Theo Ellington, a frontrunner in the District 10 race who earlier this month benefitted from a $500,000 gift from a cryptocurrency billionaire, perhaps the largest donation in a supervisor race in San Francisco history, indicated Wednesday that he would restrict such gifts in the future.
Ellington and other candidates at a Bayview forum were asked whether they would limit billionaire funding of PACs in local elections.
Ellington held up a green sign to indicate a yes.
An audience member gasped, likely in surprise: Ellington is backed by billionaire Chris Larsen, one of the city’s biggest political donors, who made the half-million dollar gift to a pro-Ellington PAC. Ellington is also backed by Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan and GrowSF, the tech-funded advocacy group.
The candidate has generally sought to distance himself from tech donors supporting his campaign, however, as was evident again Wednesday evening.
Once again that night, Ellington’s answers caused a stir: He indicated he would not vote to renew the San Francisco Police Department’s contract with Flock, a license-plate reader tool that has come under intense scrutiny nationwide.
At that, an audible “Hm!” was heard from the audience at the youth-led forum, held at the Southeast Community Center.
Ellington also said that he would support an all-out ban on data centers.
The answers were Ellington’s strongest stances yet against Flock and data centers: He previously told Mission Local he would support an expansion of the camera network but with stricter guidelines, and had supported a data center moratorium but not a total ban.
His answers on Flock and data centers also put him at odds with many other San Francisco Democratic officials: The local party voted overwhelmingly to back Flock surveillance cameras in a recent vote, and few have called for a total data center ban.
Data centers have become an issue in District 10: Bayview has two already and another proposed in Dogpatch. Supervisor Shamann Walton introduced a 45-day city-wide moratorium in September that sources say he hopes could lead to a ban.
Wednesday’s forum, hosted by the 3rd Street Youth Center and Clinic and Chinese for Affirmative Action, featured Ellington, Dion-Jay “DJ” Brookter and J.R. Eppler, his top rivals and the only candidates who have raised significant funds, alongside three others: Pearci “PJ” Bastiany, Deandra Bryant, and Shawn Richards.
There are 10 candidates set to appear on the November ballot for District 10 supervisor.
Ellington’s answers were aligned with his top opponents’: Brookter and Eppler each said they would ban data centers, restrict billionaire spending in local elections, and not extend SFPD’s contract with Flock.
Eppler, Brookter, and Ellington in fact agreed on six of eight policy-related lighting round questions: All said they would support Prop. 40, the California billionaire wealth tax, the regional transit tax measure, and mandating ethnic studies in San Francisco public schools.
But when asked whether they would reject Proposition A, a charter amendment to streamline city commissions, or whether they believe the city is failing young residents in District 10, Ellington was the only dissenting vote.
