Two ballot measures that would increase police staffing and deregulate the police department are seeing the heaviest spending in the upcoming March election, with totals for and against the measures eclipsing $1 million apiece, according to campaign-finance filings.
The filings, which capture donations over $100 up through Jan. 20 and any recent donations above $1,000 since then, were released by the San Francisco Ethics Commission on Thursday.
Proposition E, which would roll back police regulations on car chases, surveillance and Police Commission oversight, has raised $1.25 million. It was put on the ballot by Mayor London Breed. Yet it is her opponent, Daniel Lurie, who has raised the most money for it.
In a mini-coup, Lurie, the Levi-Strauss heir running to unseat Breed in November, announced in mid-January that he, too, would support the mayor’s measure. The move allows him to raise far more money than he could as a candidate, because there are no restrictions on funding for ballot measures. And, he can feature himself while hosting events, and sending out campaign mailings, in support of the measure.
Lurie’s campaign committee has raised $635,000 for the measure, while the mayor’s has raised $621,347.
Campaign finance filings were downloaded from the San Francisco Ethics Commission website and include all donations above $100 until Jan. 20, and any donations above $1,000 as of Feb. 1. Chart by Kelly Waldron. For the optimal experience, use the desktop version.
Lurie’s committee is supported by family, well-heeled entrepreneurs and investors: His brother has given $250,000, and seven other donors have given between $10,000 and $100,000 each.
Breed’s committee, meanwhile, is supported by tech interests and other mayoral allies. Chris Larsen, the co-founder of cryptocurrency exchange Ripple, has given $250,000; Ron Conway, the tech venture capitalist, has given $100,000. William Oberndorf, an investor and Republican donor; Jeremy Liew, a tech venture capitalist; and Emmett Shear, founder of streaming platform Twitch, have give some $50,000 each.
The San Francisco Police Officers Association, the police union, has also given $50,000 to pass Prop. E, which would, among other things, free up officers from spending more than a fifth of their working hours on “administrative tasks.”
Having such large donations supporting the measure — with Mayor Breed backing it strongly — is not unusual or unexpected, said Jim Ross, a political consultant. “A lot of her supporters are giving money to it,” he said. “The number one issue in San Francisco is public safety.”
In opposition is the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, which has raised a total of $200,000 to campaign against the measure. The organization’s campaign website argues that the measure threatens to increase invasive surveillance and the use of force by the police department, while weakening oversight.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, an anti-surveillance group, is also opposed to the measure, saying it would weaken oversight of police technology, potentially including facial-recognition cameras.
Proposition B, on the other hand, was initially a Breed-backed measure, but is now opposed by the mayor. The measure would boost police staffing so long as future taxes pay for the increase — an addition by District 11 Supervisor Ahsha Safaí, also a mayoral opponent, that was opposed by Breed. She wanted increased staffing paid for by current taxes.
Proposition B, which has raised $605,000, is being entirely backed by labor: SEIU Local 1021 and IFPTE Local 21, both public sector unions, have put in $400,000 and $200,000, respectively; the San Francisco Building and Construction Trades Council has coughed up $5,000.
Its opposition campaign, meanwhile, is quickly bringing in large sums: Almost the entirety of its $537,140 funding has come in over the last 10 days, the bulk of it from a single 501(c)(4) nonprofit, Neighbors for a Better San Francisco Advocacy, which is backed by Oberndorf, the Republican mega-donor.
Neighbors has put in $377,640. Other donors include the venture capitalist and San Francisco Standard funder Michael Moritz ($50,000), Larsen ($50,000), Conway ($25,000) and a slew of others.
In other measures, Proposition A, a $300 million affordable housing bond that requires a two-thirds majority vote, has raised some $430,000 as of Dec. 31, with no opposition money.
Proposition F, which would require drug screening for certain welfare recipients and was put on the ballot by Breed, has raised some $330,000 — also with no opposition funding.
Proposition C, a waiver of the real-estate transfer tax for office space converting to residential, has raised some $99,000, with some $25,000 in opposition spending. Proposition G, a non-binding measure urging the school district to offer algebra in 8th grade, has raised more than $50,000, with no opposition funds.
Plenty of SF voters are happy with our current level of crime.
The rest of us simply must outvote them.
I see that the Mayor is happy to pay a non-profit to help the venders with crumbs. Why not skip the non-profit and pay the vendors the money instead? Why is City Hall so happy to pay non-profits to manage people? Cut out the middleman and your money will go a lot further.
Why don’t they donate that money to the city to cover the loses instead of using it for campaign funds? Media wins. Everyone else loses.
Preston excepted, I see that the professional “progressives” are going to stand down on the police un-reform ballot measure like they stood down on SFUSD recalls, gerrymandering, Campos v. Haney and drug testing for GA recipients.
In a related note, how many Mission nonprofits are dependent on funding from SFSAFE?
San Franciscans deserve better.
And, voters …
Those ads with the fat cops sitting at their desks doing paperwork ?’
They love that stuff.
20 years back when I followed the stats closely SFPD kept just over 15% of their force doing paperwork while LA had 7% and in both departments it was because they did it on purpose.
Watched several incarnations of the SF BOS study the problem and get the cops to promise they’d hire more civilians and then when the BOS did follow-ups over the years it turned out that the cops had done nothing but promise.
This is a lazy lot and not to be trusted and certainly not to be given more money.
Go Niners !!
Kelly and Joe,
A good way to get a handle on the cops here is to think of them like this …
Imagine you’re in a High School with 2,300 students and it lasts for 30 years.
And, the upperclassmen (almost every one a male) are dominated by a cadre of bullies led by a kind of Irish Mafia type who recruit other bullies from other departments.
Imagine that they mostly hate the people they are paid to protect and if their union tells them to stop protecting them that they WILL follow those instructions.
They did it during the Pandemic for God’s sake just to make Boudin look bad.
And, they told us they were doing it.
Yes, this is a department that needs a solid ass kicking.
By a person Elected by the People because they’re such a bad ass.
I’ve seen better organized Mass Nakid Bicycle rides under my windows complete with disco music and bright flashing lights.
Made more sense than cops and DPW workers standing all together like ducks at 16th and Mission ignoring the people forced to walk around them.
What did that Chinese War Lord do to those Geisha girls to make a fighting unit ?
Naw, we don’t need that.
An effective Civil Service backed by a San Francisco Cybre Filter Agi Audit Program will do.
Go Niners !!
Nice work,
Ahhh, SF cops, the gift that …
A couple of years back their union was laundering some of the proceeds from a bit of international drug dealing going on out of the Santa Clara Police Officers Association’s home offices by their Executive Director, I believe.
Uh huh, their union gave money to our cops union who then gave it to Political Candidates I won’t name cause I’m friends with some of em.
Follow the Money on that 50k from SFPOA and make certain it came from their own members and is not the largesse of some other Rogue cop union’s dealing.
All of these measures except for the drug testing will fail.
Drug testing will pass because even Recovering Addicts like Matt Dorsey (heavy user while Spokesperson for Herrerra) …
It’s a kind of self-flaggelation vote.
As for the others ?
Not a prayer.
This Town is made up of Conservative Rich and a couple of hundred thousand immigrants and old Hippies like myself and virtually every single voter here has broken the law to such an extent that if a Law Enforcement Agency had, say video, evidence of their transgression that …
We don’t want our pictures taken !!
Oh, but I don’t mind.
I get better looking every day is what I’m saying.
lol
Go Niners !!