Local News

SACRAMENTO (CBS 5/KCBS/AP) ― While a hotly contested congressional seat in upstate New York has generated national attention, a similar special election in Northern California has drawn little outside interest.

Democrats are hoping for an easy victory Tuesday in the 10th Congressional District, a heavily gerrymandered district in the East Bay where Democrats hold an 18-point registration edge over Republicans.

Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, who has been involved in state and national politics for 35 years, is trying to maintain the Democratic Party's control of the seat that was held previously by former Rep. Ellen Tauscher. Tauscher was named earlier this year to a State Department position.

He is being challenged by Republican David Harmer, an attorney who is campaigning against excessive government spending.

Meanwhile, San Francisco voters will consider five ballot measures, including proposals to reopen naming rights to the football stadium affectionately known as "The Stick," and to allow billboards along a section of Market Street in an attempt to eliminate downtown blight.

Proposition C, authored by Supervisor Bevan Dufty, would create a new naming agreement for Candlestick Park, home to the San Francisco 49ers.

The measure is intended to raise revenue for the city, after the expiration last year of the team's previous naming rights agreement with Monstercable. The agreement was signed before San Franciscans approved Proposition H in November 2004, which requires the stadium be called Candlestick Park.

The city owns the stadium and leases it to the 49ers. The lease ends in 2013.

Under a current contract with the city, the 49ers have the exclusive right to sell naming rights to the stadium to any of five companies, and the city receives half the revenue from any sale.

The stadium has previously been named 3Com Park and Monster Park.

The city received $3 million from the Monstercable agreement, about $700,000 per year.

Supporters say the measure represents a tax-free source of revenue that could bring in about $1 million per year to San Francisco.

However, the team is also considering a move to Santa Clara.

Proposition C would expand the pool of potential naming rights sponsors and it specifies that at least half of any naming revenue received by the city would go to fund recreation center directors. The Recreation and Park Department allocation, however, is not required and could be used for any purpose, subject to the supervisors' approval.

"It's The Stick. It's our stadium. That's its name," Supervisor Chris Daly wrote in the officially published opposition argument.

Daly argued that "the voters have already spoken" in favor of keeping the name Candlestick Park and "preventing politicians from selling the name for quick cash."

Daly said the Board of Supervisors already rejected layoffs of recreation directors proposed by Mayor Gavin Newsom earlier this year, and won't allow them to be cut in the future.

Newsom, who supports the measure, responded that it was important to preserve "the free spaces middle class families use every day."

Proposition D would create a Mid-Market Special Sign District on Market Street between Fifth and Seventh streets, an area that has struggled with crime, homelessness, drug use, graffiti and abandoned businesses.

It would allow outdoor general advertising signs, with a portion of property owners' revenue going to arts and cultural programs.

Advertisements as large as 500 feet, including digital billboards and rotating signs, could be placed on building rooftops and walls along the two-block section.

Despite arguments that the measure would replace blight with a different kind of blight, a coalition of local artists, merchants and politicians support it, including the Mid-Market ARTS Alliance, the Market Street Association, the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, District Attorney Kamala Harris and the San Francisco Police Officers Association, six supervisors and both the San Francisco Democratic and Republican parties.

Proponents hope to clean up and revitalize the area, known for its arts and theater venues, using revenue from the advertisements.

Opposition group San Francisco Beautiful argues San Franciscans and tourists as far away as Twin Peaks "would see ads for commercial products blinking every few seconds, blazing away 24 hours a day."

"This neighborhood requires political leadership that transcends an opportunistic initiative," the group wrote in its published opposition to the measure.

San Francisco voters will also consider propositions to establish a two-year budget cycle, instead of the current annual cycle, and adopt a five-year financial plan; to eliminate a city law requiring supervisors have two aides; and to ban any increase in advertising on street furniture such as Muni bus shelters, and prohibit new advertising on city-owned buildings.

All measures require a simple majority to pass.

Palo Alto residents, meanwhile, will vote whether to establish a business license tax to support basic city services.

Measure A would require businesses located or conducted in Palo Alto to pay a tax to the city. The measure needs a majority to pass.

The tax, estimated to generate nearly $3 million annually in local revenue, would go towards the city's general fund, supporting police and fire protection, senior and youth programs, street repairs, parks and recreation, and library programs.

Under the tax, all businesses would be charged $75 for the first employee.

Personal services, retail, hotel, and wholesale, manufacturing businesses would be charged $34 for each additional employee. Professional, business services, real estate brokerage and non-classified businesses would be charged $95 for each additional employee.

Multi-family landlords, with four or more rental units, would be charged $25.00 for each subsequent residential unit.

Nonprofit organizations, owners of fewer than four rental housing units, and residents who do not operate a business in Palo Alto would be exempt from paying the tax.

Proponents of the ordinance say revenue from the tax could help boost the city's depleted revenue sources and sales taxes, property taxes, and real estate transfer fees brought upon by the economic recession.

They also argue that revenue generated could go towards maintaining libraries, parks and recreation, and city support for schools, as well as addressing the mounting infrastructure backlog.

Opponents of Measure A say the tax will place a burden on small, local businesses by charging than a higher tax per employee rate than big corporations.

They say the tax would also leave small businesses at a competitive disadvantage by charging the highest business license tax in Santa Clara County. Measure A would not mend the city's budget crisis, opponents say.

Elsewhere in the county, Cupertino voters will decide Measure B, which updates the city's utility users tax to continue to fund city services. The measure needs a majority to pass.

Santa Clara Unified School District's Measure C authorizes an annual $138 parcel tax to fund education programs. The measure requires a two-thirds majority to pass.

Measure G, in the Fremont Union High School District, replaces an existing expiring parcel tax with the same annual $98 per year parcel tax to fund education. The measure requires a two-thirds majority to pass.

(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)