Marjan Philhour
Editor’s note: The original version of this story ran on March 5 to reflect the ballots counted on Election Day. It’s going to be continually updated as The City tallies votes.
A reformist slate of candidates called SF Democrats For Change that raised nearly $2.2 million from tech donors and others had the lead in its quest to beat out progressive forces for control of the local Democratic Party after The City counted additional ballots Saturday.
Candidates who included Supervisor Matt Dorsey were ahead in 10 of 14 races in Assembly District 17 on The City’s eastern side and eight of 10 in Assembly District 19 to the west. Only Supervisor Connie Chan and former Supervisor Gordon Mar with the progressive Labor & Working Families slate were ahead in Assembly District 19, and former Supervisors Jane Kim and John Avalos were two of the four candidates holding onto seats in District 17.
“San Francisco is ready for a change,” said candidate Nancy Tung, a local prosecutor, who celebrated Tuesday night at a party at a bar in Hayes Valley where Dorsey, Mayor London Breed, state Sen. Scott Wiener and others gathered for election results.
“We have a lot of valid ballots last count, but I feel very cautiously optimistic about what is happening here, and we are part of a movement,” Tung said.
Moderates have argued that progressives are out of touch with voters, while progressives have accused the moderates of selling out to wealthy donors.
Compared with the more moderate SF Democrats For Change, candidates for the progressive Labor & Working Families slate had reported raising more than $683,000 by Election Day.
Among other things, the Democratic County Central Committee party committee works to get out the vote for Democratic candidates, approves non-binding policy statements, and — importantly — issues endorsements for municipal ballot measures and local candidates and sends out mailers. There are eight ex-officio seats reserved for state and federal elected officials.
The committee’s endorsements can be influential in a city where almost 64% of registered voters are Democratic.
Many who had served on the committee for the last four years were not running again, including Honey Mahogany, the chair, and Bevan Dufty, a member of the BART Board of Directors. Eight incumbents were running on the Labor & Working Families slate, while one was running with SF Democrats for Change.
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Election Day followed a surge of campaign-contribution reports from candidates on both sides, though the dollar amount disclosed was bigger for SF Democrats for Change.
Bilal Mahmood had collected $271,473, according to The City’s Ethics Commission website.
The Labor & Working Families slate last week filed a complaint with the commission alleging campaign-finance violations against Mahmood, who is also a candidate challenging Supervisor Dean Preston in District 5 in the November election.
The complaint alleged that Mahmood, a climate nonprofit director who ran unsuccessfully for a state Assembly seat in 2022, broke city rules that limit contributions to supervisorial candidates to $500 by spending $137,500 on digital ads directing traffic to a website that linked to donation pages for both of his campaigns.
Mahmood denied the allegations, saying he had appropriate disclaimers and accusing his critics of desperation because he was running an effective campaign. He confirmed, however, his earlier public self-reporting that his campaign had mistakenly sent out a mailer for his party committee that included a logo for his supervisor race, an error he blamed on a consultant.
Separately, the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club, which endorsed the Labor & Working Families slate, filed an ethics complaint alleging similar violations against Marjan Philhour, the committee candidate who raised the second-largest amount of money at $246,099. Philhour denied the charges against her.
Philhour is another dual candidate who is running for both the central committee and District 1 supervisor against Chan, who was also running for the committee and to remain a supervisor.
Mahmood and Philhour were among the leading candidates in District 17 and 19, respectively, as of press time.
SF Democrats For Change candidates raised money individually and through a committee that received contributions from tech figures such as cryptocurrency pioneer Chris Larsen, former Twitch CEO Emmett Shear, Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman and controversial venture capitalist Garry Tan, who collectively gave hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The SF Democrats For Change slate was assembled by and received campaign support from a committee associated with Abundant SF, which was founded by Zack Rosen, a tech entrepreneur who is also a founder of California YIMBY, an organization dedicated to accelerating homebuilding in the state.
SF Democrats For Change included Supervisor Catherine Stefani, as well as Michela Alioto-Pier, a former supervisor. The Labor & Working Families slate included Supervisor Chan and former Supervisors Avalos, Kim, Mar and Sandra Lee Fewer; public defender Mano Raju; and Sal Rosselli, president of the National Union of Healthcare Workers.
