2008 Clean Government Pledge

San Franciscans for Voter Owned Elections, in partnership with the California Clean Money Campaign, circulated a pledge to San Francisco Supervisorial candidates in the 2008 elections.

The pledge commits candidates to fully funding the current public campaign financing program as well as supporting expansion to a full public campaign financing system that covers all city offices.

20 out of 42 candidates signed the pledge, including the vast majority of the frontrunners in the race. Signatories came from across the San Franciso political spectrum, with both moderate and progressive candidates agreeing that while they might disagree on policy, that they thought elections should be won based on the merits and ideas, not the fundraising abilities, of the candidates.

Signatories to 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 pledge was developed in order to avoid a repeat of the recent decision to raid $5 million from the public financing fund, and in response to our desire to see the program improved, in order to truly ensure that elected officials are accountable to the public, rather than well-funded special interests.

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.


What is public campaign financing?

The concept of Voter Owned Elections (or '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 strict limits on private fundraising. Public campaign financing is a good government reform that helps ensure that candidates are accountable to the public, rather than well-funded special 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 well-funded special interests.

  • Ensures women and 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.


What are we doing about it?

In 2000, voter-approved Proposition O created a public campaign financing program for Board of Supervisors races. Steven Hill, our senior advisor, was instrumental in that effort. In 2005, our organization was created to spearhead the successful effort to expand public campaign financing to the San Francisco mayoral race. Since then we successfully helped lobby for the passage of a bill which dramatically improved the Board of Supervisors public campaign financing program. And currently, we are circulating the 2008 Clean Government Pledge which commits candidates for Supervisor to protecting and improving the public campaign financing program in San Francisco.

The influence of big money in elections has an inordinate amount of influence on politicians through campaign donations, which in turn leads to a manipulation of public policy -- often against the interests of the public. Public financing has been successful in reducing this problem not only in San Francisco’s elections, but also in Los Angeles’ mayoral and city council races, New York City’s mayoral and city council races, and Arizona and Maine’s state elections, including elections for governor.







Web site design and construction: Robert Arnow Design Studio


  Greenlining Institute Report: Public campaign financing boosts minority candidates and participation.


California Democratic Party Makes Full Public Financing of Campaigns One of its Top Ten Priority Resolutions in 2005


”Public financing is the difference between being able to go out and spend your time talking with voters, meeting with groups, . . . traveling to communities that have been under-represented in the past, as opposed to being on the phone selling tickets to a $250 a plate fundraiser.”

--Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano, elected under Arizona's Voter Owned Elections program


"Four states: Arizona, Maine, Massachusetts and Vermont are experimenting with offering qualified candidates for office the option of public financing: In exchange for refusing to pander to contributions from donors who may want political favors, they get a reasonable taxpayer stipend for their campaigns. . . . The simple truth is that campaigning is expensive, and candidates will get the money someplace. Far better that the public, not special interests, put up the bucks."

--USA Today Editorial