Within days of the last SLO City Council and mayoral races, developers spent about $18,000 on their favorite SLO politicians. Did that affect who’s in office today?

In the final week before the November 2004 elections, three San Luis Obispo politicians got a nice gift from the developers behind the Marketplace project: $17,870 worth of advertising. To get around a city-imposed $100 donation cap, the developers didn’t actually give any money to the politicians. Instead, they funneled money through other political groups. […]