New disclosures show Ann Hsu leading in campaign cash for the San Francisco Board of Education race.
To date, the commissioner has raised $62,071 (opens in new tab) from donors. That’s double the amount of Commissioner Lainie Motamedi, the runner-up in terms of campaign fundraising, who reported a haul of $30,885 (opens in new tab) as of Sept. 24. Commissioner Lisa Weissman-Ward, meanwhile, raised $27,675 (opens in new tab).
Candidates were required to file campaign finance filings on Thursday.
Mayor London Breed appointed Weissman-Ward, Motamedi and Hsu to the school board to replace three commissioners recalled in February.
One of those recalled commissioners, former board president Gabriela López, jumped late into the race in August. Since then, she’s raised $10,844 (opens in new tab).
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That puts her not far behind Karen Fleshman’s $11,026 (opens in new tab) and special education advocate Alida Fisher’s $16,631 (opens in new tab).
But López and Fleshman are also the only two candidates who won’t benefit from one of three political committees who could spend unlimited amounts of money to influence the race.
The San Francisco Guardians, the political action committee that led the recall under another name, reported $85,752 cash on hand (opens in new tab). The group supports three appointees—including Hsu, who volunteered for the recall.
The United Educators of San Francisco Candidate PAC has $83,006 cash on hand, according to its latest filings (opens in new tab). The teachers’ union endorsed Fisher and Weissman-Ward.
That leaves the San Francisco Parent Action PAC—the campaign arm of the parents’ group formed to urge schools to reopen sooner—reported $30,089 cash on hand (opens in new tab). The group has endorsed Motamedi and Weissman-Ward. (Disclosure: Michael Moritz, initial investor of The San Francisco Standard, contributed $10,000 to the PAC in September.)
The Board of Education race typically garners much less campaign cash and attention from voters citywide compared to other races. That was not the case, however, in February, when political committees raised roughly $2 million urging voters to recall López, Alison Collins and Faauuga Moliga from the school board.