San Francisco’s Most Expensive Ballot Measure, Proposition D, Headed for Defeat

Proposition D, a local ballot measure that would cut San Francisco’s nearly 130 commissions in half and cap the total at 65, appears headed for defeat.

The preliminary results come amid one of the most expensive election cycles in San Francisco’s history, with a number of wealthy technology and real estate billionaires financially backing local races, including Proposition D.

As of early Wednesday morning, the commission reform measure had 55% “no” votes and 45% voting “yes.” The next update will be shared on Thursday.

Proposition D was put forward by TogetherSF, a billionaire-backed political organizing group seeking to give the mayor more direct authority by cutting down the number of citizen oversight commissions.

It has become the most expensive proposition on the ballot primarily due to large donations from Silicon Valley billionaires like venture capitalist Micahel Moritz and real estate developer Thomas Coates. Total contributions for the ballot measure reached nearly $9.4 million, according to publicly available campaign finance data.

The measure also came under scrutiny for ties to mayoral candidate Mark Farrell, who conceded the race on Tuesday night after early returns showed him trailing opponents Mayor London Breed, Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin and philanthropist Daniel Lurie, who was leading in the mayoral race as of Wednesday morning.

Farrell, a former San Francisco mayor and supervisor, was hit with the city’s largest campaign ethics fine just one day before polls closed for double-dipping resources from his mayoral campaign and the Proposition D campaign. Farrell agreed to pay nearly $108,000 to settle eight counts of campaign finance violations, according to the San Francisco Ethics Commission.

Farrell and leaders of TogetherSF did not respond to requests for comment before publication.

“This really was not about Mark Farrell. This was really about some very, very powerful forces who invested more money in a mayor’s race than has ever happened in the history of San Francisco by a huge amount,” Peskin told KQED on Tuesday night. “What his concession shows is that billionaires like Michael Moritz and Bill Obendorf and their agenda have been completely rejected by the people of San Francisco.”

Individual campaign contributions to candidates are capped at $500. However, the same limits don’t apply to ballot measures. While other candidates, including Peskin and Breed, also backed certain ballot measures, members of the ethics commission said that Farrell’s strategies blatantly flaunted campaign finance rules by using funds for Proposition D to cover things like staffing costs for his mayoral campaign.

Meanwhile, a directly competing measure from Peskin, Proposition E, was similarly aimed to reform the city’s commission system. That measure, however, did not create an arbitrary cap on the number of commissions. Instead, it would create a task force to set recommendations for any changes or cutting commissions.

Early results suggest voters will pass Peskin’s version of the charter and commission reform proposal, overriding Proposition D.

Commissions are government bodies made up of community members and are designed to provide public input and oversight on a variety of city departments and programs, including the library, police, arts and entertainment and public health.

Supporters of Proposition D said that commissions have made it harder for elected officials to make direct decisions and have hampered government efficiency. However, critics of the measure and supporters of Proposition E said that the commissions provide important checks and balances, arguing that there should be a more thorough review process before stripping away any commissions.

“This is a city that still loves. This is a city that still takes care of one another,” Peskin told a room full of supporters on Tuesday night at an election party at Bimbo’s 365 Club, a music venue in North Beach. “This is a city that refuses to be pushed in the wrong direction by a handful of wealthy billionaires.”