{"id":232509,"date":"2026-03-23T13:17:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T13:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/232509\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T13:17:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T13:17:08","slug":"lurie-linked-pac-gets-rolling-plus-former-supervisors-sisterhood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/232509\/","title":{"rendered":"Lurie-linked PAC gets rolling. Plus: Former supervisors\u2019 sisterhood"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article is from Power Play, a twice-weekly newsletter rounding up the latest City Hall and local politics gossip. To sign up, visit The Standard\u2019s newsletter page<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When Power Play learned last month that Mayor Daniel Lurie\u2019s finance and philanthropy pals were forming an independent expenditure committee called \u201cSF Believes\u201d (opens in new tab)<\/a> for the 2026 election cycle, we knew the dollar bills would start flying.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We weren\u2019t wrong.<\/p>\n

The group \u2014\u00a0started by the same people who established the 2024 mayoral campaign PAC that got a cool $1 million from Lurie\u2019s mother<\/a> \u2014\u00a0was created by financiers Adam Clammer and Alec Perkins. It has brought in a whopping $600,000 in the last month alone. The entity is backing Supervisors Stephen Sherrill and Alan Wong, Lurie allies who are facing serious challengers.<\/p>\n

Clammer, of True Wind Capital, has thrown in $101,000; Perkins, of Hunter Capital, gave $51,000. Other donors are Jonathan Gans of Ironwood Capital Management, $100,000; investor David Lamond, $50,000; Michael Seibel of Y Combinator, $50,000; Oleg Nodelman of ECoR1 Capital, $75,000; his wife, Heather Nodelman, $75,000; and Matthew Paige of Twin Tree Venture, $100,000.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Campaign filings as of Wednesday show that SF Believes has spent only $24,705 so far, on a mailer. But the expenditures will almost certainly rise as the June 2 election approaches. A spokesperson for the PAC did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

The Lurie-linked money comes on top of other cash flowing to Sherrill and Wong, whose moderate leanings have earned them the approval of the city\u2019s tech and finance circles. Moderate-leaning political group GrowSF has its own PAC for each of the two candidates. The one backing Sherrill has been raking it in: $30,000 from Graphitic Energy cofounder Zach Jones, $50,000 from Permit Power CEO Nick Josefowitz, and $104,080 from 26 other donors, according to a Monday campaign filing. Wong has also been attracting some big bucks: $250,000 from venture capitalist and Standard chairman Michael Moritz, $10,000 from Substack star (opens in new tab)<\/a>Noah Smith (opens in new tab)<\/a> and $10,000 from Salesforce attorney Maco Stewart.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And as though Sherrill doesn\u2019t have enough PACs behind him, there\u2019s one more: ConnectedSF\u2019s Griffin Lee has established \u201cCommittee to Support Supervisor Stephen Sherrill 2026,\u201d though it is reports only a single donation so far: $1,500 from someone named Michael Morandi. \u2014 G.G.<\/p>\n

Got tips? Send to us at [email\u00a0protected]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"ADavid Lee, a longtime Chinese American activist in San Francisco, is running for District 4. | Source: Han Li\/The Standard<\/p>\n

BEWARE OF UNDERDOG: Speaking of the District 4 ballot bout, have we got a surprise for you: One of that race\u2019s underdog candidates is showing surprising strength in a poll that has insiders\u2019 tongues wagging. A February poll by GrowSF shows San Francisco State University politics professor David Lee doing surprisingly better than\u00a0challengers Natalie Gee and Albert Chow in first-place votes.<\/p>\n

While the poll shows incumbent Wong coming out on top, sources say they were surprised by how well Lee did in the crowded field, especially considering Chow\u2019s recent prominence in Joel Engardio\u2019s recall and Gee\u2019s labor backing.<\/p>\n

GrowSF declined to comment on the poll. But as you can imagine, Lee was pretty stoked.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a race going on out here. We\u2019re fighting hard every single day, and we haven\u2019t spent any money,\u201d Lee told Power Play. \u201cTo be up this much is a big boost to our campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lee has run for office before, including for the state Assembly, but the bulk of his previous campaigning was in the Richmond, making his show of strength in the Sunset a surprise.<\/p>\n

Not to throw cold water on Lee, but some questions in the poll show that support for him may be on shaky ground. And some sources speculate that he may have benefited from the ballot designation GrowSF used in the poll: \u201ceducator.\u201d Why? It was conducted during the San Francisco teachers strike, when support for classroom workers was through the roof. \u2014 J.F.R.<\/p>\n

SHE\u2019S BACK: Many voters have never heard of the race for California insurance commissioner, but it carries enormous stakes. The office<\/a> oversees the state\u2019s roughly $3 trillion home and auto insurance market, amid growing wildfire threats and rising premiums<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A major San Francisco candidate is in the mix: former supervisor Jane Kim. A progressive activist with limited experience in the insurance industry, Kim has nonetheless racked up a long list of endorsements. Two stand out \u2014 both featured prominently (opens in new tab)<\/a> on her website and campaign mailers: her longtime ally Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and, surprisingly, state Controller Malia Cohen, a former Board of Supervisors colleague from the other side of the aisle.<\/p>\n

\u201cJane Kim and I have sparred for years on policy issues,\u201d Cohen told a crowd Wednesday night at a Chinatown fundraising banquet. \u201cShe is a gracious woman \u2014 gracious when she wins and gracious when she loses.\u201d Cohen, a moderate, served with Kim on the board from 2011 to 2019 but did not back Kim\u2019s 2016 state Senate run or her 2018 mayoral bid.<\/p>\n

Kim is running on a progressive platform aimed at taking on large insurance companies<\/a>, including proposals to guarantee coverage and create a state-run insurance program. \u201cHow much of this industry should be in the for-profit market?\u201d Kim asked at the banquet.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear how much momentum she can build, given the limited media coverage and public attention on the race. But Kim is emerging as one of two Democratic front-runners: She and state Sen. Ben Allen \u2014\u00a0whose district includes the west side of L.A., Santa Monica, Pacific Palisades, and Malibu \u2014 each received about 40% (opens in new tab)<\/a> of the vote in the California Democratic Party\u2019s endorsement process. Another San Francisco candidate, parents advocate and chess grandmaster (opens in new tab)<\/a> Patrick Wolff, trailed with about 6%. \u2014 H.L.<\/p>\n

CRUSHING RUMORS: Following a chaotic year for the San Francisco Zoo that ended with the resignation<\/a> of CEO Tanya Peterson, the much-hyped deal to bring giant pandas from China has largely gone quiet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But on Thursday, SF Zoo Watch, a group led by animal activist Justin Barker, dropped a bombshell report claiming the panda deal is dead due to the zoo\u2019s financial situation. The post cited unnamed insider sources but did not include a response from zoo officials.<\/p>\n

The zoo\u2019s new CEO (opens in new tab)<\/a>, Cassandra Costello, quickly pushed back, issuing a statement Thursday night denying the rumors.<\/p>\n

\u201cRecent claims by activist groups regarding giant pandas are not grounded in fact. As with any major development, the zoo will share updates publicly when there is confirmed information to report,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Costello confirmed a small round of layoffs, with three positions eliminated as part of what she described as a strategic reorganization. \u201cThis was a difficult decision and one we approached with care,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are grateful for the contributions of those impacted and will support them during this transition.\u201d<\/p>\n

The zoo under Peterson had planned to debut pandas next month<\/a>, but the timeline is now uncertain amid the leadership transition and ongoing renovations to the panda habitat. Sources say the zoo is moving forward with the panda project and continuing its fundraising efforts \u2014 estimated costs were $25 million<\/a> when the initiative was announced in 2024. \u2014 H.L.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This article is from Power Play, a twice-weekly newsletter rounding up the latest City Hall and local politics…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[45661,636,105434,4637,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-232509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-alan-wong","tag-daniel-lurie","tag-jane-kim","tag-power-play","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}