Pro-recall committees have raised 46 times more money than the anti-recall campaign, according to Ethics Commission data
(First published June 19, 2021, 6 a.m.)
In only a few short weeks, San Francisco voters will go to the polls to decide whether three elected members of the city’s school board will keep their jobs.
Board President Gabriela López, Commissioner Alison Collins, and Commissioner Faauuga Moliga will all be on the ballot on Feb. 15. Out of the seven members of the school board, only those three were eligible to be recalled, as the other four had not served long enough.
Leaders of the recall insist that, had they been eligible, at least a few of the other commissioners would have been on the recall ballot as well.
Debate over the recall has been intense and, at times, polarizing. Supporters of the recall point toward the city’s long school closures during the pandemic, the elimination of selective admission at Lowell High School and the attempt to rename 44 high schools during the pandemic as evidence that the school board is unfit to serve. On the flip side, opponents say that the election is part of a wider pattern in which recalls of progressives are being funded by big money and right-wing activists.
Buckets of ink have been spilled by savvier commentators than me on the pros and cons of the school board in particular and recalls in general. Instead of wading into fraught ideological territory, let’s take a look at one concrete indicator of how the election is shaping up: funding.
But first …
A note about the data
As of this week, the San Francisco Ethics Commission data shows donations up to Jan. 12, but it does not show all donations. Thanks to baroque filing rules, donations from mid-September to mid-November have not yet been declared. And, from November onward, donations of less than $1,000 are also left out.
These gaps should be filled early next month, as all committees will be required to disclose donors from the past six months on Jan. 31. Until then, our data is incomplete.
This all means that our analysis should be taken with a cautious asterisk. Nonetheless, the data currently available can still give us lots of insight into the recall campaign and can show us some of its biggest players.
With that caveat acknowledged, let’s dive in.
Who is funding the recall effort?
There are two committees raising money in favor of the recall. The first is called Recall School Board Members Lopez, Collins, & Moliga, and was set up in February, 2021.
The committee is run jointly by Siva Raj and Autumn Looijen. Raj has two children in public San Francisco schools, while Looijen’s three children are in Los Altos. The pair, who moved to the city in December, 2020, came under some criticism for appearing on conservative commentator Glenn Beck’s show to promote the recall last March.
The second committee is called Concerned Parents Supporting The Recall Of Collins, Lopez, And Moliga, and was set up more recently. They began taking donations in late November, 2021.
This committee is run by Todd David, a public school parent and executive director of the advocacy group Housing Action Coalition. David has been involved in several political causes in San Francisco: He was political director of the Scott Wiener’s 2016 State Senate campaign, campaign manager for the 2016 campaign to secure Recreation and Parks funding, and a founding member of the San Francisco Parents PAC in 2010.
Take a look at the chart below to see who has been donating to each committee. The size of the circle indicates the size of the donation and the color indicates donors’ occupations. Hover over each point for more information and use the search bar to find specific donors.
Two committees in favor of the recall have raised almost $1.3 million between them
Please note that not all donations are captured by this chart, due to filing deadlines. The occupation group of donors who gave less than $10,000 was determined by self-report; the occupation group of donors who gave more than $10,000 was determined by our investigations.
The first committee has attracted a large number of smaller donations — their typical donation is $100 — while the Concerned Parents committee has gone after bigger fish.
“Siva and Autumn did a phenomenal job of grassroots organizing,” said Todd David, the principal officer of the Concerned Parents committee. But his committee, he explained, was going to focus more on finding larger donors.
“We cast a wide net for donors that we thought had a capacity to donate,” he said.
This includes the biggest donor to the campaign so far, 95-year-old billionaire Arthur Rock, who dropped $350,000 on Nov. 30. Rock had already donated $49,500 to the Recall School Board committee in August, bringing his total contribution up to $399,500.
Rock was a major and early investor in Apple and other tech companies, and has recently been advocating for charter schools. In 2020, he made a significant donation to the Oakland school board election, giving pro-charter school PAC Power2Families $37,500.
The second largest contributor to the school board recall will be a familiar name to anyone following the recall effort against District Attorney Chesa Boudin: the Neighbors for a Better San Francisco PAC.
The Neighbors PAC gave $238,800 to the school board recall this January. The PAC is funded by a small number of extremely wealthy donors, including billionaires and multi-millionaires Miriam L. Haas, Paul Holden Spaht Jr., and Jason Moment. The majority of money for the Boudin recall came from this PAC.
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE NEIGHBORS PAC AND THE BOUDIN RECALL
Explore: See who is funding the Boudin recall
by WILL JARRETTDECEMBER 15, 2021
Here are the other top donors to the school board recall:
- David Sacks: Tech investor, former COO of PayPal, founder of Yammer, and financier of 2007 satirical anti-lobbying film Thank You For Smoking. He has given $74,500 to the school board recall. He also gave $75,000 to the Boudin recall.
- The California Association Of Realtors Issues Mobilization PAC: A PAC associated with the real estate trade organization of the same name, it has given $55,900.
- The California Real Estate PAC: Another PAC associated with the same real estate trade organization, it has given $29,000.
- Garry Tan: Tech investor and founder of Initialized Capital. He has donated $15,001 to the school board recall. He also gave $50,500 to the Boudin recall.
- Zach Rosen: Co-founder of tech company Pantheon Systems. He has donated $15,001 to the school board recall.
So, how grassroots is the campaign funding?
It depends on how you slice the data.
The typical donation sits at $100, and the vast majority of donors gave less than $1,000. The first committee, run by Raj and Looijen, saw several hundred of these small donations.
The vast majority of donors
donated less than $1,000.
88 donors gave
between $1,000 and $10,000
17 donors gave
$10,000 or more
780 donors gave
less than $1,000
However, because of just how exceedingly big the campaign’s big donations were, the vast majority of dollars raised were nonetheless from wealthy donors.
The vast majority of money
raised is from large donors.
$123,602 has been raised by donors who gave less than $1,000
$930,702 has been raised
by donors who gave
$10,000 or more
$238,268 has been raised
by donors who gave
between $1,000 and $10,000
How is the money being spent?
We do not have all the committees’ spending data, as the campaign is ongoing and it has not all been released yet. However, we can still see a hefty chunk of their spending.
In current Ethics Commission data, the primary expense for the recall is paid signature-gatherers. A little over half a million dollars went to a handful of companies used for circulating petitions, chief among them Accelevate 2020 and Prosperb Media.
Interestingly, the owner of Prosperb Media is Josephine Zhao, who ran to be on the school board in 2018. Her campaign failed after she became embroiled in a transphobia scandal. Back in 2018, she publicly apologized for transphobic remarks made in newspapers five years prior. At the same time, she sent private messages over Chinese language app WeChat decrying the cow demons and snake spirits who called out her comments, and celebrated that the controversy had made her “even more well-known.”
Zhao’s company has received $111,202 from the recall campaign.
Now that the recall is firmly on the ballot, Todd David said that the primary focus of spending will shift to “political communications,” meaning social media ads, leaflet drops, and other ways of getting out the message.
But wait. What about the anti-recall effort?
Finances on the anti-recall side of the fence look drastically different.
There are two committees opposing the recall. One is called No On Recalls Of School Board Commissioners Lopez, Collins And Moliga, and the other is No On C! Stop The Recall Of Faauuga Moliga. Both were established in October, 2021.
While the first committee is dedicated to stopping the recall of all three members, the second is purely interested in stopping the recall of Moliga. But neither has raised much of a war chest. According to Ethics Commission data, the first committee has raised $5,000 and the Moliga-only committee has raised $23,000, for a combined total of $28,000.
This means that the pro-recall campaign has raised roughly 46 times as much, so far.
“I’m not raising money, and I’m not campaigning,” said Collins, when asked why the anti-recall committees were lagging in funding. “I am working twenty-four seven to do my job, which is helping students in San Francisco with their education.”
Collins said that the same was true of López. López did not respond to an email asking for comment.
“I am pleased with how our fundraising is going,” wrote Moliga over email. “I still have work to do, but we are right on target, and are implementing a strong voter outreach program.”
David from the Concerned Parents committee sees the lack of funds on the anti-recall side as an indication of their lack of support: “Seeing the lack of resources going to defend them, that speaks for itself,” he said. “Overwhelmingly, the public seem to believe that these members have failed.”
It is worth noting that some campaign activity does not involve money, and will therefore not be captured in these figures. Brandee Marckmann, public school parent and chair of the San Francisco Berniecrats, has been volunteering 10 hours a week to oppose the recall. She and other members of the Berniecrats are set to begin phone-banking and emailing in support of the school board next week.
What is next for the campaigns?
Fundraising will only increase in the run-up to the election on Feb. 15. If money really does speak in elections, then the anti-recall campaign will have a long way to go to make sure its voice is heard.
We aim to follow-up on this piece with analysis in the week before the election, when more funding data will be available.
WILL JARRETT
Will was born in the UK and studied English at Oxford University. After a few years in publishing, he absconded to the USA where he studied data journalism in New York. Will has strong views on healthcare, the environment, and the Oxford comma.More by Will Jarrett
