Oakland cuts hurt democracy

Regarding “Oakland’s budget would cut public campaign finance. That would be a mistake” (Open Forum, SFChronicle.com, May 24): Bravo to Charlotte Hill and Ryan Micik for their trenchant Open Forum piece about Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao’s proposed cuts to the voter-approved Democracy Dollars program. 

As a resident of Oakland, I’m also dismayed by our mayor’s single-minded approach in dealing with the city’s humongous deficit by simply retrenching and adopting a narrow approach by cutting all but essential services. This short-sighted stance serves to balkanize all of us in Oakland even further. Public campaign financing can make a difference in terms of who can or can’t afford to support a candidate. Read more here.