As San Francisco’s mayoral race heats up, Daniel Lurie is spending big on his own campaign — but his wealthy donors are spending bigger.
An independent campaign committee backing Lurie, a nonprofit founder and heir to the Levi Strauss fortune, raised more than $1.9 million from January to June, campaign finance disclosures filed Wednesday night show.
The haul was powered by seven donors who gave $100,000 each, including Jonathan Gans, CEO of Ironwood Capital Management; Parker Harris, co-founder of Salesforce; and Michelle Boyers, CEO of Give Forward Foundation.
The donations allowed the committee — Believe in SF, Lurie for Mayor 2024 — to spend a whopping $1.6 million on ads in the first six months of the year, nearly three times as much as the independent committee supporting Mayor London Breed raised in that period. Much of the funding went toward an unrelenting billboard and mailer campaign.
Meanwhile, Lurie gave $590,000 of his own money to his candidate committee during the latest filing period, bringing its total haul to $1.4 million, according to a campaign press release.
The campaign is separate from the independent committee, which is considered an outside spending group that cannot have official ties with Lurie.
Last year, Believe in SF raised $3.3 million in just over three months after Lurie announced his candidacy, bringing its fundraising total to $5 million. It had half of that stockpiled at the end of June, according to the filings.
The committee’s big dollars garnered considerable media attention this year when it was revealed that Lurie’s mother, Miriam “Mimi” Haas, donated $1 million. WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum and biotech investor Oleg Nodelman were quick to contribute $250,000 each in that first haul.
None of the three donated again during the latest filing period.
Notably, Gordon Getty, a philanthropist from the oil tycoon family, donated $10,000 to the committee in June, according to disclosure documents. All individuals who donate $10,000 or more are considered major donors and are required to file a separate disclosure form.
According to San Francisco Ethics Commission data, 73% of the donations to Lurie’s committee last year were from San Francisco donors, and 98% were from California donors.
The only other major independent committee in the race is Breed’s — backed by crypto billionaire Chris Larsen — which has raised about $700,000.