Proposition F

Proposition F would add restrictions and requirements to campaign contributions in city elections.
Corporations are already barred from donating to campaigns, but this ballot measure would extend that ban to other entities: limited liability companies and limited partnerships.
The measure would also restrict contributions from people with a financial interest in big development projects pending before the city.
Finally, Proposition F would expand the requirements for disclaimers on campaign advertisements. Any ad funded by an independent political committee would have to name that committee’s top three financial contributors, and how much they paid.
If you want to hear more analysis of Proposition F, click below to hear from San Francisco State University associate professor of political science Jason McDaniel.
 

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San Francisco and New York Affordable Housing Plans Compared

San Francisco is not the only city in a housing crisis. The multi-year plan proposed by Mayor Ed Lee bears some similarities to those proposed by Bill de Blasio, the new mayor of New York, where even last week a major initiative advanced to fix older affordable buildings. Part of a special report on solutions for housing affordability.

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Ethnic Voters Bolster Democratic Edge in State, Poll Finds

California is reliably “blue” — Barack Obama carried the state by 23 points in the last election — largely because of the rise of ethnic voters, a new survey by the Field Poll found. “This hasn’t always been the case,” said the poll’s director, Mark DiCamillo. Republicans won seven of the nine elections between World War II and 1982, when the state became solidly Democratic in federal elections. “The main reason for it is because of the growth of ethnic population.”

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Krugman: California represents the worst of current U.S. economic crisis

The budget pain facing California this year is not California’s fault, said Paul Krugman, the Nobel Prize-winning economist who has been among the most outspoken writers critiquing the government’s response to what he calls an economic “depression.” “Gov. Brown faces political constraints that, if anything, are even worse than those faced by President Obama, because of the craziness of California’s constitutional setup,” Krugman said at a recent appearance at the Commonwealth Club of California. He said Proposition 13, the state’s requirement of a legislative supermajority to pass tax increases, was the main culprit.

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How California ranks in investigation of states’ integrity

For better or worse, there’s only one California. With the largest population, third-largest area and by far the most campaign spending, it has been both mocked and admired for its independence, its powerful citizen initiative process, its far-reaching political reforms, its Hollywood actors-turned-governors Arnold Schwarzenegger and Ronald Reagan, and its sometimes-wacky ideas of governance.

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Boxer: Nation needs more green jobs

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., has come out swinging on environmental causes, linking the nation’s longer term economic prospects to growth in the green energy industry. She railed against corporations for sending jobs overseas, vowing to eliminate their tax breaks and reward those who build an environmentally benign economy at home. She is running a high-profile race against GOP opponent Carly Fiorina.

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Of course banks resist reform, MIT professor says

As the financial crisis drags on, Congress and the Obama administration are taking up regulatory reform of the banks at the center of the crisis. The San Francisco Public Press spoke with Simon Johnson, MIT professor of economics and former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund. Johnson, author of “13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown,” shared his views May 13 before the World Affairs Council.