Breed leads foes in race to raise cash

San Francisco Supervisor London Breed’s mayoral campaign has continued raising money at a breakneck pace since she announced her candidacy for the city’s top job in January, making her the fundraising leader.

Campaign-finance documents filed late Thursday with the city’s Ethics Commission show that Breed raised $867,921 in cash contributions of $500 or less between Jan. 1 and April 21. Both Breed and one of her chief rivals in the race, Supervisor Jane Kim, officially became candidates for mayor on Jan. 9.

Breed’s campaign also has received $462,960 from the city’s public-financing program, which helps candidates offset campaign costs. That’s helped provide a cushion against the campaign’s $971,040 in reported expenditures. Candidates who qualify for public-financing dollars must abide by a $1.475 million spending cap.

But on Thursday, the Ethics Commission announced that cap would be raised slightly for Kim and former state Sen. Mark Leno because of the amount of money being spent on Breed’s behalf by outside groups, called independent expenditure committees.

Breed has been by far the biggest beneficiary of independent expenditure committees, which can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money but are legally forbidden from coordinating directly with candidates. To keep things fair for candidates who aren’t backed by the same level of outside spending, the Ethics Commission raises the cap based in part on how much money flows in to support and oppose each candidate. Kim may now spend $1.675 million and Leno may spend $1.575 million. Kim’s cap was raised by the extra $100,000 because there has been more outside spending against her candidacy.

Leno is just behind Breed in fundraising, bringing in about $788,000 in donations to date. Leno reported raising $417,000 in his previous campaign-finance report for 2017. He reported bringing in $371,000 this year. He had a substantial head start in raising money because he was the first to announce his intent to run for mayor in May. His campaign made $848,635 in expenditures this year through April 21 and received $452,179 in public financing.

Kim is in third place, bringing in about $409,000 in cash from donors to date. In the last round of disclosures, Kim had recorded $51,000 in contributions. Through April 21, she brought in nearly $358,000. Kim announced her intent to run for mayor on Dec. 20, and her campaign has spent $464,974. She’s received $320,000 from the public-financing program.

Angela Alioto has applied for public-financing money but is still waiting to receive any after the Ethics Commission initially rejected her application documentation. To qualify, candidates must prove they have raised at least $50,000 in small contributions from San Francisco residents. The commission said it couldn’t verify a sufficient number of qualified contributions, but gave Alioto the chance to reapply. The

Ethics Commission has until Wednesday to determine if the campaign qualifies for public funding.

Alioto’s campaign raised $190,571 and has spent $217,825.

Breed has received the most support from independent expenditure committees, but Kim and Leno benefited, too. The Service Employees International Union Local 1021 Candidate PAC has spent $196,000 on Web and television ads supporting Kim, according to an April 16 filing by the committee with the Ethics Commission. Through April 21, Tenants and Communities United, a committee backed by the San Francisco Tenants Union and Tenants’ Rights Organization, had also spent $6,417 on ads for both Kim and Leno. Leno also received $2,460 from the Alice B. Toklas Lesbian and Gay Democratic Club PAC.

A committee called San

Franciscans Against Domestic Violence, Opposing Jane Kim for Mayor 2018 has spent $129,500 in ads attacking Kim for joining three other progressive supervisors to reinstate then-Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi after he was convicted of misdemeanor false imprisonment in 2012. The ads have been funded by a $200,000 contribution from Gayle Conway, who is married to prominent tech investor Ron Conway, one of Breed’s biggest backers.

Independent expenditure committees so far this year have spent more than $233,932 to support Breed’s candidacy. Most of that money, almost $174,000 of it, was spent by a pro-Breed committee formed by the San Francisco Firefighters Local 798 union. The committee is still raising money. In addition to a $50,000 contribution from Evan Williams, a co-founder and former CEO of Twitter, it also received a $40,000 contribution from Progress San Francisco, a statewide political-donation committee with ties to Ron Conway.

Despite saying in March that he was “too busy” to get involved in the city’s mayor’s race, in a redacted email reviewed by The Chronicle that Conway sent to business and political associates on April 10, he recommends a number of political “efforts u can donate to ... Progress SF being the most (important).”

In listing the PAC’s attributes, Conway said it “accepts unlimited personal & corporate contributions” and “will contribute to other 100 percent positive independent expenditure committees in support of London Breed for mayor.”