San Diego leaders are continuing to try to crack down on corruption in city politics with a new set of transparency rules\u00a0for campaign spending that got a key committee approval this week.<\/p>\n
The reforms aim to fight what Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera calls dark money from unclear sources and \u201cshadow\u201d campaigns in which candidates skirt disclosure requirements by delaying when they officially file to run.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
He said city disclosure rules simply haven\u2019t kept pace with new tactics.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe these are straightforward and common-sense reforms,\u201d Elo-Rivera said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t tell anyone what they can and can\u2019t say. It just makes sure that when money is talking in our elections, San Diegans know where that money is coming from.\u201d<\/p>\n
On dark money, the proposal would require campaign committees to disclose on mailers and billboards\u00a0the names of their top five individual contributors \u2014 not just the name of the committee.<\/p>\n
On shadow campaigns, the proposal would require a candidate who received support before officially declaring their candidacy to immediately file a \u201clook-back\u201d disclosure and reveal who funded all that preliminary support.<\/p>\n
This would also apply to a second type of shadow campaign \u2014 when committees reward politicians for votes they make or actions they take by thanking them or praising them on a billboard or mailer.<\/p>\n
\u201cA wealthy candidate\u2019s allies can spend big money promoting them for months before that person ever declares, and voters never see who paid for it,\u201d Elo-Rivera said. \u201cFront groups can move money through layer after layer of organizations, so the name on the mailer tells you nothing about who\u2019s really behind it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The council\u2019s Rules Committee unanimously approved the proposed reforms Wednesday.<\/p>\n
But the committee required Elo-Rivera to return for a second approval once he\u2019s worked out details of the reforms with City Attorney Heather Ferbert \u2014 instead of going straight to the full council.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe cause is certainly very noble, but I think there\u2019s a lot of nuance that people are going to need to puzzle out,\u201d said Council President Joe LaCava, explaining the rationale for the second committee hearing.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
This is the second set of changes to be proposed from what Elo-Rivera has called his \u201cCampaign Finance and Fairness Package.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Elo-Rivera said this week that he\u2019s also planning a third set of reforms.<\/p>\n
The entire package was initially proposed as a ballot measure, but Elo-Rivera shifted gears to a city ordinance in the spring.<\/p>\n
One key difference: An ordinance can be changed by a simple vote of the council, but an approved ballot measure can\u2019t be changed without another public vote.<\/p>\n
As an example of the kind of shadow campaign he\u2019s targeting, Elo-Rivera pointed to Richard Bailey\u2019s ongoing run for the District 2 council seat.<\/p>\n
Supporters of Bailey sent multiple mailers, featuring a picture of Bailey and his signature, weeks before Bailey officially declared himself a candidate.<\/p>\n
Bailey said by text Thursday that those preliminary mailers, which criticized city spending and other policies, are protected free speech under the First Amendment.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is concerning that an elected official would try to silence criticism of local government from an ordinary citizen,\u201d Bailey said without identifying who paid for the preliminary mailers. \u201cIf the city pursues these regulations, it would result in another embarrassing legal defeat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elo-Rivera said he thinks other candidates in the future will copy Bailey\u2019s tactic because city rules give candidates an incentive to do so.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think this is the last time we will see this game played,\u201d Elo-Rivera said. \u201cWe don\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bailey is facing Deputy City Attorney Nicole Crosby in a November runoff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Diego leaders are continuing to try to crack down on corruption in city politics with a new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[181,23,205,100,13,74,76,75,1696],"class_list":["post-445805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-local-politics","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-top-stories-sdut"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445805","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=445805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}