Influence Watch: The death of rent control lite

Landlords, developers, Realtors squelched rent-increase limit; A crowdsourcing request to The Observer's readers on another anonymized campaign

Research from a prominent economic consulting firm. Numbers from a well-respected pollster. A slick website. Surgically targeted ads in local news sources urging readers to ask their legislator to vote no. These were all part of a well-orchestrated campaign that helped kill a proposal to limit rent increases after the current moratorium on evicting rent…