Filings released by the Ethics Commission on Thursday showed that, at the end of 2023, Jackie Fielder had raised the most money so far in the District 9 supervisorial race. Roberto Hernandez and Trevor Chandler placed a close second and third.
Fielder, a climate advocate who ran against Scott Wiener for state senate in 2020, had raised some $112,742 by Dec. 31, according to the commission’s campaign finance dashboard. She also had significant cash on hand, with $80,788 left after spending only $31,954.
“I’m proud to be running free from corporation, billionaire, real-estate money,” said Fielder, whose campaign launched in May of last year. “And that’s because of my grassroots campaign.”
“It’s anyone’s race at this point,” she added. “We have nine months to go.”
Hernandez, a Mission community organizer, was in second place, having raised $100,577. He has an even bigger war chest left: $89,134, having spent just $11,443 so far.
“I’m so humbled and so proud of the team that believed we could raise this money this quickly through a grassroots campaign,” said Hernandez, who announced his campaign in October 2023.
Chandler, an LGBTQ activist and former lobbyist for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, was close behind, with $87,565. Chandler, who announced his candidacy in April 2023, has also been the biggest spender, burning through $67,816 thus far. At the end of 2023, he had $19,749 left.
“As a first-time candidate, I had more ground to cover to build up my operation,” said Chandler. “That’s the decision I made to run a viable campaign.”
Fielder leads District 9 fundraising, Chandler leads spending
Jackie Fielder
Roberto Hernandez
Trevor Chandler
Stephen Torres
Julian Bermudez
10,000
30,000
50,000
70,000
90,000
110,000
$0
$20K
$40K
$60K
$80K
$100K
$120K
Fielder leads District 9 fundraising,
Chandler leads spending
Jackie Fielder
Roberto Hernandez
Trevor Chandler
Stephen Torres
Julian Bermudez
$60K
$0
$120K
Data from the Ethics Commission up to Dec. 31. Chart by Kelly Waldron.
On top of running for supervisor, Chandler is part of the moderate Democrats for Change slate running for Democratic Central County Committee (DCCC) in March. Candidates are not allowed to use funds from the DCCC for other contests, like supervisor races, but campaign mailers and events still help increase name recognition.
The DCCC contest also has looser restrictions on fundraising — for example, while individual contributors are capped at $500 in the San Francisco supervisorial race, there is no such limit for DCCC, a state position. Additionally, corporations can donate directly to a DCCC race.
If you include the $32,205 Chandler has amassed so far for that contest, the overall cash he has raised for 2024 races is $119,770.
Stephen Torres, a city commissioner, writer, and service worker, had raised $13,848 and spent $5,949; he has $7,899 left. He announced his campaign in October last year. Julian Bermudez, a military veteran with a family appliance repair business in the Mission, had raised $740 and spent none of it. He announced in June 2023.
Jaime Gutierrez, Michael Petrelis, and recently filed candidate Harold Brown had not raised any funds as of Dec. 31.
How significant are these funds?
Fundraising totals are not the best indication of strength at this stage in the race, according to Jim Ross, a political consultant with 30 years of experience in San Francisco. More important, he says, is the number of donors, and how many of those are within the district or wider city.
Donors within the district, Ross said, indicate a broad strength and potential voters, while small donors from San Francisco — who give between $10 and $100 — ensure matching funds from the city. For every dollar raised privately by candidates, San Francisco’s public financing program offers six more, up to $255,000.
“The number of people in the district that have given to a candidate — that’s where you see indications of strength, indications of who has support in the district, who has a base,” Ross said.
Meet the District 9 candidates
Leading the pack in donors is Fielder, with 590 individuals, 100 of whom live within the 94110 zip code, and 495 within the city. This is not, however, an exact measure of in-district strength. Elections data does not break down donors by supervisorial district, so there are donors outside the 94110 zip code — in the Portola, for instance — who are nevertheless District 9 voters.
As of the end of 2023, Chandler was second, with 409 individual donors, 110 within 94110 and 315 in San Francisco. Hernandez had 367 total donors, 91 living in the 94110 zip code and 211 in the city. Torres had 67 individual donors, and Bermudez had three.
Ross said the burn rate — how much cash has been spent thus far — is a key metric. A large burn rate early on in the race, Ross said, could be concerning, because money is being spent when “nobody is paying attention to the race.”
How are candidates spending?
Chandler, the biggest spender of the bunch, has put his money toward campaign consultants and IT services. In large part, he said, this was to stay on the right side of campaign-ethics rules: “I want to make sure I am fully compliant with campaign finance laws.”
Fielder’s spending has been split between paying political consultants, campaign staff, and physical materials like signs, fliers and business cards.
Hernandez spent on a treasurer, IT services, and some physical materials like business cards. He said that costs had been kept fairly low because lots of campaign work was done by volunteers.
Torres, similarly, spent funds on a treasurer and on physical materials like fliers. “I’m super proud of how far I’ve got in such little time,” he said. “It lets me know I’m on the right track.”
Bermudez said that his biggest expense thus far was the $10 per month on his campaign website: “The free trial has expired,” he said. He said that lots of his campaigning had been done for free via social media, but that he has earmarked some cash to buy flyers and a banner.
“If money buys votes, I’d be worried,” he said. “But money doesn’t buy votes.”
Additional reporting by Joe Rivano Barros. More details of the campaign funding can be found on the ethics commission website.
