Campaign Finance

There's a lot of ethics news from San Diego today. First, the judge in the San Diego campaign finance case has clarified his ruling.

Second, the case involving the former president of the Center City Development Corp. is going to a hearing before the San Diego ethics...

"Really they are just trying to exercise their First Amendment rights."
John LaRue, counsel to individuals and entities contending that San Diego's campaign finance laws restrict their free speech rights under the First Amendment (see my recent blog post on the case)

"We asked [our clients to agree not to speak publicly about the case] so there could...

It's worth noting two Washington Post-ABC News poll questions concerning the Citizens United decision on corporate-funded independent expenditures. Most notable is the fact that the reaction was roughly the same across the political spectrum. The ruling was opposed by 85% of Democrats polled, 76% of Republicans, and 81% of independents. These days, it's rare to have such a...

It's only been six weeks since I wrote about a campaign finance suit in San Diego, filed by the Republican Party of San Diego County, a former City Council candidate, a pro-business group, a union PAC, and a pollster. Yesterday the federal district court handed down an important split decision on the plaintiffs'...

EC Jurisdiction Over Independent Agencies: The Charter's the Answer
In Jacksonville, where City Ethics' president, Carla Miller, is the ethics officer, the charter revision commission unanimously voted to give the city's ethics commission jurisdiction over all the city's independent agencies, according to an article in yesterday's Daily Record.

I've been remiss at covering the complex battles that have gone on in and around the San Francisco ethics commission. I did, however, start a piece in August 2009, which I have appended to this one, with an update.

According to an article in the Fog City Journal, a week from this Saturday, there will be a memorial service, and march to...