2008 San Francisco Clean Government Pledge

A movement to make politicians accountable to the public, rather than well-funded special interests, has been sweeping the country in recent years. In response to record amounts of special interest money going into political campaigns, a citizen's movement has taken form which is successfully putting government back in the hands of the public. All of the candidates for San Francisco Supervisor were invited to pledge their support of this movement.

One of the most powerful remedies for the influence of big money in politics is publicly funded political campaigns, where the public, rather than private interests, fund the campaigns of candidates, ensuring that politicians are accountable only to voters rather than special interest contributors. While healthcare reform is often blocked by the insurance industry, Maine, which implemented a public campaign funding program in 2000, was able to implement the nation's first universal healthcare program, as politicians were accountable to voters, rather than campaign donors.

In recent years, New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Tucson, Santa Fe, and Portland have all implemented public campaign financing programs, as have the states of Arizona, Maine and Connecticut. On the national level, Barack Obama has co-sponsored a bill for public funding of congressional campaigns, while John McCain was a supporter of publicly financed campaigns in Arizona.

Through the hard work of concerned citizens, San Francisco currently has a program where candidates for Board of Supervisors and mayor can receive public funds for their campaigns, in exchange for accepting strict limits on the amount of private money they can raise. This program has been effective at creating a City government that is in touch with and responsive to the needs of its citizens, and has also saved money by reducing the expensive and inappropriate favors that are often given to campaign contributors.

The 2008 San Francisco Clean Government Pledge commits candidates for Board of Supervisors to supporting and dramatically improving the program of publicly financed campaigns. You can download a copy of the Pledge here which explains the details of what supportive candidates have agreed to.

Read this recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle which discusses the program and mentions our pledge.


Signers of the San Francisco Clean Government Pledge:

District 1: Jason Jungreis, Sue Lee, Eric Mar, Alicia Wang
District 3: David Chiu, Anthony Gantner, Lynn Jefferson, Denise McCarthy, Wilma Pang
District 4: Ron Dudum*, David Ferguson
District 5: Ross Mirkarimi
District 7: Julian Lagos
District 9: David Campos, Eric Quezada, Mark Sanchez
District 11: John Avalos, Randall Knox, Julio Ramos, Ahsha Safai
*Only signed first part of pledge: agreed to guarantee funding, but not expansion to full public financing for all offices.

The concept of public campaign financing is simple: the public helps fund the campaigns of candidates who can demonstrate a wide base of public support by collecting a large number of small donations. In exchange, candidates agree to limit their private fundraising. Public campaign financing is a good government reform that helps ensure that candidates are accountable to the public, rather than private interests, and creates a situation where all serious candidates have enough resources to get their message into the hands of voters.

• Gives voters the opportunity to make a decision based on the merits of the candidates rather than their fundraising abilities
  
  
• Ensures candidates are accountable to the public rather than private interests
  
  
• Ensures minority groups have a fair opportunity to participate in elective and governmental processes
  
  
• Significantly reduces the amount of time that candidates need to spend raising money -- giving them more time to focus on serving the public
  
  
• Saves money by reducing inappropriate giveaways to campaign contributors