Mark Farrell has quickly coalesced a contingent of campaign donors and cash, but he still has a lot of catching up to do.
Farrell’s nascent mayoral campaign touted his campaign’s ability to raise its first $200,000 on Friday, which it says was a quicker launch from the starting line than any other candidate for mayor in the November election.
Farrell, who was appointed mayor for six months in 2018 following the death of Mayor Ed Lee, got a late start and was trailing the fundraising frontrunner — Daniel Lurie — by more than $300,000 at the end of last week. He’s also behind Mayor London Breed, who is seeking a second term in office.
Although he only formally announced his candidacy last week, Farrell was widely rumored to be mulling a run for several months. His entry into the race was hardly a surprise to potential campaign contributors who raced to chip in during the campaign’s early hours.
Farrell boasts a wealth of experience in the private and public sectors, with potential donors in both. Farrell built a career as a venture capitalist before his election in 2010 to the Board of Supervisors, on which he served two terms before his appointment to a brief stint as mayor and has returned to the private sector in the years since.
Given his wide network, a key test of Farrell’s formidability might be whether or not he can sustain the early fundraising momentum in the coming months.
Farrell’s campaign declined to share a list of the donors’ names with The Examiner, although they will eventually be disclosed under campaign finance law requirements. If he does opt in to the public-financing program, his campaign could accrue up to $1.2 million in matching funds from The City.
Farrell launched his campaign this week with a proudly pro-business and public-safety-focused platform that included a pledge to fire police Chief Bill Scott, return cars to Market Street and clear streets of homeless encampments.
“Mark is the only candidate with a track record of effective leadership inside and outside of City Hall and the right experience and policies to turn San Francisco around starting on day one,” Jade Tu, Farrell’s campaign manager, said in a statement.
It’s not unusual for candidates to highlight early fundraising numbers as evidence of broad support. Lurie did the same in October, announcing he had raised $230,000 in the first two weeks.
The money raised by candidates will likely be dwarfed by what’s raked in and spent on the race by private groups. Still, campaign contributions can serve as an important barometer for a campaign’s legitimacy.
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“It means you’re organized and running a good campaign,” said Eric Jaye, a longtime political consultant based in San Francisco. “When 1,000 people invest even a small amount of money in you, they’ve invested in you.”
That investment can translate into hosting house parties or hanging up a campaign sign in a window.
“It’s a form in modern politics of organizing folks,” Jaye said.
But in pure dollars, private interests reign supreme.
Independent political action committees, unburdened by the same campaign finance limits that bind candidates, have already significantly outraised the three major candidates other than Farrell in the race thus far.
Lurie, who co-founded the anti-poverty nonprofit Tipping Point and is an heir to the Levi Strauss fortune, is leaning on his wealthy family members for indirect support. His mother, Miriam Haas, directed $1 million into an independent expenditure committee called Believe in SF Lurie for Mayor 2024.
With about $3.3 already collected, the news site Puck reported that the committee aims to raise $7 million to $10 million.
“Daniel remains the only candidate who will clean out the rot of corruption in City Hall, and it’s clear from the crowds at our events, donations to the campaign, and standing in the polls that San Franciscans want accountable leadership from the outside,” Max Szabo, a Lurie campaign spokesperson, told The Examiner.
Breed has also received a billionaire bump from Michael Bloomberg, the former New York City mayor whose ill-fated 2020 presidential candidacy she supported. Bloomberg pumped $200,000 into a committee backing Breed, while Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen dropped $250,000 of his own money into a separate committee looking to get Breed re-elected.
No such committee has been formed in support of Supervisor Ahsha Safai, who is looking to become mayor after two terms representing a district that includes the Excelsior and the Outer Mission districts.
