In San Francisco’s Local Elections, It’s Big Money Against Progressive Incumbents

While San Francisco’s mayoral race is likely the most expensive in at least 20 years, money is also pouring into Board of Supervisors elections — especially where battles are brewing between progressive incumbents and candidates running to their right.

Much of the money is being raised and spent by moderate political action groups, which have grown in numbers and power over the last four years. This year, the wealthy tech investors and real estate interests backing the groups are angling to have an outsize say in some of the city’s tight races.

In this consequential election cycle, they’ve been pushing for a harsher crackdown on homelessness and the fentanyl crisis, more market-rate housing, public school reform and other issues.

Among the most influential are Grow SF, which was founded by two tech workers and funded by Silicon Valley founders like Chris Larsen, Garry Tan and his Y Combinator high-ups; Neighbors for a Better San Francisco, which has been backed by major Republican donor William Oberndorf and other wealthy Silicon Valley leaders as well as real estate interests like Kilroy Realty; and Together SF, which is funded in large part by venture capitalist Michael Moritz.

Their chief targets include Supervisor Dean Preston, who has become a lightning rod for the anti-progressive movement in San Francisco and is running for reelection in what has become the most expensive Board of Supervisors race.

Some of the largest contributions in the District 5 election come from Larsen and Tan, along with Y Combinator co-founder Jessica Livingston and current visiting partner Emmett Shear. Each has donated $50,000 to a Grow SF political action committee aimed at ousting Preston from office.

It’s the latest in a string of efforts by big-money moderate groups to reshape San Francisco’s political landscape. The groups helped fund the recalls of progressive District Attorney Chesa Boudin and three school board members in 2022. In March, moderates took control of the city’s official Democratic Party, flipping the previously progressive Democratic County Central Committee.

“We’ve created a system in which whichever way the wealthiest Americans happen to feel about our politics, that side of things gets a gigantic megaphone to talk about their views,” said Jonathan Mehta Stein, executive director of nonprofit good-government advocacy group California Common Cause.

Big money groups often fund TV ads and mailers, which can only be so effective, Mehta Stein said. However, in San Francisco, they have built coalitions of support to become extremely effective in the city’s recent elections.

“Big money in San Francisco has gotten very smart and is putting money into those sort of traditional forms of political advertising, but also is using their money to build civic organizations and a broader civic infrastructure,” he said. “When you pair that sort of people power funded by big money with campaign advertising funded by big money, I think it’s a very powerful and potent combination.”

Grow SF’s PAC, for example, has poured money into Preston’s opposition. The “Dump Dean” campaign has raised nearly $300,000. It created a website listing 31 reasons to oppose Preston and commissioned billboards around the district blasting his housing record — while they say he blocks development, he has staunchly defended his pro-housing platform. Some of the billboards express support for Preston’s main challenger, Bilal Mahmood, a tech entrepreneur himself.

Preston’s and Mahmood’s campaigns have each raised around half a million dollars. Scotty Jacobs and Autumn Looijen — two other moderates in the race who have voiced strong opposition to Preston — have each raised almost $140,000.

Big-money donors have been integral in funding Preston’s opponents.

Hilary Shirazi, a Grow SF board member, gave $10,000 to the organization’s PAC to oust Preston. She and fellow board member Carolyn Chatham each donated $500 to Mahmood. Tech founder Zack Rosen, co-founder of another group, Abundant SF, and former Larsen colleague Asheesh Birla have also donated to Mahmood.

The network of funders is also involved in District 1, where another Grow SF PAC, colloquially called “Clear Out Connie Chan,” is spending to oust the progressive supervisor. It has raised about $82,000, while Chan and her main opponent, Marjan Philhour, have each raised between $400,000 and $500,000.

Several Grow SF backers are among Philhour’s donors. Jeremy Liew — who was a major contributor to Grow SF’s efforts to recall Boudin — has given to Philhour’s campaign, along with Zynga founder Mark Pincus and real estate developer Nick Podell.

Late in the lead-up to Election Day, one of the first and most endowed of the groups — Neighbors for a Better San Francisco — also jumped into a supervisors’ race, this one through a proxy committee.

The group donated $75,000 this week to a committee opposed to closing the Upper Great Highway and backing District 7 candidate Matt Boschetto. Boschetto, who created the anti-Proposition K committee, is challenging incumbent Myrna Melgar, who represents West Portal, the Inner Sunset and much of the west side.

Money donated to his committee opposing Proposition K can, in practice, be used to promote him if the money goes toward door-knocking, canvassing or putting out mailers and ads coupled with his stance that the highway should remain open.

Neighbors for a Better San Francisco board member Steve Merrill has also donated $25,500 to support Boschetto — the maximum $500 to him directly and $25,000 more to a committee backing his run.

Whether the influx of money shifts San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors toward the center remains to be seen after polls close Tuesday. Six of the 11 seats on the board are up for grabs, along with the tight — and expensive — mayoral race and 15 propositions.

“Whichever side that millionaires and billionaires happen to believe in at any given time, the American political system, as currently constructed, gives them a gigantic advantage if they’re smart about it,” Mehta Stein said.