Dellums declined to run for re-election. In the November 2010 election, Perata ran for Mayor in a field of nine candidates. The two other major contenders were City Council members Jean Quan and Rebecca Kaplan. He led in first-place balloting, but came in second place following winner Quan after taking into account ranked choice balloting (instant runoff). Perata was also the co-chair of a California campaign committee to pass the California Cancer Research Act, 2012's Proposition 29 a ballot measure that was defeated by California voters on June 5, 2012. If it would have passed, the measure was projected to generate over $500 million annually for cancer research by levying a new $1-per-pack tax on tobacco products in California. Revenues would have also been spent on smoking-cessation programs, and tobacco law-enforcement. Political controversy In early 2004, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Perata's friend and associate, Timothy G. Staples, had received $313,000 in business from political campaigns initiated or supported by Perata. At the same time, Staples had paid Perata $100,000 per year in consulting fees that supplement Perata's Senate salary, according to financial records and interviews with the senator. After this disclosure The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights sent a letter to the Senate stating that Perata's payments for consulting work looked "like a complex and illegal money-laundering mechanism." That same week the Senate Ethics Committee began an investigation into the matter, but dropped it the following month concluding that the dealings did not violate the Senate's standards of conduct or conflict-of-interest rules. Later that same month the Chronicle reported on another dealing by the Senator. Since 1999, Perata's campaign fund and various other political committees had paid Exit Strategies more than $743,000, according to campaign finance documents. Exit Strategies, a political direct mail firm, was launched in 1999 by Perata's son, Nick, and based at his father's Alameda County home. By their own accounting, Exit Strategies paid the senator nearly $138,000 during the same period for rent and consulting fees. The Senate Ethics Committee again ruled that this was not an actionable violation, but it raised questions into the propriety of the relationship. Additional stories by The Chronicle during this time insinuated that Perata had carried a bill on behalf of Mercury Insurance, which may have allowed the company to circumvent Prop. 103. Mercury, in turn, donated $50,000 to a political committee run by Oakland developer Phil