Close cash duel marks District 5 supe race
Money also flows in district attorney derby
Hundreds of thousands of dollars are pouring into San Francisco’s local races for District Five supervisor and district attorney, and even for Mayor London Breed — who faces little in the way of reelection competition — as the Nov. 5 election nears.
When it comes to money, the top candidates for the District Five seat on the Board of Supervisors are neck and neck. While campaign contributions are only one measure of momentum, they provide a window into how much support a candidate has.
The outcomes of the District Five and district attorney races are critical for Breed, who sees her two preferred candidates — Supervisor Vallie Brown for District Five and Suzy Loftus for district attorney — as political allies broadly aligned with her own agenda.
Donors will continue to pump money into the races over the next few months as the
campaigns ramp up their fundraising, and independent expenditure committees — which can raise unlimited campaign cash from corporations, unions and individuals — start getting involved. Last year’s supervisors’ and special mayoral elections were the most expensive City Hall races in recent history.
Brown raised $116,609 and spent $153,058 in the latest filing period, from Jan. 1 through June 30, according to disclosure forms filed to the Ethics Commission Wednesday. Brown’s main District Five challenger, Dean Preston, raised $100,671 and spent $121,505 in that period.
“That’s a lot of money for a supervisorial seat ... it really shows how high the stakes are in San Francisco,” said political consultant Jim Ross. “And that doesn’t include the independent expenditure committees, which we all know are coming.”
Ross noted both Brown and Preston’s contributions from outside the district — an indication that both candidates have support networks beyond District Five.
“More and more money has been coming into the district races from outside the district, and the amount of money it takes to be competitive in the supervisors race has gone up,” he said.
District Five’s diverse neighborhoods include eccentric Haight Street, posh Hayes Valley and the Fillmore, an area struggling to reclaim its past identity as a hub for jazz and African American culture. Breed represented the district for five years before she was elected mayor.
Brown’s many highprofile endorsements include state Sen. Scott Wiener and Assemblyman David Chiu, both San Francisco Democrats, and Democrat Dianne Feinstein, the state’s senior U.S. senator. Supervisor colleagues who have endorsed her include Sandra Lee Fewer, Catherine Stefani, Ahsha Safaí, Shamann Walton and Board President Norman Yee.
Before becoming supervisor, Brown was a neighborhood activist and a legislative aide to former Supervisors Ross Mirkarimi and Breed. She touts her neighborhood ties and experience in City Hall. Her legislative achievements include easing the permitting process for small businesses and helping the city create a socalled “triage center” for people who live in their vehicles.
But she also has a formidable opponent.
Preston is a wellknown progressive activist who ran against Breed in 2016 and only lost by about 1,800 votes out of 41,000. He is most well known for writing Proposition F, the June ballot measure that gives tenants facing eviction the right to a lawyer. He is the founder of Tenants Together, a statewide renters’ rights group.
He is running as a Democratic Socialist — a political organization known at the national level for its support of Medicare for All, tuitionfree college and the Green New Deal. Preston says the Democratic Socialist label tells voters that he will prioritize the community over corporate interests.
He is endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America, former Supervisor and Assembly member Tom Ammiano, and five of Brown’s colleagues on the board — Aaron Peskin, Gordon Mar, Matt Haney, Rafael Mandelman and Hillary Ronen.
Policy differences between the candidates include Brown’s support for SB50 — a contentious state bill that would allow denser housing construction around transit hubs and job centers — with some amendments. Preston opposed it. Brown supported expanding conservatorship, the city’s right to compel severely mentally ill people into treatment. Preston said he was against the idea.
While both candidates say addressing the city’s homelessness and housing crises are core to their platforms, they differ in approach. While Brown has more of an incrementalist, pragmatic approach to legislating, Preston trumpets more dramatic, sweeping change.
Both have continued to raise money over the past month, and that is not reflected in the current disclosure forms. Both also plan to use the city’s public financing program, which helps candidates offset their campaign costs by matching contributions up to a certain amount. That program will increase what the candidates have in the bank.
In the San Francisco district attorney’s race, a number of candidates are scrambling to succeed George Gascón, who announced in October that he wouldn’t run for reelection, making this the first election in more than a century without a sitting district attorney in the race.
Chesa Boudin led the way in fundraising in the fourway district attorney race in the most recent filing period. Boudin, a deputy public defender, brought in nearly $383,000 from Jan. 1 through June 30, records show. His campaign spent $146,760 in that time and accrued nearly $12,000 in other expenses.
Suzy Loftus, assistant chief legal counsel in the Sheriff ’s Department, raised nearly $253,000 or the filing period. She spent $188,629 and accrued just a few hundred dollars in expenses.
Leif Dautch, a California state deputy attorney general, raised just under $87,600, not including a $20,000 personal loan he made to his campaign. He spent just over $50,700 and accrued a little over $12,300 in other expenses.
Nancy Tung, a deputy district attorney, raised $67,245, spent $53,772 and accrued $1,323 in expenses.
And despite the fact that she’s expected to cruise into a full term in office, Breed raised $285,107 in the filing period, on top of the more than $210,000 she raised last year. Even after nearly $300,000 in expenses, she still has a cash balance of $203,455.
“Mayor Breed is not taking her reelection for granted,” said Breed campaign consultant Maggie Muir. While she doesn’t face much competition, Breed plans to use the money to highlight her accomplishments and lay out her plans for the coming years, Muir said, primarily through mailers and online advertisements.
Breed is also expected to campaign heavily for Brown and Loftus and for the $600 million affordable housing bond facing voters on the November ballot.
“She’ll continue talking with voters about the hard work she is doing to address the challenges facing San Francisco and is looking forward to serving her first fouryear term as mayor,” Muir said.