Campaign donation numbers disclosed last week give the first detailed glimpse of money in the six San Francisco supervisor races on the November ballot. The totals are vast: $5,310,571, according to the new finance filings.
In several races, the same big-money groups that ousted progressives from the San Francisco Democratic Party in March are now supporting the candidates they backed as they try to take control of the Board of Supervisors. In doing so, the tech- and real estate-backed groups are fulfilling a promise to remake San Francisco.
And, though outside groups are spending six-figure sums, the candidates themselves are behind the bulk of the money in the race: In total, political action committees have fundraised $421,949 of the $5.3 million in the race, about 8 percent. The candidates have fundraised the rest from individual donations capped at $500 per donor.
Three contests attract PAC spending
The contest attracting the most money overall is District 5, which covers the Haight, the Fillmore, and the Tenderloin; $1.275 million is going to support and oppose five candidates there. The incumbent, Supervisor Dean Preston, the city’s only democratic socialist official and one of the few in the country, is facing a handful of challengers hoping to unseat him. A well-heeled public pressure group is helping in that effort.
Preston has directly fundraised more than any other supervisorial candidate, $262,865, but has been fundraising since last year. His chief rival, Bilal Mahmood, has fundraised $182,174 since declaring in January.
Mahmood has received slightly more in total when counting public financing, which is the city’s system for using city money to match candidates’ campaign funds. In total, Mahmood has $437,174 vs. Preston’s $426,368, a 2.5 percent difference, though Preston is likely to close that gap when he qualifies for more city funds.
But it is the outside political action committees spending in the race that makes it the city’s most expensive: GrowSF, a political advocacy organization that is part of a crop of new moneyed groups hoping to steer the city in a police-friendly, pro-YIMBY, and generally laissez-faire direction, has jumped in to fund a drive against Preston.
GrowSF was also one of the top donors to a slate of oppositional candidates, Democrats for Change, that ousted progressives from the Democratic County Central Committee in March, and vastly outspent them in the effort. Known as the DCCC, it is San Francisco’s chapter of the Democratic Party and makes prized ballot recommendations.
GrowSF is backed by wealthy tech interests like Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan and venture capitalist Ron Conway, and has fundraised more than $289,865 to attack Preston. So far, only $18,160 has been spent.
It has not yet endorsed in the district race, but is expected to back Mahmood; it endorsed him in his successful run for the Democratic Central County Committee in March and his 2022 run for State Assembly.
Tech money is also involved in the District 9 race to replace termed-out Supervisor Hillary Ronen, which is the second most expensive supervisor contest so far. The district covers the Mission, Bernal Heights and the Portola. Six candidates and one outside PAC have raised $1.124 million there.
Jackie Fielder, a democratic socialist, leads in direct contributions and public financing with $392,684, while one of her rivals, Trevor Chandler, is nipping at her heels with $360,790, including outside PAC spending. In a more distant third place is Roberto Hernandez, the longtime community organizer and founder of Carnaval, with $260,494.
The outside help is going to Chandler: A PAC called Families for a Vibrant San Francisco, another tech-backed group that also played a key role in ousting progressives from the Democratic County Central Committee race earlier this year.
The PAC spent handsomely to seat Chandler on the body in March, and has fundraised $52,500 for Chandler from just two tech executives: Crypto billionaire Chris Larsen, a backer of Mayor London Breed and the city’s law enforcement, has given $50,000 to back Chandler’s election, and Yelp CEO and YIMBY patron Jeremy Stoppelman has given another $2,500.
The District 1 race has attracted about $914,000. The incumbent, Supervisor Connie Chan, is being outspent by her once and future rival Marjan Philhour, who lost the race to Chan in 2020 by just 125 votes. Philhour has amassed more money than any other supervisorial candidate: $455,310 for November, 23 percent more than Chan’s $368,995.
There, too, GrowSF is active: It has fundraised $72,101 to defeat Chan, and spent about $10,316 so far. The “Clear Out Connie” and “Dump Dean” campaigns against the two progressive supervisors attracted substantial fundraising last year, but money has since slowed to a trickle.
Donors are instead funding GrowSF’s general PAC and have given it $270,330 so far this year. The PAC is likely to spend heavily on Breed’s re-election race and other efforts, like voter guides.
GrowSF also backed Philhour in her successful run for Democratic Central County Committee in March.
Explore the races
Explore each race below. Fundraising totals for each candidate are a combination of candidates’ direct fundraising — which, under city law, is capped at $500 per individual donor and cannot include corporate giving — and matching funds through the city’s public-financing program.
Candidates qualify for matching city funds six times what they have fundraised directly if they raise a certain amount of money from San Francisco donors giving in small amounts, among other requirements. The maximum disbursement from the city is $255,000 for newcomers, and $252,000 for incumbent candidates.
Spending against candidates, which is carried out by PACs that have no contribution limits and can take corporate funds, is denoted in red. PAC spending in favor of a candidate is green.
All totals are current through June 30, the most recent publicly disclosed data.
Philhour leads Chan in spending, and will benefit from GrowSF’s attack ads lambasting her opponent, but has also spent more quickly; Chan has more than twice as much money left in the bank: $301,710 vs. Philhour’s $127,510.
Both have received public financing, and Philhour has maxed out; Chan is about $20,000 away from that maximum.
Jen Nossokoff, a healthcare executive, is a distant third: She has fundraised $18,848, and had $12,464 cash on-hand. Two other candidates, Jeremiah Boehner and Sherman D’Silva, did not report any contributions.
In District 3, three candidates are neck-and-neck in terms of direct fundraising. While Danny Sauter, the executive director of the nonprofit Neighborhood Centers Together, is leading the pack in overall funds with $336,848, most of that comes from public financing that will likely be given to contenders Moe Jamil and Sharon Lai as well. Sauter has fundraised $140,809 directly.
Jamil, a deputy city attorney, is slightly ahead in direct fundraising at $141,500, and has another $60,000 in public financing.
Sharon Lai, a former appointed San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency board member who, like Jamil, has been endorsed by Board President Aaron Peskin, has fundraised $133,151 directly and has another $60,000 in public financing.
As of June 30, Sauter had $132,396 in the bank, Jamil $151,725, and Sharon Lai $101,784.
In fourth place, money-wise, is Matthew Susk, formerly at the rent-to-own firm Divvy Homes, with $46,575. And Eduard Navarro, a former architect, is bringing up the rear with $13,469.
Mahmood currently has the top spot overall in District 5 and has raised money more quickly than his opponent, Preston. Mahmood took in $182,174 since filing in late January, while Preston has raised $262,865 since last fall.
Mahmood has reached the public financing limit, but Preston is likely to qualify for more and could quickly close the gap between them. He will face the outside “Dump Dean” spending by GrowSF, which is likely to badger him with attack ads and aid Mahmood.
“This is a massive well of money that they’re going to spend,” said Jen Snyder, Preston’s campaign manager, of GrowSF’s campaign.
Autumn Looijen, who gained prominence as a pro-recall school board activist, was in third with $91,075. Most of that, $60,000, came from public financing.
Scotty Jacobs, who works in marketing, was in fourth with $23,355.
Matt Boschetto, a political newcomer, is leading in fundraising in District 7, where he and Stephen Martin-Pinto, a firefighter and registered Republican until 2023, are running to oust Myrna Melgar, the incumbent. Boschetto directly fundraised $127,426 up until the end of June, while Melgar raised $99,768.
Boschetto also closed the filing period with more cash on hand: $122,260, while Melgar had $64,607.
Both Melgar and Boschetto have received public financing: Boschetto has received $228,660, close to the maximum, and Melgar $137,700. Melgar is likely to catch up on that difference, and both have since requested to receive more.
Martin-Pinto, who ran for District 7 supervisor in 2020, is behind his opponents and has raised $21,786. He applied to qualify for public finance in July.
In District 9, Fielder was ahead of the pack with $392,684 total, $178,782 of that in direct fundraising. Chandler is backed by $360,790 in funds, $117,418 of which he has fundraised directly. Both have tens of thousands of additional dollars in public financing left.
Hernandez is ahead of Chandler in terms of direct fundraising with $119,206, and can likely expect much more public financing. Hernandez has $260,494 total.
But Chandler is bolstered by $52,500 in spending by the tech-led Families for a Vibrant San Francisco PAC, the only supervisorial candidate so far in this election benefiting directly from outside spending.
Stephen Torres, a bartender, fundraised $23,463 and got $60,000 in public funds. Jaime Gutierrez, a transit supervisor at the SFMTA, fundraised $25,279 but has not yet received public funds. And Julian Bermudez, who works at his family business Rancho Grande Appliance, got $1,240 in donations.
Another candidate in the race, h brown, did not report any contributions.
Michael Lai, one of the newly elected members of the oppositional slate to the Democratic County Central Committee, has a big lead. He has raised $153,357 directly, and has not yet received any public financing, meaning his total will likely balloon in the coming weeks.
Both Ernest “EJ” Jones, a former legislative aide for Supervisor Ahsha Safaí, and Chyanne Chen, a labor organizer, have fundraised similar amounts: $101,731 for Jones and $101,253 for Chen. Jones and Chen have both received public financing, giving Jones $255,865 total and Chen $161,253.
As of June 30, Michael Lai was left with $136,465 on hand, Jones with $192,033 and Chen with $80,473.
In fourth, Adlah Chisti, a former Caltrans planner, had $18,334, while Oscar Flores, who worked in tailoring, had $1,240. Two candidates, Jose Morales and Roger Marenco, did not report any funds.
“Families for a Vibrant San Francisco”
The Mission will never be “vibrant” enough for the crypto swindler crime families.
I guess Bilal is feeling the bite of contribution limits on Supervisor races. When he tried to buy the AD17 seat for himself 2 1/2 years ago, he forked over (“invested”) $600k of his own money in the project. Turns out he wasn’t a “unicorn.”
Thank you, Sup. Dean Preston, for walking the AFSCME protest picket line with us for an hour in front of UCSF on Parnassus last week! The university is stalling in negotiations over a new contract, trying to claw back caps on our health benefits and refusing all union demands on UC campuses across the state.
Not a unicorn, be certainly a neuroscientist.
Not a unicorn, but certainly a neuroscientist.
Bilal, are you proud to have the Dump Dean PAC on your side? You claim to be a progressive now (ha!) but even when you were a proud “moderate,” you had didn’t publicly tell Garry “Kill the Jews” Tan to get lost.
You were very quick to jump on Corey Smith’s lawsuit against Supervisor Preston, but now that a judge has said Smith is an imbecile (or something like that), your trap is shut. Why is that?
The Dump Dean crew’s reason two is that he opposed the school board recall (you know, the apparently still full time career of Autumn Looijen). Since you only recently discovered there are kids in the TL you can pimp out for your campaign, you would not have any reason to know that the reason SFUSD created a food distribution location in the Tenderloin is because Alison Collins was able to look at the map of selected sites and noticed the gaping food desert hole in the TL/SoMa area. I don’t know how any SFUSD jerk could have missed it. It’s the first thing I noticed, and a lot of others did as well. It was just that obvious that SFUSD (apparently including the “good” school board members who didn’t face the hysterical wrath that three of their colleagues did) the kids in those neighborhoods didn’t deserve food.
You’re so new to politics and paying attention, that you also probably don’t realize that your former opponent and now chum Matt Haney was on the School Board before he jumped ship to advance his career. It was during his tenure – and because of his policy positions – that schools were up for name changes. You need to publicly hold that against Haney. And also tell him you don’t want his support.
Grow SF alleges Preston is associated with a fake news site. Hello? You are associated with a face curriculum vitae. You scrubbed it once you got caught, but you still lied.
You incorrectly state Preston’s position and actions on affordable housing, but you are adamant in your anti-development stance on Parcel K. Obviously, that’s because you like the kind of people who have colonized …. I mean, gentrified … Hayes Valley and as a tech bro yourself, you too dream of a Libertarian Tech Utopia in Hayes Valley and neighboring (adjacent, to use your term) areas.
Try offering something that is original and your own. Stop shape shifting, stop carpetbagging, stop faking everything.
Fakers gonna fake. Carpet baggers gonna carpet bag. Shape shifters gonna shape shift. Candidate Bilal Mahmood is a FRAUD.
Carpet bagger and candidate Bilal Mahmood knows as much about D5’s communities and history (Japantown, the Tenderloin, Fillmore, Western Addition, Hayes Valley and the Haight Ashbury) as he knows about D1 or D3. Where will he move next after Dean Preston beats him?
Tech and real estate Billionaires for Bilal!!!!
Pretty much. Definitely doesn’t have my vote.
As long as they spend locally, great!