Blas ballot bids all pass
His name wasn’t on the ballot, but Mayor de Blasio scored a victory Tuesday when voters approved all three ballot proposals pushed by his administration.
The first measure will lower contribution limits from campaign donors — including from $5,100 to $2,000 in citywide races — while boosting the rate of public matching funds provided to candidates to 8-to-1.
Measures two and three — which generated opposition from a number of elected officials — will create a civic-engagement commission charged with boosting voter participation, bring participatory budgeting to districts across the city and set term limits on members of community boards.
The board members will soon be limited to four consecutive 2-year terms.
“The end result of the charter revision process that began nine months ago at the State of City is a democracy that can work for all of us — not just the wealthy and well-connected,” de Blasio said in a statement late Tuesday.
Opponents complained that introducing term limits would gut the institutional knowledge of community boards and criticized the civic-engagement commission as too vague and beholden to the mayor.
Hizzoner convened a charter-review commission in April to make proposals focused on voting for inclusion on the general election ballot. The commission and its “flip your ballot” ads and Web site cost city taxpayers at least $1.7 million, officials said.
A half-dozen City Hall aides also took leave from the Mayor’s Office to help promote the ballot initiatives on their own time in recent weeks.