A new website that went online last week calling for the recall of San Francisco supervisor Jackie Fielder is just one of at least 10 such sites tied to the same group, a political action committee based in San Diego County that was spun up in March and has almost no public footprint.
The Fielder site seems to have gone live Wednesday with a simple message: “Recall Jackie Fielder.” An associated X account tweeted that day that “District 9 has been left without a Supervisor” since Fielder took a mental health leave in April from the Board of Supervisors. It called on residents to sign an online petition and “demand she step down.”
The X account has since shared a bevy of posts featuring AI-generated images of Fielder that racked up thousands of views and dozens of retweets. The petition has made the rounds among neighborhood mailing lists, and the X account claimed to have amassed some 3,400 signatures in a day.
But even if the claim is true, it means little at this stage: The petition is not an official recall; it is little more than a list-gathering effort. To recall a public official in San Francisco you must file notice with that officeholder and the city before collecting signatures, and then do so on paper petitions reviewed and approved by the city — not a website.
Both Fielder’s office and the San Francisco’s Department of Elections confirmed they had not received any such notice.
The contacts gathered could be solicited for an official recall later, however, and Fielder is not the only target.
The footers on six similar sites — targeted against other political figures — disclose that they were paid for by the same group, “Americans for Opportunity,” and link to a second, spare site that names that group as an independent expenditure committee — a kind of PAC. That site says the group is “preparing to launch.”
The similar-looking sites are:
- “Fire Barbara Lee,” which is gathering signatures to oppose the Oakland mayor who this month launched a re-election campaign.
- “Recall Carroll Fife,” targeting the progressive Oakland city councilmember.
- The “Sheng Thao Files,” which presents what it calls the “definitive exposé” of the recalled former Oakland mayor’s time in office.
- The “Pamela Price Files,” is another dossier of recalled Alameda County district attorney Price’s time in office.
- The “Bonta Files,” aimed at California’s attorney general, Rob Bonta.
All six efforts have associated X accounts that use a similar playbook: broadcasting fake, AI-generated images (like one of Thao behind bars or Lee dining on lobster in the Alps) and soliciting signatures. And all six sites’ source code identifies them as having been built with Vercel, a San Francisco-based AI company that can be used to quickly spin up clean-looking websites.
And the PAC has moved beyond candidates: Four additional sites targeting a slew of Bay Area ballot measures are also linked to Americans for Opportunity — either explicitly, through a donate link, or through the site’s source code. Those sites focused on:
- Opposing Measure A, a proposed San Jose hotel tax.
- Opposing Measure B, the ultimately successful SMART train sales tax in Sonoma County.
- Opposing an upcoming Oakland minimum wage.
- Supporting Measure C, a small-business tax break that passed in Oakland.
It is unclear who is behind Americans for Opportunity. The group was registered with the Federal Election Commission on March 10, according to disclosures that link it to Preston Public Affairs, an unknown lobbying firm that says it provides “strategic government relations” in the Bay Area.
Peterson Jackson is named in FEC filings as the group’s treasurer with an address in Vista, a small city near Carlsbad in San Diego County.
Neither Jackson nor Americans for Opportunity responded to multiple requests for comment.
Fielder’s office, for its part, declined to comment on the nascent effort. Her team of legislative aides has been steering the ship in her absence.
The easy use of AI to cheaply create multiple websites, social media accounts, and fake images was a concern for Jim Ross, a longtime Bay Area campaign strategist. He said such fly-by-night operations lower trust among an electorate that is “already increasingly cynical.”
“I don’t think there’s danger in these efforts leading to Jackie Fielder’s or Barbara Lee’s recall,” he said. But, he said, “It’s going to create more cynicism, it’s going to turn voters off, it’s going to damage the political discourse and debate.”
