Tired of Dead Tree Political Mail? Tired of Seeing Tax $$$ Go to Shady Political Ads? Here’s a Solution!

IMG_1597.JPGSan Francisco loves to pride itself on being the “leader” on all sorts of issues. Problem is, its “leaders” come up short. We say we ban plastic bags – but we don’t because every liquor store in town is using plastic bags. We claim to be for all sorts of Big Important Non Binding Resolution on Big Issues, but of course, no one’s listening because no one cares.
Today I propose some tough new laws that would make San Francisco in the vanguard of something we can all agree on – the end of that massive flood of dead tree mail full of hysterical BS that infects our mailbox every election year.
One of the main reasons you get so much of this junk is because….you’re paying for it. Yes, that’s right, you the San Francisco taxpayer were funding that flood of crap in your mailbox. That’s because some do-gooders decided it’s better if you pay for it, instead of those mean ol’ “special interests.”
Instead, the mean ol’ special interests go ahead and fund their own campaigns, free of any interference from said candidates. This is better, how?
It’s time for the citizens of San Francisco to ask our leaders to do better, and to set a high standard for taxpayer funded campaigns. That’s why it’s time San Francisco institute strict conditions on the use of tax cash for political communications.
Let’s call it the San Francisco “Truth or Consequences in Taxpayer Financed Political Advertising ” Law. And unlike some non-binding resolution, this will be something that has some consequences. Break the law? You pay the taxpayers back the cash – with interest.
Key Provisions would include:

-Telling the Truth: Any campaign mailer, online ad, TV ad, must file within 24 hours all the research detailing the claims in any ad. Said filing would be posted online within 24 hours for voters to review. If it’s not filed or the campaign is found to be lying, they must refund the taxpayers the cost of said mailer. With interest. (For those that can’t get online, print copies would be made available at all public libraries).
-Carbon Neutral footprint: this means ONLY using post consumer recycled paper, ONLY using organic inks, and all other means including eliminating gas-driven delivery, and so on. If that means direct drops to carriers, well that’s life in the world of climate change, kids. This also means using local printers to do said work, since it’s just San Francisco and it’s not like anyone’s sending mail to Vallejo or Los Angeles, so there’s no reason they can’t print locally at locally owned businesses.
-Tax-financed campaigns would also be required to file daily reports of campaign contributions from private sources. Instead of quarterly reports that are manipulated by campaigns, and making them hard to find online, campaigns would send in a list with copies of all checks (minus information that could lead to fraud) and said information would be posted online, within 24 hours for voter review.
And no one say it can’t be done, this is where Google, eBay, Yahoo, Intel and a whole host of companies come from, so outsource it to someone from the second decade of the 21st century to do it, not some fools at the City who would just boondoggle it.

This is just a rough draft, and certainly not a set in stone policy. Obviously any taxpayer funded TV, radio, robocall or online ad would fall under the same general guidelines, etc. But I don’t think it’s unreasonable for us to ask the “big talkers” to stop talking, and start putting their alleged beliefs into practice.
It is time for us to ask more of those who are using taxpayer money to kill trees and send out political advertising. We’ve had enough of screaming headlines and distortions of facts from the people claiming to be “clean money” candidates. It’s time for them to take the “clean money” – but stop playing dirty with the voters.

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