Section 2 — Who Is Buying San Francisco’s Election?

 

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By Oliver Luby & Marc Salomon

 As everyone knows, rich campaign contributors exhibit an enormous impact on elections.  In an age of massive wealth disparities, the democratic process becomes susceptible to being bought.  This behooves the voting public to find out who is paying for the election propaganda they are subjected to.

In this section, we examine who the major funders of the election are and what they are spending on.

Since San Francisco law limits donors to making no more than a $500 contribution to a candidate, major funders’ greatest area of impact are ballot measure campaigns and independent spending, where contribution limits are impossible.

Technically, state law defines a “Major Donor” as any person or entity who, as an original source of funds, contributes a total of $10,000 or more in a year in elections in California, and requires that they file their own campaign finance disclosure reports[i].

Due to the large number of such donors contributing to this year’s Ballot Measure Committees and independent committees, we limited the coverage of this section to donors contributing at least $50,000 regarding the local election.

We identified donors who contributed in that range to either BMCs or independent committees spending $50,000 or more on San Francisco’s election.  We included not only those contributors who technically qualified as Major Donors but also recipient committee donors where their original source of funding could not be identified[ii].

The results are below, with the first table providing total amounts by donor, the second table providing the collective impact of their support, and the subsequent 15 tables identifying how much was spent on particular campaigns.

Total amounts contributed by $50,000+ donors

Donor name	Donor interest	Donor location	Amount spent
SEIU United Healthcare Workers West Political Issues Committee	Labor union	Oakland, CA	$50,500
Marc Benioff	CEO, Salesforce.com	San Francisco, CA	$51,000
California Nurses Association	Labor union		$51,500
Municipal Executives Association	Labor union	San Francisco, CA	$52,000
San Francisco Fire Fighters Local 798	Labor union	San Francisco, CA	$59,000
SEIU Local 1021	Labor union	Oakland, CA	$71,000
Farideh Mehran	Retired	Atherton, CA	$89,000
Sean Parker	Spotify, Airtime[iii]	San Francisco, CA	$100,000
Professional & Technical Engineers Local 21, AFL-CIO	Labor union	San Francisco, CA	$146,671
Warren Hellman	Director/Founder, Hellman & Friedman	San Francisco, CA	$154,500
SF Police Officers Association	Labor union	San Francisco, CA	$184,032
Ronald Conway	Founder/Investor, SV Angel LLC, & Managing Partner, Angel Investors, LP	San Francisco, CA	$213,500
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees	Labor union	Washington, DC & Sacramento, CA	$250,000
Michael Moritz	Investment Banker, Sequoia Capital	San Francisco, CA	$250,000
George Hume	Basic American Inc.	San Francisco, CA	$250,500
Total:			$1,973,203

Positions supported by $50,000+ donors

Position supported	Total amount from donors
Gascon for DA – Support	$500
Herrera for Mayor – Support	$500
Onek for DA – Support	$500
Yee for Mayor – Support	$500
Yes on B	$500
Alioto-Pier for Mayor – Support	$1,000
Dufty for Mayor – Support	$1,000
Mirkarimi for Sheriff – Support	$1,500
Avalos for Mayor & Adachi for Mayor – Oppose	$3,000
Yes on E	$10,000
Yes on A	$25,000
Yes on G	$53,000
Cunnie for Sheriff – Support	$55,000
Bock for DA – Support	$89,000
Lee for Mayor – Oppose	$300,000
Lee for Mayor – Support	$303,500
Yes on D	$500,000
Yes on C, No on D	$628,703[iv]
	$1,973,203

1. SEIU United Healthcare Workers West Political Issues Committee

An analysis conducted by the San Francisco Bay Guardian identified United Healthcare Workers West (& its predecessor, Local 250) as the 16th highest contributor to San Francisco campaigns during the period of 1998-2008.

Contribution	Recipient
$50,500	Yes on Proposition G 2011, a Committee in Support of Public Safety, Children, and Seniors, Supported by SEIU United Healthcare Workers West Political Issues Committee

2. Marc Benioff

Contribution	Recipient
$50,000	San Franciscans for Jobs and Good Government, Supporting Ed Lee for Mayor 2011
$1,000	Support Drafting Ed Lee for SF Mayor 2011

3. California Nurses Association

Contribution	Recipient
$50,000	City Residents Opposing Ed Lee for Mayor 2011, sponsored by American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees AFL-CIO and AFSCME CA People
$500	Ross Mirkarimi for Sheriff 2011
$500	Fix Our Streets – Yes on B
$500	Leland Yee for Mayor 2011

4. Municipal Executives Association

Contribution	Recipient
$27,000	Standing Up For Working Families, Yes on C, No on D
$25,000	San Franciscans United for Pension and Health Reform, Yes on C, No on D

5. San Francisco Fire Fighters Local 798

Contribution	Recipient
$50,000	Standing Up For Working Families, Yes on C, No on D
$5,000	Cunnie for Sheriff 2011 sponsored by the San Francisco Police Officers Association
$3,000	Educating Voters for Jobs Against Avalos and Adachi for Mayor 2011 a coalition of police and construction workers unions
$500	Bevan Dufty for Mayor
$500	Ross Mirkarimi for Sheriff 2011

6. SEIU Local 1021

An analysis conducted by the SF Bay Guardian identified Local 1021 (including Local 790 before it merged into Local 1021) as the 9th highest contributor to San Francisco campaigns during the period of 1998-2008.

Contribution	Recipient
$50,000	San Franciscans United for Pension and Health Reform, Yes on C, No on D
$20,000	Standing Up For Working Families, Yes on C, No on D
$500	Ross Mirkarimi for Sheriff 2011
$500	Onek for District Attorney 2011

7. Farideh Mehran

Atherton retiree Farideh Mehran apparently must really care about the San Francisco District Attorney’s race, or at least must really like DA candidate Sharmin Bock.

Contribution	Recipient
$89,000	Committee for a Safer San Francisco, Sharmin Bock for District Attorney 2011

8. Sean Parker

Contribution	Recipient
$100,000	San Franciscans for Jobs and Good Government, Supporting Ed Lee for Mayor 2011

9. Professional & Technical Engineers Local 21, AFL-CIO

Contribution	Recipient
$109,671	San Franciscans United for Pension and Health Reform, Yes on C, No on D
$37,000	Standing Up For Working Families, Yes on C, No on D

10. Warren Hellman

An analysis conducted by the SF Bay Guardian identified billionaire Warren Hellman as the 4th highest contributor to San Francisco campaigns during the period of 1998-2008.

Contribution	Recipient
$100,000	San Franciscans United for Pension and Health Reform, Yes on C, No on D
$29,500	Standing Up For Working Families, Yes on C, No on D
$25,000	Rebuilding San Francisco Schools, Yes on Proposition A

11. SF Police Officers Association

An analysis conducted by the SF Bay Guardian identified the SF Police Officers Association as the 8th highest contributor to San Francisco campaigns during the period of 1998-2008.  This union has also had to pay tens of thousands in late fees to the Ethics Commission for failure to timely file reports regarding its expenditures.

Contribution	Recipient
$125,000	San Franciscans United for Pension and Health Reform, Yes on C, No on D
$30,532	Standing Up For Working Families, Yes on C, No on D
$25,000	Cunnie for Sheriff 2011 sponsored by the San Francisco Police Officers Association
$2,500	Yes on Proposition G 2011, a Committee in Support of Public Safety, Children, and Seniors, Supported by SEIU United Healthcare Workers West Political Issues Committee
$500	Bevan Dufty for Mayor
$500	Michela Alioto-Pier for Mayor 2011

12. Ronald Conway

Billionaire Ron Conway’s election activities have already been discussed in an earlier Citireport article as well as in an article by David Waggoner appearing in Fog City Journal.

Contribution	Recipient
$151,000	San Franciscans for Jobs and Good Government, Supporting Ed Lee for Mayor 2011
$25,000	San Franciscans United for Pension and Health Reform, Yes on C, No on D
$25,000	Cunnie for Sheriff 2011 sponsored by the San Francisco Police Officers Association
$10,000	Yes on E, San Franciscans for Ballot Measure Reform, Supported by Supervisor Scott Wiener
$1,000	Support Drafting Ed Lee for SF Mayor 2011
$500	Dennis Herrera for Mayor 2011
$500	Michela Alioto-Pier for Mayor 2011
$500	Gascon for DA 2011

13. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees

Contribution	Recipient
$250,000	City Residents Opposing Ed Lee for Mayor 2011, sponsored by American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees AFL-CIO and AFSCME CA People

14. Michael Moritz

Along with George Hume, Moritz is the major source of funding for Jeff Adachi’s pension reform efforts.

Contribution	Recipient
$250,000	Yes on Prop. D, supported by Public Defender Jeff Adachi, Basic American Foods executive George Hume & business investor, Michael Moritz

 15. George Hume

Along with Michael Moritz, Hume is the major source of funding for Jeff Adachi’s pension reform efforts.

Contribution	Recipient
$250,000	Yes on Prop. D, supported by Public Defender Jeff Adachi, Basic American Foods executive George Hume & business investor, Michael Moritz
$500	Ed Lee for Mayor 2011