera\u00a0submitted\u00a0the proposal to the City Attorney\u2019s Office for\u00a0review\u00a0before drafting the official measure.\u00a0After\u00a0returning to\u00a0the Rules Committee,\u00a0the proposal will need to be sent to City Council before landing on the November ballot.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rules we have now were written for a different era,\u201d Elo-Rivera said. \u201cThey are being exploited by people who\u00a0know\u00a0exactly what they were doing. San Diegans deserve better \u2014 and we want to give them\u00a0the chance to demand it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego & KUSI News. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN DIEGO (FOX 5\/KUSI) \u2014\u00a0A proposed ballot measure\u00a0to enact\u00a0local campaign finance reform advanced the San Diego Rules Committee…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228179,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[1610,103696,103697,103695,13059,103694,74,76,75,21524],"class_list":["post-228178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-city-council","tag-disclosure-reports","tag-elo-rivera","tag-money-in-politics","tag-political-action-committee","tag-rules-committee","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-sean-elo-rivera"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}