{"id":478197,"date":"2026-09-28T11:50:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T11:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/478197\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T11:50:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T11:50:14","slug":"san-franciscos-richest-have-unprecedented-control-of-city-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/478197\/","title":{"rendered":"San Francisco’s richest have unprecedented control of city politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

San Francisco is a pricey town; the $3 the 49ers paid for an egg during the Gold Rush days<\/a> translates into well over $100 in today\u2019s money.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Money in politics has been prodigious for quite some time too. But a Rubicon of sorts was crossed this year when crypto billionaire Chris Larsen, apparently proactively<\/a>, dropped a $500,000 donation into a PAC supporting District 10 supervisor aspirant Theo Ellington, the mayor\u2019s pick.<\/p>\n

Ellington was already, far and away, the fundraising leader in this race. He is widely viewed as the prohibitive favorite. So that\u2019s a bit of a head-scratcher. Or maybe not: A $500,000 donation for Larsen<\/a> is the equivalent of a person with a net worth of $1 million giving $36.50.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So it wasn\u2019t just the (staggering) size of the donation that caught politicians\u2019 eyes, it was the casualness of it. Yes, unions put $1 million into re-electing Supervisor Connie Chan in 2024 \u2014\u00a0but that was a broad consortium of organized labor in a monthslong campaign<\/a>. This was a single individual dropping half-a-mil the way folks pull out their wallets to buy a bacon-wrapped hot dog. Larsen could do this again tomorrow if he felt like it \u2014\u00a0and the next day and the next day and all the way to election day.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd here\u2019s what no one likes to talk about,\u201d says a city campaign strategist. Politicians \u201cdon\u2019t do things because of money or they think they\u2019ll get money. They do things because they\u2019re worried money will be spent against them.\u201d\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Politics, it turns out, is one of the more affordable and efficient pastimes for free-spending billionaires. It\u2019s cheaper than fast cars or art or even the incredible philanthropy that many of our biggest political donors engage in. And here\u2019s the thing: The ROI is significant. You can\u2019t solve world hunger or homelessness or climate change even with massive, ongoing philanthropic donations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But you can, absolutely, politically remake a city for a small fraction of the price of a Van Gogh<\/a> or a McLaren<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AIllustration by Kelly Waldron<\/p>\n

It\u2019s election season again and that means you can\u2019t venture into the virtual world without stumbling into Mayor Daniel Lurie.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To wit: A San Francisco political strategist plays YouTube videos of chirping birds to either amuse, placate or torment his cat, Lucy. And, like clockwork, after five minutes of tweeting and flapping and squawking, there\u2019s Lurie, imploring Lucy to vote for his Measures D, E and F<\/a> to strengthen and consolidate mayoral power.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Higher-ups in organized labor confirm they are \u2014\u00a0perhaps monomaniacally \u2014\u00a0putting all of their blood and treasure behind Chan\u2019s congressional race. Lurie and his allies, meanwhile, have enough money in their collective couch cushions to pour $11 million into his ballot measure campaign \u2014\u00a0more money raised than every other proposition on the ballot combined<\/a>, largely financed by a cadre of millionaires and billionaires<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This means that there will be no significant opposition to the mayor\u2019s measures, even though Prop. D would quadruple the signature-gathering requirements to place items on the ballot \u2014\u00a0a significant hurdle for labor unions, neighborhood types or anyone not wealthy enough to plaster ads between bird videos for cats.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Of note, $4.5 million has been spent to date<\/a> to signature-gather for these ballot measures, one of which would make it harder for you to signature-gather items onto the ballot.<\/a> That\u2019s a bad look \u2014\u00a0Lucy is unimpressed. But it\u2019s hard to imagine the city\u2019s human voters are going to spurn this mayor\u2019s wishes. Certainly not without a coherent and decently funded opposition campaign.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There has always been a lot of money in San Francisco politics and there have always been rich and politically influential city figures \u2014\u00a0your Fishers<\/a>, your Hellmans<\/a>, your Bernsteins<\/a> \u2014\u00a0 going back to the days when Samuel Brannan shouted to all who\u2019d hear \u201cGold! Gold from the American River!<\/a>\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the present day, however, the city\u2019s rich have never been richer, more brazen or faced with less pushback and less viable opposition. They are spending more and asking for more. Today\u2019s big shots don\u2019t just ask for more cops (and cameras) in their neighborhood, a sweetheart development deal or a tax cut (but they do want those things). They also want structural change.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIn my lifetime, it seems unprecedented to me,\u201d says historian and political scientist Rich DeLeon, the 84-year-old author of the seminal 1992 book \u201cLeft Coast City<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gray Brechin<\/a>, a historian and the author of the 1999 book \u201cImperial San Francisco,<\/a>\u201d agrees.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the Gilded Age, with the Big Four<\/a> and the Silver Kings<\/a> and all the rest there was pushback,\u201d he says. \u201cThere was the Workingman\u2019s Party<\/a> and the Populist Party<\/a> and San Francisco was a strong union town<\/a>, unlike Los Angeles. Now, I just don\u2019t see that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do you buy after your super yacht and your mansions?\u201d he continues. \u201cYou buy the government and you buy the media.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\u2018The protectors of our industries,\u2019 Puck Magazine, 1883<\/p>\n

Rep. Nancy Pelosi\u2019s three keys to success are \u201cMoney. Message. Mobilization<\/a>.\u201d Those who seek to counter this city\u2019s billionaires are deficient in all three.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Does money alone win you a race? No. The vape giant Juul could tell you that<\/a>. The backers of Prop. D of 2024 could tell you that<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But, in general, it\u2019s better to be rich and famous than poor and unknown. And you still need \u201cmessage\u201d and \u201cmobilization.\u201d The knock on this city\u2019s left, for quite some time, is that its messaging has been muddled if not nonexistent \u2014\u00a0clearly look at the scary billionaires buying these elections isn\u2019t working. Jack Torrance might have wanted to know who was buying his drinks<\/a>, but local voters don\u2019t seem to share that concern.<\/p>\n

And \u201cmobilization\u201d is harder in a city that has priced its working- and middle class to the outer Bay Area and beyond.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fewer and fewer members of most public sector unions \u2014\u00a0which are now more or less the last remaining pillar of city progressivism\u2014\u00a0 live here. They are less and less inclined to head to some remote corner of a city they don\u2019t spend time in and talk to people \u2014\u00a0who are less and less inclined to want to listen. Campaigners tell me that, post-pandemic, in-person, people-powered activities have lost ground to digital ads of the sort playing for Lucy the cat.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s hardly surprising. San Francisco\u2019s demographics have undergone a sea change over the last few generations. And our demeanor and customs feel like they\u2019ve transformed, too, in a much quicker timeframe. \u201cEverywhere I go, everyone is hunched over their phones,\u201d says Brechin. \u201cOnly in Irish pubs are they standing and having Guinnessess and talking to each other.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Comic-styleIllustration by Neil Ballard.<\/p>\n

Mayor Daniel Lurie remains popular. It\u2019s not hard to see why: He is an affable, positive, friendly man whose affable positivity is broadcast continually in his many, many internet videos. He continues to pay consultants and strategists who poll relentlessly \u2014\u00a0enabling him to essentially campaign 24\/7\/365 to the city\u2019s phone hunching demographic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Say what you will about Lurie, he is well-meaning. You cannot say the same about some of the people in his orbit, however. When asked if Lurie had misgivings about the sheer volume of money in San Francisco politics and the motives of some of his backers, the mayor\u2019s office responded: \u201cOur administration has proven every day that we work for the people of San Francisco and no one else. It doesn\u2019t matter who gives how much to what campaign \u2014 we\u2019re working every day to deliver results so people are safe, the streets are clean, and our comeback benefits every community in our city.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a more politic message than Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan delivered at a 2022 conference promoting Network States \u2014\u00a0essentially tech-funded startup nations. Tan and his allies, he told the crowd, were working to build \u201cparallel education, nonprofits, media, unions\u201d in an effort to create \u201cthe alternative tech political machine\u201d to \u201creform\u201d San Francisco.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd if it works in [San Francisco],\u201d said Tan, as recounted in \u201cThe Nerd Reich<\/a>\u201d by Gil Duran<\/a>, \u201cit will work everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s another factor differentiating today\u2019s wealthy San Francisco political movers and shakers from their predecessors: \u201cWe have a cult of radicalized billionaires who believe it is their destiny to rule the 21st century,\u201d Duran<\/a> tells me. \u201cThey know our system is for sale. And that\u2019s the name of the game, not only in San Francisco but in Washington.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Whatever your criticisms of Lurie and the incredible sums of money he spent to obtain his office, he is not part of that crowd.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But they are supporting his measures. And Lurie will not be mayor forever. The normalization and acceleration of expending vulgar sums of political cash and the centralization of executive power will outlast him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This city\u2019s wealthiest are playing a long game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They are winning it.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Francisco is a pricey town; the $3 the 49ers paid for an egg during the Gold Rush…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478198,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-478197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","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\/478197","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=478197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}