Supervisor Aaron Peskin’s mayoral campaign has revealed to the press what the fundraising numbers look like in his first month in the race, but like another late entry, Mark Farrell, these numbers cannot be independently verified and we’re just taking their word for it.

In what is currently a five-way race for Mayor of San Francisco, campaign money is obviously going to be a significant factor. And we know where things stand money-wise for three of the candidates: Supervisor Ahshsa Safai has pulled a few hundred grand since announcing his candidacy, Mayor Breed’s reelection campaign raised just north of $400,000 last year, and Levi Strauss heir Daniel Lurie has received a little over $500,000 in 2023. These figures are a few months out of date, since campaigns are not legally required to post the latest updated numbers until July (and they do not include contributions to the separate political action committees, which are pulling staggering sums).  

We do not know campaign contribution totals for later entries ex-Supervisor Mark Farrell and Supervisor Aaron Peskin, because those two declared after the most recent disclosure deadline. But the SF Standard went and just asked the campaigns anyway. That publication reported in March that the Farrell campaign said they raised about $350,000 in their first month, and today the Standard reports that Peskin’s campaign says they raised around $150,000 in their first month.

These are completely unverified and unconfirmed numbers, it’s just the information that campaigns are relaying to the press. But in both cases, the numbers seem entirely plausible, and there’s no immediate reason to doubt them.

Of course, Peskin is playing to a much less wealthy constituency than is Mayor Breed, or Daniel Lurie, or Mark Farrell.

“When you have Lurie and Farrell who are competing against each other for Mayor of the Marina, you would expect them to raise lots of money from people who have lots of money,” political consultant Jim Ross told the Standard. “I think that [if] you consider Aaron and his base is much more progressive… raising that much money in a month is a pretty strong showing. It shows he has a real base of support.”

That said, the real money in this game will come from the aforementioned political action committees (PACs), which can raise unlimited sums, while the official campaigns can only take a maximum $500 from any given donor. Consider that Lurie’s billionaire mother Mimi Haas gave her son’s PAC $1 million, which totally dwarfs every other dollar figure mentioned in this post so far.

PACs are also known as “independent expenditures,” or “independent committees.” And the most important detail in that SF Standard report is that “Peskin’s campaign will also likely be buoyed by an independent committee.” Which means there may be some giant spigot of cash to benefit Peskin that has not yet been tapped.

Is there some base of tech donors or other well-to-do types that would give gobs of money in hopes of seeing Aaron Peskin as mayor? There may soon be a PAC supporting Peskin that wants to find those people.

Related: Mayoral Candidate Daniel Lurie Raising Eye-Popping Sums of Money From VCs and His Family [SFist]

Image: @AaronPeskin via Twitter