Rules Committee advances changes to San Francisco's public campaign finance rules and a ballot backup

Chair Jane Kim opened the Rules Committee meeting Feb. 23 by saying, "These, the 2 items that are before us today are largely similar," and framed the proposals as the city's response to the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Arizona Free Enterprise Club's Freedom Pack v. Bennett. The committee voted to forward both an ordinance and an initiative-version of the changes to the full Board of Supervisors without recommendation and as a committee report.

The two measures would amend the city's Campaign and Governmental Conduct Code and the Municipal Elections Code to change qualifying thresholds for public financing, adjust spending caps, delay the disbursement of public matching funds until after candidate filing, reduce matching ratios, and move nomination filing deadlines earlier in the calendar. John St. Croix, director of the Ethics Commission, told the committee "the first proposal does have the the full backing of the ethics commission," saying the commission conducted interested-person meetings and public outreach while trying to preserve the program's integrity and attractiveness to candidates.

Under the proposals discussed, supervisor candidates' qualifying contributions would rise from $5,000 to $10,000 (from at least 100 San Francisco residents);…