Chronicle Editorial Page Editor John Diaz gets it right in
"Hostile takeover of our democracy" (Insight, Feb. 1) and
Willie Brown gets it wrong in "Let Koch brothers roll --
they're likely to lose big" (Feb. 1). Their power stems
from their ability to spend unlimited "dark money" on
political ads while hiding their role in funding them. This
is particularly troubling with California ballot
propositions ads, where the required disclosure is hidden
in small print and nice-sounding committee names.
Unfortunately, this is par for the course with ballot
propositions. This has to change. Voters have a right to
know who's bombarding them with political ads. Thanks to
San Francisco state Sen. Mark Leno, there's a simple
solution, the California Disclose Act, which would require
the top three funders of ballot proposition ads to be shown
in large, clear print on their ads, including TV ads. Leno
sponsored this bill and got it passed in the state Senate
in 2013, but it died in the Assembly. The California
Disclose Act is now being reintroduced in the Legislature.
Tell your state legislators to pass it now so we'll know
who's trying to buy our votes on ballot propositions in
2016. David Schmidt, San Francisco
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