If money speaks, then San Francisco’s mayoral race sure is a talker.
Campaign contributions have soared past $28 million, making it likely the most expensive race since San Francisco adopted ranked choice voting in 2004. So, who are the biggest donors influencing the election?
Recent campaign finance reports show that this year, tech investors and wealthy real estate developers have emerged as an influential donor class spending millions of dollars in the highly competitive mayoral race and a local proposition that would limit city commissions and expand the powers of the mayor.
“This is certainly a big money race with a lot of special interests involved,” said Sean McMorris, program manager for California Common Cause. “You can just assume those special interests, more often than not, are trying to improve their bottom line in some way that will benefit them.”
Tech money has long influenced Bay Area politics, but the landscape shifted dramatically during the pandemic. New political organizing groups like TogetherSF and GrowSF channeled public frustration over the city’s sluggish economy, street conditions and crime. They’ve since become pivotal players — and fundraisers — hoping to move progressive City Hall seats to the center and center-right, aligning with the moderate takeover of the county’s Democratic Party governing board last spring.
Venture capitalist Michael Moritz, a primary financier of the moderate group TogetherSF, has contributed $3.5 million this election, including $3 million for Proposition D to reduce city commissions and $500,000 to former interim mayor and supervisor Mark Farrell’s PAC supporting the measure. Arthur Patterson, another venture capitalist, recently gave $100,000 to Farrell’s PAC for Proposition D.
The California Association of Realtors also contributed $123,000 to support Proposition D.
Recent filings show that investor Sameer Gandhi gave $100,000 to a PAC supporting Farrell, which has raised $2.5 million in total. Developer Angus McCarthy chipped in $124,500 to the PAC backing Farrell, and investor Kamran Moghtaderi has given $250,500 to the pro-Farrell effort.
San Francisco caps contributions to individual candidates at $500. However, there are no donation limits for independent expenditure committees that support candidates or ballot measures, and according to McMorris, “wealthy interests are bankrolling ballot measures” in this election, too.
“You see candidates all the time try to get sneaky and circumvent those limits. And that in and of itself is a red flag,” he said. “Just because the Supreme Court has given us a broken system doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do what we can to mitigate areas of potential corruption.”
Conservative donors William Oberndorf ($450,000) and Thomas Coates ($500,000) have both backed a PAC supporting Farrell.
Incumbent Mayor London Breed’s campaign has received $600,000 from crypto and tech investor Chris Larsen, and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg gave $1.2 million to a PAC supporting Breed.
Meanwhile, mayoral candidate and philanthropist Daniel Lurie, an heir to the Levi Strauss fortune, has largely self-funded a PAC supporting his campaign that now totals $9.28 million. Lurie has contributed more than $8 million of his own money into his campaign, most recently adding $2.1 million. Miriam Haas, Lurie’s mother, previously gave $1 million to a PAC supporting his campaign, as well.
