Prop. C supporters celebrate in the Mission
The most ardent supporters of Proposition C, a San Francisco ballot measure aimed at slashing homelessness, celebrated their victory inside a Mission District nightclub Tuesday.
Organizers of the Yes on C campaign threw a bash at Roccapulco to watch election results come in. An estimated 300 people packed the club to eat tacos, drink and show thanks to donors and volunteers.
In the case of Prop. C, that included Salesforce chief Marc Benioff, who committed $7.9 million in personal and corporate money to the Yes on C campaign.
Benioff, who watched the results from home with his family, tweeted: “Let the city come together in love for those who need it most!” after early returns showed the measure passing.
Marion Wellington, who campaigned for the measure, said she believes Benioff ’s involvement helped push the vote in its favor.
“I think that leveraging his personal brand and also his vision as one of the biggest tech CEOs was really critical,” said Wellington, who left a startup and now runs communications at TechEquity Collaborative, a group with a mission to encourage the tech industry to spread its wealth.
Benioff, she said, “added a face” to a community of tech workers who want to see the industry do more to help people who have been left out of the economic boom.
“I think the (measure) has become an opportunity for tech workers to self-evaluate and see where they stand on these type of issues,” Wellington said.
Julian Ostrow, a tech worker and campaign organizer for Yes on C, credited Benioff ’s barnstorming and “his public tiff with Jack Dorsey” with creating buzz around Prop. C.
He hopes that other tech leaders follow the example set by Benioff to demand action from the industry.
“There almost certainly will be a right side of history,” Ostrow said.
Prop. C was not considered an easy winner. In September, a poll of 800 likely voters conducted by EMC Research showed 56 percent supporting it, 42 percent opposed and 3 percent undecided. But support dropped to 47 percent when the tax was characterized as the largest tax increase in the city’s history.
In the weeks that followed, tech CEOs entered the debate, lobbing millions of dollars at campaigns on both sides of the measure and attracting national and international media coverage.
Benioff chewed out fellow billionaires Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter and Square; Patrick Collison, CEO of Stripe; and Mark Pincus, the cofounder of Zynga, for opposing the new business tax. Benioff said in tweets that companies have a moral obligation to support their homeless neighbors.
The tech industry appeared torn over the issue, with many employees opposing their bosses. At least 65 tech professionals donated more than $100 each to Yes on C, according to public campaign records. A handful of employees from Square and online-payments startup Stripe, which spent $419,000 to defeat the measure, were among the donors to the Yes on C campaign.
Ostrow said he was aware of employees at Square and Stripe who wore Yes on C buttons to the office Tuesday as a “pseudo-open revolt.” Both companies, as well as their leaders, opposed the tax measure. A Square spokesman said the company would continue to work with City Hall. A Stripe spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.
Sam Lew, policy director for the Coalition on Homelessness, said she’s excited to see more conversations like these.
“We know that this is a crisis. We know that people are dying on our streets,” Lew said. “But sometimes it takes corporate money and power to really get people talking about it.”