Election 2012
Two major issues are dominating the election season in Richmond. Monday gave the Chevron fire center stage, but on Tuesday, it was time for Measure N to return to the spotlight.
Four School Board candidates had one message at Monday night’s forum: Measures E and G, the $360 million bond measure and parcel tax extension, must pass.
The city’s campaign disclosure law—which a federal judge suggested was unconstitutional earlier this month— was amended by the City Council Tuesday night. In a special meeting five days earlier to read through the amendments, Councilmember Jim Rogers said the revisions toned down the ordinance’s aggressiveness. “I guess you could look at [the original ordinance] as a Cadillac,” Rogers said. “And this one here, I guess you could look at it as a Ford.” The revisions to the ordinance addressed several…
Nearly a week after a judge criticized its campaign disclosure law, City Council considered making amendments Thursday to dial down what Councilmember Jim Rogers called the law’s aggressiveness. “I guess you could look at [the original ordinance] as a Cadillac,” Rogers said. “And this one here, I guess you could look at it as a Ford.” The city’s current campaign law requires a committee that receives more than one-third of its money from contributors outside of Richmond to write on…
For Doug Deaver, Richmond’s proposed cent-per-ounce soda tax would mean more paperwork and less profit. While city politicians argue over public health, government overreach and the influence of outside money, Deaver, who owns a vending machine company, worries more about his bottom line. If Measure N passes in November, businesses that sell soda, energy drinks, or other beverages with added sweeteners like sugar or corn syrup would be required to keep tabs on exactly how many ounces of those drinks…
A U.S. district judge told city attorneys this morning that Richmond didn’t “stand a chance of a prosecution” in enforcing its campaign disclosure laws against an anti-soda-tax group. The Community Coalition Against Beverage Taxes filed a lawsuit against the city to prevent it from enforcing a law that would require the group to devote one-third of any mailer’s campaign disclosure section to the words “major funding from out-of-city-contributors.” Judge Charles R. Breyer ruled that the ordinance did not apply to…
[Editor’s note: this story has been corrected from a previous version to note that the the ordinance requires the text reading “major funding from out-of-city contributors” to take up one-third of the disclosure section of the front page of a mailer. The disclosure section itself takes up one-quarter of the front page.] An anti-soda tax lobbying group will argue in federal court tomorrow that the city cannot force it to disclose its financial contributions on campaign mailings. The Community Coalition…