District 7 supervisor challenger Matt Boschetto is the latest candidate to create a ballot-measure committee, one that allows him to collect more money than his individual campaign is permitted to receive directly.
In just one week, his ballot-measure committee opposing the creation of a Great Highway park took in $75,000, mostly from payments made by his own family. On Tuesday, the ballot committee reported $50,000 from Michael Boschetto, Boschetto’s father; $10,000 from the Boschetto Family Partnership; and $5,000 from Boschetto himself.
The committee, “Great Highway for All, a Matt Boschetto Committee,” was created by Boschetto’s campaign last week in opposition to Proposition K — which, if passed by voters on November 5, would permanently close the Great Highway between Lincoln Way and Sloat Boulevard to cars, and convert the area into an oceanfront park.
The proposition was co-sponsored by five supervisors, including District 4 supervisor Joel Engardio and Myrna Melgar, the current District 7 supervisor, who is running for re-election against Boschetto.
Boschetto is using the ballot measure as a tool “to allow his family to give money in excess of campaign contribution limits,” said Jim Ross, a San Francisco political consultant. “The only problem is, you can’t use it directly on your campaign,” he added.
Candidate campaigns are subject to $500 contribution limits per person, but ballot measure committees are not, allowing Boschetto’s committee to receive unlimited donations from both individuals and corporations.
Boschetto did not immediately provide a comment.
In 1950, Boschetto’s grandparents purchased Able Window Cleaning in North Beach, which later became Able Services, a successful company offering engineering and janitorial services. In 2021, the company was purportedly valued at $830 million. That year, it was sold to ABM Industries.
The money donated to his ballot committee can only be used to support the measure, but Boschetto can also use literature about the measure to promote his own name. Daniel Lurie, the mayoral candidate, did this in March, for instance, cutting ads on CNN and MSNBC for a ballot measure that prominently featured him, his family, and his life story.
Mayoral candidate Mark Farrell has also set up a ballot-measure committee, in support of the TogetherSF proposition on reforming city commissions and expanding mayoral powers. Farrell has drawn scrutiny from other campaigns for listing more than $125,000 in shared expenses between his campaign and the ballot measure.
Boschetto is new to the political scene, and has less name recognition than Melgar, the incumbent. He runs a flower business, Matilda’s Bloombox, with his wife, Emily Boschetto, and has not previously engaged in local politics, nor has he bothered to vote in several recent local elections.
Campaign-finance filings published earlier this month show that Boschetto outraised both his opponents, Melgar and Stephen Martin-Pinto, an independent candidate who ran in the 2020 District 7 supervisor election as a Republican. Boschetto directly fundraised $127,426 up until the end of June, while Melgar and Martin-Pinto raised $99,768 and $21,786, respectively.
Although Boschetto’s day job is working in the flower business, most of his income comes from family assets, including his family’s real-estate partnership, according to what Boschetto reported on disclosure forms filed with the city.
A committee has also been created in support of Proposition K: The “Ocean Beach for Everybody Committee.” The largest donors to that committee, according to the committee’s website, are Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman; Heidi Moseson, an epidemiologist; and Lucas Lux, who works at Google and is president of the board of Friends of the Great Highway Park. These donors gave $300,000, $10,000 and $5,000, respectively.
During a candidate forum with Mission Local in June, Melgar said that the “boldest” thing she would do as supervisor would be to make the Great Highway a park, “just like Barcelona has.” Meanwhile, her opponents, Boschetto and Martin-Pinto, have taken a firm stance against the proposition.
All that money… for a road?
There’s no end to the shady shenanigans going on with the people trying to keep the Great Highway a road.
This article goes to great depth in critically evaluating the profession and income of Boschetto. Why not the same treatment of other politicians?