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There's a handy app that makes searching through San Diego campaign contributions easy. It was created by Joe Yerardi, a data reporter at inewsource, who joined hosts Scott Lewis and Andrew Keatts this week to talk about some of the things he's learned by following the election money. Yerardi summarized who's supporting the yes and no campaigns of many of the local measures, including Measure A, a proposal from the San Diego Association of Governments that would levy a half-cent sales tax to fund transportation, infrastructure and open space projects throughout the county. "So Measure A is really sorta interesting because traditionally you've got Republicans and Democrats who will break down yes one way, no the other way," he said. "But the thing that's really interesting about Measure A is that you've kind of got this split on the left side of things, so a lot of liberals ... are coming out against Measure A. They say it's not really effectively pro-environment enough and it focuses too much on sort of old notions of transit." Yerardi also breaks down the money flowing into the yes and no campaigns behind the Chargers' convadium pitch and a proposal to build the controversial Lilac Hills Ranch development. Lewis and Keatts also talk about the heated convadium debate happening in VOSD's op-ed section. The latest is a fiery piece by Chargers adviser Fred Maas, who takes on some of the points architect Rob Quigley laid out in an opinion piece earlier this month. They touch on the two studies that tell very different stories about the economic impact of the proposed stadium and convention center annex and question why the Chargers have yet to really roll out any star power when it comes to who they have publicly promoting their proposal. Also on this week's podcast, San Diego homes are super expensive right now and the anxiety that comes with unplugging from Twitter for a few days. Hero of the Week Gov. Jerry Brown's lovable corgi Sutter Brown is sick, which is sad, so he's the hero. Goat of the Week The city of San Diego gets goated for the debacle happening with the brand new lifeguard tower at Children's Pool in La Jolla.  The U-T's watchdog team dug into the troubles surrounding the brand-new project that had to be closed down because of problems allegedly related to design problems and faulty construction.

Measure A would raise the county’s sales tax and use the money to invest in freeways, transit and open space preservation. Moderated by Voice of San Diego’s Andrew Keatts, City Councilman Todd Gloria and County Supervisor Ron Roberts argued in support of the measure and Nicole Capretz, executive director of Climate Action Campaign, Oceanside’s Deputy Mayor Chuck Lowery and Tommy Hough, president of the San Diego County Democrats for Environmental Action, argued against it. Before and after the Measure A debate, Keatts took an informal poll of the audience, and lots of audience members actually changed their minds with an overwhelming shift to “yes” by the end of the conversation. For more background, check out: Independent Oversight Promised With Last SANDAG Tax Hike Not So Independent Fact Check: North County Wants Its ‘Fair Share’ of SANDAG Tax Inside the Fight on the Left Over SANDAG’s Big Tax The Line Between Education and Advocacy on SANDAG’s Tax Proposal Fact Check: Will a Sales Tax Hike Relieve Traffic Congestion?

Politifest’s most raucous debate was over Measure K, a local ballot measure that would require mandatory runoffs in city elections. Voice of San Diego’s Andrew Keatts, who moderated the talk, said right from the beginning that he was going to let both sides argue quite a bit throughout the debate, and boy did they. Supporting Measure K was former state Sen. Steve Peace and labor leader Mickey Kasparian. Republican consultant Ryan Clumpner and City Councilman Chris Cate oppose the measure. For more background, check out: Labor, Dems Want to Stop Letting Candidates Win Outright in Local Primaries Op-Ed: The Democrats Can’t Hang on Election Day Op-Ed: San Diego’s Undemocratic Primaries Are Ripe for Reworking Op-Ed: San Diegans Deserve a Thoughtful Collaborative Effort on Election Reform City Councilman Chris Cate on Why He Opposes Measure K Former Assemblyman Jeff Marston on Why He Supports Measure K

Reihan Salam kicked off Politifest with a Q-and-A with Voice of San Diego’s Scott Lewis, where they talked about the presidential race and the future of the Republican Party.

DeRay Mckesson closed out Politifest discussing the wave of police killings across the country, and called for better police training.

One of the biggest crowds at Politifest was at the debate over Measure C, the Chargers’ plan to build a convadium in East Village. City Councilman Chris Cate, architect Rob Quigley and former San Diego Economic Development Corp. CEO Julie Meier-Wright argued against the measure; while Chargers adviser Marcela Escobar-Eck, the San Diego Stadium Coalition’s Jason Riggs and Save Our Bolts’ Thomas Powell made a case for it. For more background, check out: A Chargers Loyalty Test Courses Through San Diego Business Community, Lands at Mayor Op-Ed: The Urbanist Case Against a Downtown Convadium Op-Ed: The Convadium Is an Opportunity for San Diego to Do a Big Thing. We Should Take It. Padres Chairman Lays Out Concerns with Chargers’ Plans Op-Ed: The Convadium May Just Be a Con A Hotel Tax Hike Has Been in the Chargers’ Playbook for a Long Time East Village Developers Say an East Village Stadium Would Ruin East Village Assembling the Properties for a Downtown Convadium Not Nearly the Obstacle It Seemed

Raging debates about changing the way city elections work, intense talks about the future of San Diego's downtown, brutally honest conversations about race and the gaping political divide – Politifest happened two weeks ago, but can you blame Scott Lewis and Andrew Keatts for bringing it up again? In this weeks podcasts, the hosts piece together some interesting moments from Voice of San Diego's all-day political affairs festival that went down at San Diego State University on Sept. 24. Measure K was by far the most fiery debate of all. The proposal would change the way the city of San Diego's elections work by requiring races to go to runoffs in the November general election. A lot less registered voters show up to cast their votes in June Primaries than in November. Those opposing it say they're not against changing the election, but they're against the process that was used to decide on how to change it and they're not sure this particular change is the best solution. "We should have had a public discussion to talk about whether this is the right system for San Diego," said Councilman Chris Cate. Labor leader Mickey Kasparian, who's in favor of Measure K, said arguing about the process misses the point. "First and foremost it should be about democracy and full voter participation," Kasparian said. "Why would we want the smallest amount of voters to decide the people who lead us? It makes no sense at all." You can watch the full debate here. The debate over Measure C was, of course, popular and packed. Measure C is the Chargers-backed initiative that would raise the hotel-room tax in the city of San Diego to pay for the construction of a joint stadium and convention center in San Diego’s East Village. San Diego architect Rob Quigley opposes Measure C. He lives in the East Village and he said the convadium would kill the character its in the middle of developing. "The east village area is on fire, there are 3,260 ... living units, homes under construction, within two blocks of the stadium site and not many people want to live next to a football stadium," he said. "Football stadiums are not the same as baseball stadiums." On the other side of the great stadium debate was Chargers adviser and land-use expert Marcela Escobar-Eck. She said that the argument that the stadium and convention center annex will create blight in the East Village isn't factual. "To say that somehow building the stadium downtown brings blight but building it in Mission Valley does not just doesn't make sense from a land-use perspective," she said. Watch the full Measure C debate here. Lewis and Keatts also dug up clips from both keynote speakers, activist DeRay Mckesson and conservative political commentator Reihan Salam. Watch Mckesson and Salam's keynotes here. If you're wondering about the Politifest debate about Measure A, a proposal from the San Diego Association of Governments that would levy a half-cent sales tax to fund transportation and infrastructure projects throughout the county, don't worry: Lewis and Keatts are working on something for a future episode. Faulconer Watch Big news, ya'll: it's over. Faulconer Watch is donesies. Mayor Kevin Faulconer has ended his silence on the big issue and announced his decision to endorse and fully support the Chargers bid to build a convadium in the East Village and fund it with a hotel-room tax. He said what won him over were the promises he was able to get from the team. Lewis put Faulconer's decision into context by digging up some of the mayor's past thoughts on promises related to tax hikes. He also explained how the convadium isn't actually for the Chargers..

Those of you who were able to attend our Politifest presentation on the 17 state ballot measures not only got to learn about the ins and outs of the many complex measures facing California voters, you also got to witness our strong hat game. We've recreated that presentation here on the latest San Diego Decides episode — unfortunately, you'll just have to imagine us wearing weird hats as you listen. Some of the measures are relatively straightforward: One legalizes pot, for example. Another abolishes the death penalty. Others are quite tricky. Prop. 65, in fact, exists almost solely to confuse voters. That's the one that is sort of, kind of, about banning plastic bags, but will only become law if Prop. 67 — the actual plastic bag ban — passes, and Prop. 65 passes as well but with more votes. Told you it was confusing. We run down all 17 ballot propositions in this episode, so get comfy, take notes and godspeed. And if you need some insight on the other huge slate of measures you'll weigh in on — the local San Diego measures — check out this handy guide.

On this week’s podcast, we tried to get a sense of the little bit of information that’s come out about the shooting of an unarmed man in El Cajon that’s led to days of protests. This was before the El Cajon Police Department’s mid-Friday release of video footage of the shooting, after previously releasing only a still image from the video. Plus, we went over a debate between competing economic consultants from the tourism industry and the Chargers over the reasonable expectations for what a new convadium might mean for local hotels, and the tax revenue it translates to for the city. There’s no interview this week, as we try to pull together some of the best clips from last weekend’s Politifest for a wrap-up show next week. Instead, we’ve included the latest episode of the San Diego Decides podcast, our weekly show on everything you need to know about the overstuffed November ballot. Our hero this week was all the volunteers who showed up and made Politifest a screaming success. The goat this week was the San Diego State University athletic department, which lost a wrongful termination suit brought by former women’s basketball coach Beth Burns. The court determined the real reason for her firing was retaliation for her complaints about possible Title IX violations.

Brandy Zadrozny's Daily Beast story about a rape ring in the Gaslamp Quarter and he shady pickup-artist industry behind it all is shocking. Zadrozny joins hosts Scott Lewis and Andrew Keatts this week to discuss some of the issues the story unearthed. She describes how men have turned picking up women into a money-making pyramid scheme, and explains the role of the so-called "manosphere," a corner of the internet where the philosophies and strategies of pickup culture are touted. In her story, Zadrozny notes that since 2010, the San Diego district attorney has only filed charges of rape by intoxication just 28 times, rejecting 80 percent of all the cases that have come across her desk. She says it's a stat that's likely similar in cities across the country. It's a hard crime to prosecute, she says, but that doesn't mean law enforcement officers should be let off the hook. "This did become not only a look at this crime, but also a look at the pickup industry," she said. "And then moreover, a look at the way that San Diego – an it's not unique in this way – but the way that San Diego handled rape by intoxication charges in the report, which is to say it doesn't handle them very well, and it doesn't do much of an investigation and when an investigation is complete even then most of those cases aren't ever prosecuted." Also on the podcast, Lewis and Keatts go through a lighting round of topics covered by VOSD this week. They discuss the Wonder Bread factory and the owner of the building who could be forced to sell her property if Measure C passes. They bemoan the death of a program at Lincoln High that lets students take college classes. They note the city's big climate plan doesn't include limiting natural gas, and how San Diego Gas & Electric is pushing a new $600 million pipeline to bring us more natural gas.   Lewis also admits that turning 40 wasn't as easy as he thought and extols the healing powers of cheesesteaks. Faulconer Watch Still nada from Mayor Kevin Faulconer about Measure C, the Chargers' plan for a new East Village convadium. The mayor has taken public stances on other measures  but he remains silent on the giant proposal to increase the hotel-room tax and change downtown forever. Hero of the Week The San Diego International Airport declined the donation of a bronze statue of retired basketball player Bill Walton. There are a lot of public agencies and public land out there, which means there are a lot of places you could put a statue of Walton. Keatts offers a pre-emptive hero award to whichever agency steps up to make a home for the bronze Bill Walton. Goat of the Week County Supervisor Dave Roberts, who’s running for re-election, grabs the goat this week for not being bold enough to offer an opinion on SANDAG’s proposed sales tax increase.