Dorsey, Mahogany close in fundraising hauls
Supervisor Matt Dorsey and Honey Mahogany, his main competitor in the November election, have raised similar amounts of money as they prepare for a hard fight to represent San Francisco’s District Six, recently released campaign finance documents show.
Dorsey, who was appointed to his seat by Mayor London Breed in May, has pulled in more contributions so far, raising about $90,500 through June and ending the period with about $87,000 in the bank. Mahogany, who was the chief of staff to former District Six Supervisor Matt Haney, raised about $89,200 over the same period, ending with about $83,000 in cash on hand.
The comparable financial hauls keep the two candidates on track for what is shaping up to be a highly competitive race for the supervisor seat that represents SoMa, Mission Bay and Treasure Island. SoMa, in particular, is one of the city neighborhoods most impacted by rampant public drug dealing and overdose deaths largely driven by fentanyl. Both candidates are trying to acknowledge that reality by directly referencing public safety in their campaign slogans.
Dorsey, a former police spokesman and longtime press secretary for the city attorney, will be the incumbent on the ballot, with support from Breed and some of her key allies. Mahogany, the chair of the San Francisco Democratic Party, has extensive community connections from her political roles and her background in social work and LGBTQ nightlife. She would be the city’s first transgender supervisor if she’s elected.
“Matt Dorsey has the advantage of having the mayor on his side and the power of incumbency and the ability to go and meet people and do things for people right now,” said Jim Ross, a political consultant who is not working on any of this year’s supervisor races. “Honey Mahogany has the advantage of having years and years of relationship building and ties to people in the district. That’s why it’s gonna be an interesting race.”
Notable contributors to Dorsey’s campaign include former San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr and former Sheriff Vicki Hennessy, as well as Breed and her spokesman Jeff Cretan. Some of the more well-known contributors to Mahogany’s campaign were Haney, former state senator Mark Leno and Supervisors Gordon Mar and Myrna Melgar.
But District Six is not the only competitive supervisor race on the ballot.
In District Four, which includes much of the Sunset, challenger Joel Engardio raised almost double the amount of the incumbent, Mar, over the first six months of the year, pulling in more than $80,000 while Mar brought in about $43,300. Engardio, who lost his third campaign for District Seven supervisor in 2020 before his neighborhood was moved into District Four this year, had about $76,300 in the bank at the end of June. Mar had $41,400.
Mar has also been spending much more money than Engardio.
Mar ended last year with a cash balance of about $38,600 and he’s spent more than $40,500 this year. He put most of the money toward a mix of consultants, fundraising efforts, campaign literature and polling.
Leanna Louie, the other candidate trying to unseat Mar, reported raising more than $21,000 in the first half of the year and spending very little of that amount.
Engardio and Louie are both angling to oust Mar by characterizing him as a progressive out of step with what voters in his west side district want. They are highlighting, for example, that Mar opposed both of this year’s recall elections even though his district voted decisively in favor of them — as did Engardio and Louie.
Engardio drew support from prominent contributors who included GrowSF Director Sachin Agarwal, Housing Action Coalition leader Todd David and the venture capitalist Garry Tan, who also contributed to Dorsey. Mar’s notable contributors included Leno, former Supervisor John Avalos and Sheriff Paul Miyamoto. One of Louie’s individual contributors was Mary Jung, a director of the San Francisco Association of Realtors who chaired the recall campaign against former District Attorney Chesa Boudin.
Still, in order to win, either of Mar’s challengers would have to pull off a feat unprecedented in San Francisco’s recent political history: Blocking an elected incumbent from being re-elected.
“The hardest thing to do in politics in San Francisco is to defeat an elected incumbent,” Ross said.
Dorsey won’t have the same advantage in District Six, Ross said.
Incumbents “usually win, but it’s not unusual for appointed members of the board to lose,” he said. “They’re kind of a proxy for the mayor that appointed them. … They get all of the baggage but they don’t necessarily get all the benefit.”