Even without that PAC money, which Ellington does not control, the District 10 candidate\u2019s war chest was considerable<\/a>:\u00a0$488,000 from his candidate committee and public financing funds, compared to nonprofit director DJ Brookter ($145,000) and lawyer J.R. Eppler ($159,000), his chief rivals.<\/p>\n But on Sunday, Sept. 28, Ellington\u2019s 38th birthday-slash-campaign-event felt like any good block party in Bayview-Hunters Point.\u00a0<\/p>\n There was Southern comfort food catered from local Bayview businesses, friendly banter, the 49ers game projected on the wall and a folding table for a game of dominos, which Ellington said he ran a serious risk of losing.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s a self-proclaimed dominologist,\u201d said the candidate and third-generation San Franciscan, pointing toward his cousin, the one he credits for teaching him everything he knows about the game.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis is my community. This is where I grew up, so playing dominoes is familial. It just brings me back to growing up here in the neighborhood,\u201d Ellington said. \u201cSo that\u2019s what I wanted today to feel like. That\u2019s what I want my birthday to feel like.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Anyone strolling the Third Street corridor couldn\u2019t miss the feels outside Ellington\u2019s campaign office, on the corner of Third and Thornton Avenue: The smell of barbecue, R&B classics echoing down the block, volunteers holding blue and orange campaign posters, air blowing into a bouncy house, and, at one point, Ellington eating steak hot off the grill.\u00a0<\/p>\n Inside, the campaign office teemed with dozens of supporters, community members and rambunctious children.<\/p>\n Ellington stood inside, greeting newcomers.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHere\u2019s what I need you to do,\u201d he told an attendee, walking them over to a wall lined with white sheets of paper the size of concert posters. \u201cYou got a big idea? We want to hear it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cBig ideas for D10,\u201d was just one of the posters. Another read \u201cIllegal Dumping in D10\u201d \u2014\u00a0an ongoing issue in Bayview. In 2025, Mission Local<\/a> found that the neighborhood\u2019s high number of\u00a0 \u201cunaccepted streets\u201d meant that the Department of Public Works often refused \u2014\u00a0or severely delayed \u2014\u00a0clearing trash from those areas, leaving many residents feeling\u00a0 neglected by the city. <\/p>\n At this gathering, people told Ellington that they continue to feel neglected.<\/p>\n A man in a grey knit sweater approached Ellington to give him a folded piece of paper with the phrase \u201cclean streets, safe city\u201d printed inside.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIllegal dumping and trash was the basics for me,\u201d Ellington told the man, slipping the paper into the pocket of his army-green pants. \u201cKeeping the streets clean, the rest will follow.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHow you been?\u201d another attendee asked Ellington. \u201cLiving the dream,\u201d he responded.\u00a0<\/p>\n For Ellington, that \u201cdream\u201d has been a long time coming. Before he stepped into his current role as the executive director of the Ruth Williams Bayview Opera House and as policy director at the firm Brownstein, Ellington served on a city commission and worked for the Golden State Warriors and the Salvation Army. <\/p>\n He is also a registered city lobbyist and has worked for companies like RealPage, a software company that has been accused<\/a> of helping landlords across the country collude and keep rental prices artificially high<\/a>. At a recent District 10 forum, Ellington said<\/a> that he did not necessarily agree with the clients he had worked for, RealPage included.\u00a0<\/p>\n From an early age, Ellington says he had a deep concern for his community \u2014\u00a0the only place he\u2019s ever called home. In\u00a02018, he ran for District 10 supervisor, but lost to incumbent Supervisor Shamann Walton.\u00a0<\/p>\n In October 2025, with Walton terming out, Ellington announced he was at it again. Since then, he\u2019s received endorsements from the San Francisco Democratic Party, Mayor Daniel Lurie, former mayors London Breed and Willie Brown, and many others.<\/p>\n With his 4-year-old son wrapped around his arm, Ellington moved around the room asking how people envision District 10. He didn\u2019t end any conversation until he was sure he\u2019d learned their name.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n What surprises him, he told two locals, is how disconnected Bayview residents are from each other. \u201cWe have at least 50 house parties in the neighborhood,\u201d he says. \u201cTen people here, 20 people there, and they don\u2019t talk to each other.\u201d The people all have the same issues, he says: \u201cThird Street, street lights, housing, garbage. But those folks aren\u2019t connected.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the most inspiring part,\u201d he continued. \u201cThere are people who want to be engaged, people who want to make a difference and so part of my job is to bring those folks together.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHow do you make them understand that it\u2019s important to come out and get connected?\u201d asked one woman. She says Bayview residents believe that nothing can change, because no one has shown them that it\u2019s possible.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSo it\u2019s gonna be on you,\u201d she said, looking at Ellington. \u201cAnd us,\u201d chirped a man standing beside her\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI want to go to City Hall with people. We got a problem with MTA [Municipal Transportation Agency],\u201d Ellington said to her. Someone else in the room shouts \u201cMTA\u201d back at him. \u201cLet\u2019s go!\u201d Ellington responds. \u201cWe\u2019re all going to MTA together!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n More visitors stopped by the office, bearing gifts.<\/p>\n A man in a grey fitted suit handed Ellington a pie and a copy of the San Francisco Bay View newspaper. Another gave him a red envelope. \u201cThank you,\u201d Ellingto saidn, graciously.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cPeople are ready for something different, so I feel like this is my calling,\u201d he said, as the birthday drew to a close. \u201cI\u2019ve always positioned my career off the way I think communities can be changed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Theo Ellington is not hurting for cash. In early September, cryptocurrency billionaire Chris Larsen dropped $500,000 into a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482750,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[204,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-482749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-election","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\/482749","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=482749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Three](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_3061-edited-919x640.jpg\")
Three attendees playing a game of dominos outside of Theo Ellington\u2019s campaign office on Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026. Photo by Bailey Zitko<\/p>\n![\"Three](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_3019-1.jpg\")
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