The November election is a mere 88 days away, and filings released last Friday offer a glimpse of the money pouring into the San Francisco races. 

While fundraising has stalled in Districts 2 and 4, where Stephen Sherill and Alan Wong both won in June by resounding margins and cleared the field, candidates are raising much more in Districts 8 and 10 where the races are contested. 

Money continues to follow in Mayor Daniel Lurie’s footsteps: The mayor’s committees supporting a Muni funding ballot and his own charter reform initiatives have collectively raised a staggering $12.1 million as of the end of June. 

Meanwhile, Lurie continues to use his mayoral candidate committee as a means to raise money to pay for private consultants and strategists. 

Here’s an overview of the fundraising and spending across the major contests.

Muni measure

Tech companies have made the majority of contributions to support the Muni parcel tax measure on the November ballot, which would provide an estimated $160 million yearly to San Francisco’s transit service. 

Of note: OpenAI and Anthropic made a first foray into San Francisco election spending by each giving $500,000 in support of the measure. 

The committee, which is sponsored by Mayor Lurie, has raised a total of $3.5 million. Other major donors include AirBnb ($500,000) and cryptocurrency firm Ripple Labs ($500,000). 

If passed, the measure would establish a tiered parcel tax on commercial and real estate properties to raise money to fund Muni and help address its financial crisis. 

Charter reform measures 

Mayor Lurie’s packet of three charter reform measures has drawn more money than anything else on the ballot. 

Virtually no new filings have been reported since Mission Local last wrote about the committee’s eye-watering $8.6 million haul on July 6. This sum has largely been raised from a small pool of wealthy individuals. 

The most recent filings, however, also reveal that the committee has already spent $5.5 million. 

That significant sum has mostly gone toward signature gathering. According to the filings, the committee spent $4.5 million on petition circulation, while $700,000 went to consultants and the remaining $280,000 or so has mostly covered polling and administrative costs. 

District 8

District 8 supervisor candidate Manny Yekutiel has taken a strong fundraising lead, bringing in more contributions than his three opponents combined.

But the numbers fail to reflect the impact from a June 30 story in the San Francisco Standard detailing a 2020 sexual assault allegation from Brad Joseph Chapin, a political activist and former Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club board member. 

That story was followed six days later when the San Francisco Chronicle ran a similar story, adding that Chapin, who made the allegations, was wearing a police wire when he met Yekutiel in Duboce Park in what he told the Standard was an attempt to “find some way to forgive him and move past the incident.” 

Yekutiel has denied the allegations. How the reports will impact his campaign is unclear. 

At present, Yekutiel has stopped raising money altogether, according to his campaign.  

“Manny has stopped fundraising because he is already at the spending limit and has maxed out the matching funds,” said a campaign spokesperson. “More fundraising right now wouldn’t be a good use of his time, so he is instead spending the time on voter interactions.”

At the end of June, Yekutiel had a total of $509,341 in contributions, while his chief rival, Gary McCoy, had raised $104,832.

Michael Nguyen had raised $55,364, and Darshini Patel had raised $20,354. 

On top of that, every candidate but Patel has received disbursements from the city’s public financing program: $255,000 for Yekutiel, $155,304 for McCoy and $89,364 for Nguyen.

Candidates who participate in the city’s public financing program — in which the city matches contributions received from supporters — are subject to campaign spending limits. 

The initial limit is $350,000 for supervisor candidates, provided there is no third-party spending in the race. 

That’s currently the case for each supervisor race — so far. As of the end of June, Yekutiel had spent $220,360 and had $540,801 remaining in cash on hand. For the most part, that’s money the campaign can’t tap into until there’s third-party spending in the race. 

If recent supervisor races are any indication, it’s likely independent expenditures will come in as the election approaches. 

District 10

In District 10, the fundraising benchmarks are also far apart. Theo Ellington, like Yekutiel, has brought in more contributions than his two major opponents combined. 

Ellington has raised $217,302 in contributions and received more in public funds. J.R. Eppler has raised $50,039 in contributions and received $100,470 in public funds. Meanwhile, Dion-Jay Brookter has raised $69,112. There are seven other candidates registered for the District 10 race, but none appear to have fundraised.

Mayor Lurie’s committee

Beyond fundraising to support his ballot measures, Lurie continues to fund a private PR team that works alongside his City Hall communications office to push forward on his priorities and agenda. 

Since taking office last year, he has spent $1.2 million on consultants and strategists, as first reported by the San Francisco Standard. 

That includes $305,000 spent in the first half of this year, according to filings released last week that detail financial activity for his officeholder committee. 

Of that, $245,000 went toward campaign consultants, who include Elisabeth “Lis” Smith, Max Szabo and Jennifer Pitts.