Another week, another few million dollars. In the last week, $3.4 million was raised for the San Francisco general election. That brings the total money raised to $36,056,883.
Here are the notable contributions from Sept. 3 to Sept. 10:
Mark Farrell ramps up fundraising
PACs backed by Mark Farrell or supporting him are slowly catching up to the other mayoral candidates in fundraising: In this last week, both Farrell’s ballot measure committee and a PAC supporting his campaign received six-figure sums.
- William Oberndorf, a billionaire Republican donor, gave $350,000 to the PAC supporting Farrell’s campaign, according to state filings. Oberndorf had previously given $195,000 to Farrell’s ballot measure committee, and $500 to his candidate campaign.
The PAC, “Safer San Francisco for Mark Farrell for Mayor 2024,” was set up by Angus McCarthy, a local developer and former president of the Building Inspection Commission who was accused of violating city permitting requirements.
- Kamran Moghtaderi, an investment advisor at the hedge fund Eversept Partners, also donated $125,000 to the PAC. The PAC has raised a total of $543,000, almost entirely from individuals who work in finance.
Meanwhile, Farrell’s fundraising in support of Proposition D, the TogetherSF measure that would cap the number of city commissions at 65 and expand mayoral power, continues to ramp up.
- On Wednesday, Michael Moritz contributed $500,000 to Farrell’s ballot committee. The former journalist and venture capitalist had previously given nearly $2.5 million to TogetherSF’s committee in support of the measure, but this is the first time he has contributed money via Farrell’s committee. Giving directly to Farrell’s committee, as opposed to TogetherSF’s, will indirectly help Farrell in his mayoral campaign by allowing him to feature himself in ads for the measure.
Moritz is a major benefactor of TogetherSF and the San Francisco Standard. He has given more than $300 million to various causes across San Francisco. Proposition D has vastly outraised any other measure on the ballot: The latest fundraising total has reached some $7.7 million.
Farrell has drawn scrutiny for commingling funds from his ballot measure committee with those from his own campaign, which is subject to $500 contribution limits. From June 1 to July 15, Farrell used $116,292 from the ballot committee to pay for staffers and contractors working for his campaign.
GrowSF starts spending
You might have noticed some new billboards in District 5 attacking incumbent Dean Preston and supporting his opponent Bilal Mahmood. “That car wash should be affordable homes, Bilal Mahmood will fix it,” reads one at Divisadero and Oak streets, next to a Touchless car wash that has for years sat empty, awaiting housing; Preston has sought 100 percent affordable housing on the site.
Those were paid for by GrowSF, a political advocacy group, funded by wealthy tech interests including Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan and venture capitalist Ron Conway.
Last year, GrowSF gathered a war chest of funds: $297,347. And now, they’re spending it.
- In the last week, GrowSF spent $26,222 on billboards opposing Preston and $61,185 on billboards supporting Mahmood. Another $30,000 went to online ads: $20,100 to oppose Preston and $9,900 to support Mahmood.
The group has also previously raised money against District 1 incumbent Connie Chan, although no expenses have been reported from that fund, yet.
Other money moves
- Asian Americans for Representation has raised almost $400,000 to support a group of selected candidates in Santa Clara and San Francisco. That sum came largely from Melissa Ma, a managing partner at an investment firm, who donated $350,000 to the committee in late August. Former supervisor Norman Yee, who is chairing the committee, said they have endorsed candidates with a “track record of helping the community” — all of them Asian. Their endorsed candidates include District 1 candidate Connie Chan, District 3 candidate Sharon Lai and Assembly candidate David Lee
- In what appears to have become routine payments, Daniel Lurie, a nonprofit founder and Levi Strauss heir, dropped another seven-figure sum into his own candidate campaign: $1.25 million.
- A new PAC was created in support of Scotty Jacobs, the newest candidate in District 5. In the last week some donations have started trickling in, amounting to a total of $3,000.
Anything notable we’ve missed? Email me at kelly@missionlocal.com and we’ll get it into a future dispatch.
You don’t say…….a new PAC was created this last week in support of the newest RFK Jr. spoiler candidate in the D5 race? Once upon a time, a local district supervisor campaign cost $30K to run. Sadly in 2024 oligarchs and Tech and real estate billionaires (who don’t live in D5) are spending millions on super PACs and carpet bagger candidates in a gross attempt to control a local race. Imagine if the billionaires spent that money on public schools or on San Francisco’s elders. Yucko.
This is an attempted leveraged buyout of SF government by right wing tech billionaires and crypto swindlers, a grift writ large.
San Franciscans cannot examine the actual record of new -to-D5 candidates like Bilal Mahmood because he has never before legislated or served the public in elected office. He has no record. He has only worked in the private sector and at think tanks. Worse though: Mahmood lied about his credentials saying he was a neuroscientist when he was not. He lied saying he was an economist when he was not, and only retracted these lies when a panel of 5 actual neuroscientists called him out. He was mum when one of his chief funders (Garry “die slow” Tan) posted unhinged death threats against 7 democratically elected supervisors. Bilal was mute about this dangerous and reprehensible behavior, which was especially disturbing because Mahmood is seeking the very same office as those who Tan threatened. Hopefully Mahmood will never be the target of unhinged death threats. Mahmood should have returned Scary Garry’s money; he did not. For over 2 years, the nonD5 Tech and real estate billionaires who fund Mahmood’s campaign, along with the recently formed toxic astroturf group GROWSF (Garry die slow Tan’s group) have attempted to smear, sue, slander, threaten, damage and incite physical violence against the current supervisor because they have no record of public service to speak of. The bulk of Mahmood’s candidacy is spent lying about and bashing Preston’s record. Mahmood has recently taken to referring to the current supervisor as “Mr. No” which is laughable. Remember too the two Ethics complaints against Mahmood for comingling his campaign funds of his two campaigns (DCCC and D5 Supervisor) a huge no-no, and for filming and photographing himself on a ride-along and then campaign posting about it when city law prevents this. Mahmood is unfit for elected office. He has lied and misrepresented his credentials. He has flouted campaign finance laws. He has flouted city laws to do with our city’s first responders and using them in his campaign. D5 deserve better.
Fire Breed. Fish rots at the obvious head of corruption.