Dark Money is Flooding SF Politics. These People are Exposing It.

From The Phoenix Project

San Francisco is on the cusp of its next Phoenix Moment, but shady funding is quietly deciding what will rise from the flames – and what the greedy want to set on fire.

There’s always been a back door to City Hall. The garden-variety way is by donating money, and lots of it, to your preferred candidate. Help get them in their chambers and then you can ring them any time and let them know all your private hopes and dreams. It’s unsettling, but at least there are some safeguards and regulations that require this to get reported. The problem that the Phoenix Project (follow them on IG right here) is trying to shed light on is that there’s a new, quiet shortcut to getting politicians to pass the legislation you want. This largely anonymous political funding is called Dark Money, and San Francisco is swimming in it deeper than our combined sewer system after a rainstorm.

From The Phoenix Project

The Phoenix Project is a San Francisco 501(c)4 nonprofit launched in January 2024 to follow dark money in The City. What they’ve found so far won’t surprise you, but it will raise your eyebrows. The organization has published two volumes of Phoenix Papers that unpack who the big players are – and the new ways they’re spending millions to influence politics and forever change San Francisco. A third volume is coming later this summer. 

Many of the organizations they investigate have become household names, do-gooders who seem like they’re working tirelessly to turn the City around. These organizations, which The Phoenix Project says include TogetherSF, Neighbors for a Better SF, GrowSF, and Abundant SF, come armed with brooms to sweep away the problems that have long plagued our great City. They even offer to host debates (that smell so bad multiple mayoral candidates backed out). But while right now these orgs seem focused on fentanyl, homelessness, and street cleaning, the “problems” they target next might be things billionaires don’t like. You know, rent control, good union jobs, LGBT rights. 

By using underhanded tactics – like changing the address of tax filings, lumping finances into one big report so they don’t have to clarify which money came from where, and finding loopholes to protect their donors – a nonprofit can go beyond using its 501(c)4 status for political advocacy into obfuscating where money is coming from and where it’s going. It’s a layer of insulation between billionaires and their political goals. Then, as Phoenix Project executive director Jeremy Mack explains, “Once [the nonprofits] have candidates who are using their talking points, those candidates are uniquely accountable to those organizations.” 

Mack calls this “astroturf network funding” because from a distance, these nonprofits look a lot like grassroots community organizing groups. But when you take a closer look, the funding and track record point to billionaires pouring unprecedented amounts of money into politics to gain an advantage, all while using nonprofit status to avoid public accountability. He warns that this will only exacerbate the feeling that it doesn’t matter which person ends up in office. With dark money, “the candidates are replaceable. It’s [an organization] that’s calling the shots. It’s a whole other level of direct influence.” And recent reporting by Mission Local points out that it’s already happening in our current mayoral race (you should really look at that Mission Local article).

From The Phoenix Project

Several shadowy organizations were birthed when the city was on its knees, using the opportunity of crisis to muscle their way onto the scene around 2021. Their first major task, Mack argues, was the 2022 supervisorial redistricting that was widely considered bedlam. The chaotic process drew new lines for eleven districts in the City. It also tore apart longstanding alliances between neighbors and affinity groups, making it easier for these organizations’ preferred candidates to gather the support needed to win a seat. But their goal is far more sinister than taking over traditional systems. “What they’re doing is setting up a parallel political ecosystem to the one that currently exists,” says Mack. He says this is making it a lot easier for organizations to then tell candidates who don’t fall in line, “We got you in, and we can take you out.”

On Monday, Neighbors for a Better San Francisco, mentioned in last week’s debate and highlighted in the Phoenix Papers, urged voters to place mayoral candidates Mark Farrell and Daniel Lurie as their top picks. They listed Mayor Breed as their third choice and warned their supporters to leave Supervisor Peskin off the ballot entirely because “he is likely to attract a significant amount of the vote.” 

“I think that a lot of the heat that we’ve experienced really lives on Twitter,” Mack stresses. He says internet trolls don’t typically show up at in-person community events. Mack affirms that his organization is blocked by Garry Tan, a notorious tech exec who allegedly made drunken Twitter death threats against several politicians earlier this year and has such a reputation for blocking people that many suspect he uses bots to do it. But, “It took surprisingly longer than I was expecting… We were posting for a solid two months before we hit that quote-unquote firewall.”

From The Phoenix Project

For now, the Phoenix Project’s biggest risk is a lawsuit, and Mack thinks it’s not a matter of if but when. Because his organization is also a 501(c)4, he’s taking extra care to limit liabilities. “If they’re getting to the point where they think they need to push a bunch of money into a lawsuit to fight us, it means that we’re doing something right.”

Mack says the next Dark Money report will help shift the narrative “from, ‘Is this billionaire takeover happening?’ to, ‘Ok, it’s happening but why should I care?’” The cynics among us can give ourselves a pat on the back for being right about dirty politics, but knowing what’s at stake is just the first step in keeping it from catching on fire.