Posted on 02/06/2006 7:37:25 AM PST by SmithL
After watching Gavin Newsom outspend their leading candidate by a 5-to-1 margin on the way to a narrow victory in the 2003 mayor's race, San Francisco's liberal progressives are on the verge of a political victory they hope will level the financial playing field for the next election.
On Tuesday, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors is scheduled to take up -- and is expected to pass -- a public financing measure for candidates running for mayor.
Backers say the system -- mirroring one already in place for supervisorial elections -- would blunt the influence well-heeled private donors wield in mayoral contests and increase the pool of viable candidates for the city government's top elective office.
"We want to reduce the time that candidates have to spend trying to raise money so they have more time to engage with people and discuss the issues,'' said Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, a Green Party member who has carried the legislation at City Hall.
Critics, however, say there are better uses for the millions of dollars in taxpayer money that would be handed over to mayoral candidates every four years, particularly when City Hall faces chronic deficits. Some potential beneficiaries of public financing of mayoral campaigns could be members of the Board of Supervisors who will be voting to approve the program.
And Newsom, while saying he believes in public financing, questions the timing, suggesting he thinks the measure is aimed at him.
"It guarantees that there will be a half-dozen people running against me that are well financed,'' said Newsom, looking ahead to a re-election campaign next year. "There's no question it will make for a more competitive mayor's race, and having gone through the last one, might as well go through another one.''
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
SF's Politburo knows what is best for its subjects.
What, Newsome's not liberal enough for these jacklegs?
Are you kidding? Newsom is a liberal Democrat...which makes him barely one step to the Left of Francisco Franco in the eyes of the militant Communists who control the Board of Supervisors.
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