our speak er is bob stern. a co-op of proposition 9, the political reform act of 1974 which continues the campaign disclosure and san francisco laws and ethics and public campaign financing laws. bob served as the first general council as the fair and political practices and the president of the center for governmental studies in los angeles. bob has been honored for his service by a number of groups including the league of women voters, pomona college and government on ethics law. bob is a graduate of stanford law school. our second speaker is corey cook. he's an associate professor at the department of politics at the university in san francisco and also served at the center for service and common grood. -- good. he teaches courses in political institutions. his early work concerned campaign finance reform and election results in california. corey is considered and expert in san francisco politics. he is widely quoted by national and local publications including the new york chronicle and san francisco times.

i'm here with bob stern. i have been studying campaign finance issue in california since 1994 in my first job out of college. i have done research on public finances system and studied political reform in california and san francisco in particular since becoming a political scientist in san francisco state and ucsf. i cannot offer you a legal perspective but tell you what it says pertaining to campaigns. as you know the court but the appearance of corruption in it's finance ruling. in recent years the court has interpreted corruption to a pretty narrow definition putting on bribes and kwid pro quo which is sufficiently broad to understanding corruption. but nonetheless between direct and indirect speech and therefore regulating contributions to candidates and officials. the logic of contribution san francisco limit to $7500 about it's concern about corruption of the elected official and candidates with the appearance thereof. in my view, in law and limits to unregulated funds and a clear distortion of campaig

most thought him a stern unapproachable man who issued indictments with a biblical fury. i wanted to show bobin all his complexity; his kindness and generosity to the little people his wicked sense of humor how he came home at night as he walked in the door and began booming out "give my regards to broadway." bob had wanted me to be his memoirist. that way he didn't have to look back, which he hated to do. nor did he have to do the work. [laughter] i really knew most of the story. but i still felt uneasy about the responsibility. i knew his laissez-faire, take it on the chin attitude. write whatever you want, he said, but i wasn't going to let him off so easily. i insisted he read my journals chronicling our relationship and every draft of the manuscript. even then to find out what this very private man really thought was almost as hard as writing the book. typically, i had to look for clues. how do you like that passage, sweetheart i'd ask. and if he said it's your memory, i would know -- [laughter] that he didn't like it. [laughter] then it was necessary to watch for the slightest twitch in