Josefowitz the top fundraiser in 5 races for supervisor
As candidates for San Francisco supervisor vigorously raise and spend money ahead of the November election — from working the phones and holding fundraising events to, in one case, spending thousands of dollars on honey — newly filed financial disclosure forms provide a window into who the serious contenders are.
The supervisor’s seat is up for election in the city’s five even-numbered districts, and the disclosure forms recorded at the city’s Ethics Commission cover the latest filing period, from Jan. 1 to June 30.
Here is a look at the field so far:
District Two
As of the latest filing deadline, Nick Josefowitz had raised the most money of any candidate in any district race at $320,533, according to the Ethics Commission.
Since announcing his candidacy last year, Josefowitz, a BART director and Pacific Heights resident, had spent $324,638. Candidates typically spend the bulk of their money on employee salaries, office space and campaign ads. Josefowitz’s expenditures also in-
cluded about $6,550 for thousands of small jars of honey that say “Pick Nick” above a picture of a bee.
“Sometimes political campaigns can be really sour, and we just wanted to make it a little sweet,” he said.
Josefowitz is running against current District 2 Supervisor Catherine Stefani, who had raised $115,288 by June 30. Stefani, who was appointed to the seat by former Mayor Mark Farrell as his replacement on the Board of Supervisors, took office Jan. 30 and was not fundraising before then. She had spent $80,497.
“This will be a tough campaign and a lot of money is going to be spent,” Stefani’s campaign manager, Daniel Herzstein said in a statement. “But our campaign will continue to fundraise aggressively.”
Also in the race is Schuyler Hudak, founder of media start-up Cor, who had raised $71,953 and spent $51,227. A fourth candidate, John Dennis, had raised $6,501.
District Four
District Four candidates had to scramble to ramp up their campaigns after current Supervisor Katy Tang announced in July she would not run for reelection.
Tang endorsed her legislative aide, Jessica Ho, who moved back to San Francisco from Los Angeles just a few months ago. Ho was the fundraising leader as of the latest filing deadline, with $31,221 total money raised, and has the endorsement of Tang and Mayor London Breed.
But not far behind was Gordon Mar, with $27,260.
“I feel like we are off to a really strong start and our fundraising report is an indication of that,” said Mar, brother of former Supervisor Eric Mar. “We are competitive with the other viable candidates.”
Ho had spent $5,086 as of the latest filing deadline, while Mar had spent $1,255.
The two others in the race are grassroots candidates Art Tom and Trevor McNeil, who each had both raised less than $6,000 as of June 30.
District Six
School board member Matt Haney leads District Six with $245,211 as of the filing deadline, the second-highest level of campaign contributions among supervisorial candidates. He had spent $183,571.
Trailing him was Sonja Trauss with $165,281. Trauss was denied matching public campaign funds this year, but she said that has not hindered her ability to stay competitive in the race.
“There are a lot of D6 voters that are unhappy with the way that things are going, and our job is to make sure they know there is an alternative and they don’t have to vote for the same type of person that we’ve had for years,” she said, referring to Haney. She had spent $113,409.
Far behind both was Christine Johnson with $50,166. Johnson said she is proud of what she has raised since announcing her candidacy, and plans to be “fully funded” by the next deadline.
District Eight
In District Eight, the only candidate who qualified to run against Supervisor Rafael Mandelman is Lawrence “Stark” Dagesse, who says he is a “theatrical technician.” He had not raised any money by the deadline.
District 10
School board President Shamann Walton leads in District 10, with $174,738 raised by the filing deadline. Walton had spent $125,776.
But the candidate behind him, Theo Ellington, board president of the Bayview Opera House, had raised $131,921 and said he is “confident” about his place in the race.
“I’ve been able to tap into the folks that I grew up with here in the neighborhood,” he said. “That’s really the people who are fueling the campaign . ... I’m not receiving a whole lot of big money from executives.”
Ellington had spent $54,750 by June 30.
Meanwhile, Tony Kelly, who had raised $91,121, said the campaign feels like he is on a “sociopathic hamster wheel.”
“We’re trying to knock on thousands of doors every week, and you need to make sure that you are doing it with love and care,” he said. He had spent $25,847.