Working both ends

The business of ballot measures is booming in San Diego, though some big-money donors are still waiting for their payoffs in more ways than one. A controversial measure authored by attorney Cory Briggs to raise the city’s tax on hotel stays and possibly make over the Qualcomm Stadium site for SDSU, among other things, spent $365,771 from the beginning of the year through March 31. The group reported outstanding debts of $630,010, with the bulk of the funds owed to ex-Padres owner John Moores and his Ballpark Village, LLC.

Among vendors paid, according to the filing, is IVC Media, LLC, an online political marketing venture run by Chad Peace, son of Steve Peace, the ex-Democratic state senator who now works for Moores. IVC picked up $2500, with $21,490 still owed. IVC’s website lists as a client JMI, Moores’s financial arm. “IVC created a custom brand, an informative website, online surveys, and social media channels that have become JMI’s most effective tool in educating and gathering feedback from the community.”

The Peace-designed site promotes JMI’s Ballpark Village condo project and also touts the downtown Chargers stadium, to be paid for by a competing hotel tax hike, putatively headed for a showdown with the Briggs initiative on November’s ballot. Meanwhile, Dean Spanos and his Chargers have dumped another six figures into their stadium campaign.

According to a May 1 filing, the committee bankrolling the current signature drive received $230,000 in the form of an “estimated non-monetary contribution” from the team on April 30. Added to team cash previously contributed, $862,694, the grand total of Spanos family money behind the measure is currently $1,092,924. No one else has contributed.