Less than a month after former San Francisco Board of Supervisors president Aaron Peskin announced his intention to reclaim his old seat on the board, some of San Francisco's biggest names are out there betting against him.
After months of vacillation, in January Mayor Ed Lee appointed Julie Christensen to the District 3 Supe seat vacated by David Chiu on his way to the State Assembly. A couple months later, Peskin launched his campaign to bounce her, saying "I didn’t expect to be running for office again. It wasn’t something I planned to do. [But] given how big the [housing] affordability crisis is, I just don’t feel I can sit on the sidelines."
So, that was the end of March. Since then, we've heard that Lee warned "a collection of the city’s business, labor and tech leaders that there would be consequences if they help the former Board of Supervisors president’s bid to unseat Lee’s handpicked District Three incumbent in November, Supervisor Julie Christensen"; that Christensen "allegedly denounced rent control in a meeting concerning affordable housing," saying that it was the cause of the housing crisis; and that Lee buddy Rose Pak is firmly on Team Peskin, ready for a "bare-knuckle street fight."
And now it appears that some of those knuckles are of the billion dollar variety, as today the Ex reports that some of SF's boldest-faced tech names have donated to Christensen's campaign, giving her a far fatter war chest that any of her counterparts.
"Christensen received $25,300 in lobbyist contributions between Feb. 2 and March 25, according to the Ethics Commission," the Ex reports. "The contributions, which are limited to $500 per donor, indicate early on in the race the deep-pocketed political machine backing Christensen in the Nov. 3 election."
Donor names so far include:
- SF Chamber of Commerce CEO Bob Linscheid
- Manager, Public Policy, Community, and Government Affairs at Google and one-time wannabe Supe Rebecca Prozan
- Former Zynga CEO Don Mattrick
- Ed Lee BFF and tech investor Ron Conway
- Four of Conway’s family members, who apparently also got the Christensen spirit(?)
- Yahoo CEO/'Remixer" Marissa Mayer
- Silicon Valley VC Peter Fenton
- Napster co-founder, Facebook guy, and ostentatious Redwood wedding holder Sean Parker
- Twitter, Medium, and oh ha ha remember Jelly co-founder Biz Stone
When told about his opponent's bulging coffers, Peskin told the Ex that he's “disappointed but not surprised."
"This is exactly why I’m running. We need affordable housing, not affordable supervisors.”
Previously: Veteran Progressive Aaron Peskin Wants His Board Of Supervisors Seat Back
Mayor Appoints Julie Christensen District 3 Supervisor