Bernardi was nicknamed "Mr. No" because of his opposition to city spending, and he was known as the City Council's "gadfly" because of his "pesky pursuit of lost causes," but in 1985 he was successful in forcing the City Council to put a tough campaign-reform law on the April ballot after he circulated petitions that would have required a vote on an even tougher law. He did this by "enlisting the support of the League of Women Voters and a ragtag group made up mostly of retirees to qualify an initiative for the ballot."