There are numerous San Francisco public pressure groups, which are sometimes referred to as advocacy groups. In the 2024 election, four of the more prominent groups alone spent nearly $20 million in an attempt to pass the ballot measures and elect the candidates of their choosing which became the most expensive election in San Francisco history.[1]
Abundant SF
editAbundant SF is a moderate political pressure group.[2] It was founded by Zack Rosen who is the CEO of technology company Pantheon, and previously founded the group California YIMBY.[3] In the 2024 Mayoral race Abundant supported incumbent Mayor London Breed, and upon the election of Mayor Daniel Lurie, lost influence in the Mayor's office.[2] They spent $1.8 million in 2024 across the mayoral and board of supervisor elections.[2] The group's name comes from a line in Franklin D. Rosevelt's inaugural address in 1937.[3]
Abundant SF's political director, political strategist Todd Davis, "blasted" Lurie for what he perceived to be insufficient support for Israel.[2] The same message from Davis mentioned Lurie's acceptance of an endorsement from former San Francisco Women's Political Committee president Nadia Rahman, who is a vocal critic of Israel's government, and according to Rahman herself, "one of the only Muslim women in local politics."[2] Then candidate Lurie was "furious" with Davis for his remarks.[2]
In the same 2024 election, Abundant supported Prop K which turned the San Francisco Great Highway into the Sunset Dunes, a linear park.[2] Prop K became controversial and eventually led to the successful recall of Supervisor Joel Engardio in 2025 and raised questions "as to whether Prop K led to moderate supervisor losses in Districts 1 and 11."[2]
In 2025, Abundant focused their efforts on challenges with local transit as well as an effort to rezone San Francisco to increase housing production in the city.[2]
Blueprint for a Better San Francisco
editGrowSF
editGrowSF is moderate political pressure group founded in 2020 by tech workers Steven Buss and Sachin Agarwal.[7]
In 2022 GrowSF took over ownership of The Bold Italic from Medium for free.[7]
In the 2024 San Francisco mayoral election, they endorsed three candidates: Mayor London Breed who was the incumbent, Eventual Mayor Daniel Lurie, and member of the Board of Supervisors for San Francisco's 2nd District, Mark Farrell.[8] Following the 2024 race, Grow added as a senior Mayor Lurie's campaign consultant during the successful race, Tyler Law.[8]
Neighbors for a Better San Francisco
editNeighbors for a Better San Francisco, or Neighbors, was founded in 2020 by Jay Cheng and Mary Jung; both lobbyists for the San Francisco Association of Realtors.[9] The group's largest donor is hedge fund manager William Oberndorf, who has donated at least $1 million. Between 2020 and 2024, the group spent at least 10% (at least $8.7 million of $80.3 million) of all money spent on political campaigns in San Francisco.[9]
The current version of Neighbors came about in January 2025 when Neighbors for a Better San Francisco merged with TogetherSF.[10][11]
Neighbors was fined $54,000 in 2024 for failing to disclose $187,000 in payments to the spokesperson of the Chesa Boudin recall campaign in 2021 and 2022; they supplied the majority of funding for the recall campaign.[12][9]
In April 2026 Jay Cheng, the executive director and co-founder of Neighbors, stepped down.[11]
TogetherSF
editTogetherSF was a group founded in 2020 and was backed by venture capitalist Michael Moritz.[13][14] In the years they were active, their focus was on the San Francisco drug overdose epidemic and increasing the power of the Office of the Mayor of San Francisco through reform of the San Francisco City and County Charter.[14] In the 2024 San Francisco Mayoral Race, TogetherSF supported former member of the Board of Supervisors for San Francisco's 2nd District, Mark Farrell.[14]
Following the election, Moritz (the group's backer) was dissastified with the result which led to shutting down the group and laying off the staff. Their member list was given to Neighbors for a Better San Francisco.[14]
See also
editReferences
edit- ↑ Barros, Joe Rivano (2024-12-31). "The 2024 election is over. What will San Francisco's big-money groups do next?". Mission Local. Retrieved 2025-10-12.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "SF political power rankings: Who has Mayor Daniel Lurie's ear?". sfstandard.com. 2025-02-06. Retrieved 2025-10-12.
- 1 2 "San Francisco 'Tech Families' Plot to Spend Millions Influencing Policy". sfstandard.com. 2023-03-20. Retrieved 2025-10-14.
- ↑ Morris, J.D. (June 18, 2025). "S.F. moderate group comes back with a new mission to fight progressives". San Francisco Chronicle.
- ↑ Gardiner, Dustin; Jones, Blake (2025-06-18). "Keeping San Francisco's left in the cold". POLITICO. Retrieved 2025-10-08.
- ↑ Eskenazi, Joe (2025-06-24). "Mayor Lurie doesn't want to work with new S.F. big-money group. But they want to work with him". Mission Local. Retrieved 2025-10-08.
- 1 2 Vainshtein, Annie (Dec 13, 2022). "This San Francisco political group is taking over the Bold Italic". San Francisco Chronicle.
- 1 2 "SF political power rankings: Who has Mayor Daniel Lurie's ear?". sfstandard.com. 2025-02-06. Retrieved 2025-10-12.
- 1 2 3 Barros, Joe Rivano (2024-04-24). "BigMoneySF: How one group quickly became the 800-pound gorilla of S.F. politics". Mission Local. Retrieved 2026-04-21.
- ↑ Barros, Joe Rivano (2025-01-10). "Two of S.F.'s richest pressure groups, TogetherSF and Neighbors, will merge". Mission Local. Retrieved 2025-10-08.
- 1 2 Barros, Io Yeh Gilman, Joe Rivano (2026-04-16). "Jay Cheng resigns as head of wealthy S.F. political pressure group". Mission Local. Retrieved 2026-04-21.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ↑ Barros, Joe Rivano (2024-08-06). "S.F. political group that bankrolled DA recall on hook for $54K ethics fine". Mission Local. Retrieved 2026-04-21.
- ↑ Barros, Joe Rivano (2024-09-17). "TogetherSF wants to remake City Hall. Internal doc shows that's just the beginning". Mission Local. Retrieved 2025-10-08.
- 1 2 3 4 "SF political power rankings: Who has Mayor Daniel Lurie's ear?". sfstandard.com. 2025-02-06. Retrieved 2025-10-12.