SEC. 1.128. ACCEPTANCE OR REJECTION OF VOLUNTARY EXPENDITURE CEILINGS.
§ 1.128
Candidates for certain San Francisco elected offices (Assessor, City Attorney, District Attorney, Public Defender, Sheriff, Treasurer, and school/community college board members) may voluntarily accept spending limits by filing a statement with the Ethics Commission by the nomination deadline; candidates for Supervisor or Mayor cannot accept such limits. Candidates who accept a ceiling and then spend beyond it face penalties unless the Ethics Commission has lifted the ceiling.
Some candidates in San Francisco can choose to limit how much money they spend on their campaigns. To do this, they file a form with the Ethics Commission before the deadline for getting on the ballot. Once they file that form, they cannot change their mind. If they break their spending promise and spend more than the limit they accepted, they can be punished. However, if the Ethics Commission decides to cancel the spending limit for everyone in that race, then the spending limit no longer applies.
- Controversial:Voluntary spending limits in political campaigns are a subject of ongoing public debate regarding their effectiveness and fairness in elections.
- Could be simpler:The section could be clearer by explicitly stating what the penalty amounts are rather than cross-referencing Section 1.170, which would help readers understand the actual consequences of violations.
AI-generated · claude-haiku-4-5 · informational only, not legal advice.
Official text
(a) Candidates for Assessor, City Attorney, District Attorney, Public Defender, Sheriff, Treasurer, the Board of Education of the San Francisco Unified School District or the Governing Board of the San Francisco Community College District may accept the applicable voluntary expenditure ceiling. Candidates for the Board of Supervisors or Mayor may not accept a voluntary expenditure ceiling.
(b) To accept the applicable voluntary expenditure ceiling, a candidate must file a statement with the Ethics Commission accepting the applicable voluntary expenditure ceiling. The candidate shall file this statement no later than the deadline for filing nomination papers with the Department of Elections. A candidate may not withdraw the statement accepting the voluntary expenditure ceiling after filing the statement. A candidate may not file the statement accepting the applicable voluntary expenditure ceiling if the Ethics Commission has lifted the voluntary expenditure ceiling under Section 1.134 of this Chapter.
(c) The Ethics Commission shall maintain, on its website, a list of the candidates who have accepted the voluntary expenditure ceiling. If the Ethics Commission has lifted a voluntary expenditure ceiling for a particular race under Section 1.134 of this Chapter, the Ethics Commission shall instead maintain a list of the candidates who have accepted, but are no longer subject to the voluntary expenditure ceiling in that race.
(d) A candidate who has accepted the applicable voluntary expenditure ceiling and makes qualified campaign expenditures in excess of the voluntary expenditure ceiling, at a time when the Ethics Commission has not lifted the applicable voluntary expenditure ceiling, is subject to the penalties in Section 1.170 for violation of this Chapter.
(Added by Ord. 71-00, File No. 000358, App. 4/28/2000; amended by Proposition O, 11/7/2000; Ord. 141-03, File No. 030034, App. 6/27/2003; Ord. 293-04, File No. 041396, App. 12/24/2004; Ord. 3-06, File No. 051439, App. 1/20/2006; Ord. 228-06, File No. 060501, App. 9/14/2006; Ord. 234-09, File. No. 090989, App. 11/20/2009)