S.F. mayor’s race: Lurie is No. 1 in fundraising and spending, with Breed a distant second

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Daniel Lurie, the millionaire Levi Strauss heir who founded the grant-making nonprofit Tipping Point before running for San Francisco mayor, is vastly outraising and outspending his rivals in the race, new filings released on Wednesday show.

More than $6.6 million is going toward Lurie’s bid for City Hall, which is more than double the next most successful fundraiser, Mayor London Breed. Lurie’s total includes both direct fundraising by the candidate and fundraising by political action committees supporting him. It is current as of June 30. 

Much of Lurie’s treasure trove comes from his own family: His mother, Miriam “Mimi” Haas, has given $1 million to a PAC supporting him; his brother gave $100,500 to the same PAC; and Lurie has personally spent $590,000 on his own campaign. A good deal of the rest is also big-money gifts in six-figure sums, though he has a large base of some 2,200 total donors.

Lurie has also outspent every other candidate, and is burning through cash quickly. His candidate campaign has spent close to $1.5 million and has just $64,862 currently in the bank, while the PAC backing him has spent another $2.6 million.

One of Lurie’s challenges has always been name recognition and he is trying to remedy that by spending liberally: His PAC has poured $2.3 million into advertising and billboards. Lurie also has a shorter public history in San Francisco than Breed and Farrell. Polls currently put Lurie in a close third, but ranked-choice voting could create a come-from-behind moment for the candidate.

“I am humbled and grateful for the overwhelming support from our community,” Lurie said in a statement, adding that his campaign is “fueled by the support of thousands of donors” who share his vision for San Francisco.

Breed is second in the money race: More than $2.7 million has gone toward the incumbent in the same time period, including direct fundraising, fundraising by independent PACs, and public financing. The bulk of Breed’s total came from small donors and matching city funds; she has the most individual donors of any campaign, at around 2,800.

About $850,000 backing Breed, however, came from a new PAC that has taken in large sums from a handful of donors, including $400,000 from the cryptocurrency billionaire and top law-enforcement patron Chris Larsen, and $200,000 from the former mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg.

In a press release sent soon after the filings were released, Breed took aim at both Farrell and Lurie, specifically calling out Lurie’s large sums from family members.

“I will earn my right to a second term, instead of trying to buy the office, like Daniel Lurie,” she said. “My mom donated $150 to my campaign, while Lurie’s mother donated $1 million to his.”

Breed has the most cash on hand of any major candidate: $948,705.

Mark Farrell, the former District 2 supervisor and interim mayor, has fundraised about $654,000 directly from about 1,600 donors. Farrell did not receive any public financing between January and the end of June, but his campaign has applied to receive it, and says it will receive $1.2 million in city funds. 

Farrell will also benefit from a separate ballot measure committee, pushing a proposition to cap the number of city commissions, that has fundraised another $985,140. While the committee cannot promote his mayoral campaign directly, it can promote Farrell himself by cutting ads that name and feature the candidate for voters across the city. The committee has taken in a few large sums from wealthy donors.

Farrell has been accused by rival campaigns of illegally commingling campaign funds by sharing expenses between his mayoral race and his ballot measure campaign.

“As we enter the homestretch of the campaign, the excitement and momentum is clearly behind us and growing every day,” said Jade Tu, Farrell’s campaign manager, in a statement. Farrell’s campaign had $303,202 in cash as of June 30.

While Breed and Farrell are neck-and-neck in the most recent polls, it was Farrell vs. Lurie in the immediate aftermath of the filings’ release: The two bickered on X Thursday morning, with Farrell calling out Lurie’s personal financing of his campaign.

Lurie’s totals were high “if you're counting the $590K+ that you personally donated to your campaign as money that you ‘raised,’” Farrell wrote. Lurie retorted: “Let’s just set the record straight … Since launching our campaign, we have raised 823k from over 2,600 donors — not including any contributions I have made.”

Lurie has 37 percent more individual donors than Farrell. Breed has 28 percent more individual donors than Lurie, and 76 percent more individual donors than Farrell.

Lurie and Farrell seldom take aim at each other on the campaign trail, and continued spats could have repercussions: In a May poll commissioned by the public pressure group GrowSF, more than half of Farrell’s No. 2 votes went to Lurie, and almost the same number of Lurie’s No. 2 votes went to Farrell. If the two continue their attacks, they risk alienating each other’s base so much that voters choose a different second-place pick.

District 11 Supervisor Ahsha Safaí has about $488,332 in direct fundraising and another $466,260 in public financing. Safaí had $401,714 cash on hand as of the end of June.

In a statement, Safaí said he was "honored by this incredibly strong showing for our campaign" which has given his run for Room 200 "a fighting chance against the campaigns of the billionaires and billionaire heir."

And Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin has fundraised some $470,000 directly, and has another $300,000 in public financing, according to the filings, though his campaign said it is expecting another $637,052 in public financing, and took in $82,450 in July. That would bring Peskin’s total to $1,489,445. 

Filings showed Peskin has $292,665 cash on hand, but his campaign claimed $1,125,000 left in the bank, taking into account expected public financing and more recent fundraising.

“We started later than all the other candidates, but are raising money five times faster than some who have been in the race for over a year,” Peskin said in a statement. “Other candidates, like Breed and Farrell, continue to accept support from billionaires and garner their support from real-estate speculators, developers, and other conservative interests.”

Both Safaí and Peskin rely entirely on small, individual donations of $500 or less — the city’s cap for giving directly to a candidate — and public financing. Both Safaí and Peskin had a little over 1,300 donors.

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