A proposed ballot measure to curtail "dark money" spending in San Diego elections gained initial approval by the San Diego City Council's Rules Committee Wednesday.
Proposed by Councilman Sean Elo-Rivera, the measure would target "specific loopholes and legal gaps that have allowed wealthy special interests to pour money into city elections and City Hall decision-making while hiding who is actually behind the spending," Elo-Rivera's office said.
His District 9 office will now work with the city attorney's office to draft language for the ballot proposal, which must then be approved again by the Rules Committee and then the full City Council before being placed on the November 2026 ballot.
"Trust in government doesn't erode on its own. It erodes because people watch money flow into politics with no accountability and conclude — correctly — that the system isn't designed to work for them," Elo-Rivera said. "San Diego has a chance to fight back against that, right here, where we actually have the power to act. This package is a direct challenge to the influence of wealthy special interests in our city's politics. It says: If you want to spend money to influence San Diego elections and San Diego's government, you will do it in the open, with your name on it.
"The rules we have now were written for a different era. They are being exploited by people who know exactly what they were doing. San Diegans deserve better — and we want to give them the chance to demand it."
Currently, political action committees and wealthy donors can spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on mailers, text campaigns and social media targeting council votes — with no requirement to disclose that spending until after the vote is over, Elo-Rivera said.
The proposal approved Wednesday would:
— Require real-time disclosure of paid outside lobbying on city policy matters;
— Ban campaign contributions from registered city lobbyists to the officials they lobby;
— Require independent expenditure advertisements to name their top five funders on the face of the ad;
— Require independent expenditure committees to trace and disclose the original source of funds "even when routed through shell PACs and pass- through entities,"
— Establish shadow campaign disclosure requirements; and
— Require self-funded candidates to disclose the scale of their personal spending in their advertisements and ballot statements.
