Web exclusive: Who's filling Gavin Newsom's campaign war chest? The supplemental files below are in Word, Excel and PDF format. If you have trouble viewing them, try downloading them first (in Windows Right-Click the link and Save Target As).

Click here (Word) for a list of city contractors who are Newsom donors.

Click here (Excel) for a detailed breakdown of our list of power brokers, socialites, and celebrities who are Newsom donors.

Click here (Large Excel file=long download time) for an Excel workbook showing Newsom for Mayor donors (from 2003 only) organized by industry category: real estate, builders, hotels and restaurants, and finance. Also on a seperate worksheet in this Excel Workbook: Expenditures of the Newsom for Mayor 2003 Campaign.
Hint:You can switch worksheets by clicking on the tabs in the bottom left hand corner.

Newsom's money matrix
Who's spending $2 million to elect Gavin Newsom mayor? Hint: City contractors and lobbyists – many with close ties to Willie Brown. Click here to view PDF charts.

By Tali Woodward and Rachel Brahinsky

GAVIN NEWSOM SELLS himself as a squeaky-clean pragmatist, a moderate liberal who's made money and built a political career with pluck and perseverance and intends to clean up the corrupt, inbred world of San Francisco politics.

That's central to his mayoral campaign – again and again he insists he doesn't belong to any machine or faction, that his political agenda is independent. But a simple perusal of his voluminous donor list leaves a very different impression.

Newsom, the money trail shows, is every bit the candidate of high society and big downtown business. A harder look reveals even greater contradictions with his campaign pitch: Much of Newsom's financial support since 1998 has come from the very people who've bankrolled Mayor Willie Brown and pulled the strings in Brown's administration. And if Newsom is really planning to clean up city hall, why are so many city contractors who've grown accustomed to favoritism lining up to give him their support?

A detailed Bay Guardian examination of campaign filings dating back to Newsom's first race in 1998, along with city contracting databases and other public records, shows:

• City contractors and people who work for them have made hundreds of donations to Newsom. The breadth of those donations implies an expectation that the pay-to-play system that many say has flourished under Brown will persist if Newsom is elected.

• An overwhelming number of the lobbyists and political appointees who rose to power during the Brown years have already lined up behind Newsom.

• A significant chunk of Newsom's support has come from industries that have direct financial interests in city hall decisions and frequently require city approval for their projects. Chief among these are the real estate, development, and hospitality industries, which account for at least a quarter of Newsom's money (see chart, page 20).

• Newsom's campaign filings include almost the entire roster of San Francisco's old-money establishment – including a couple of prominent Republican donors. In general his donors are quite well off: a full 75 percent of the money he has raised for his mayoral campaign has come in $500 checks, which is the maximum donation that, by law, individuals and businesses are allowed to make.

Paying to play?

During his quick political rise, Gavin Newsom has established himself as a formidable fundraiser. He has collected a healthy sum each time he has run for supervisor, even when unopposed. And with less than three months to go before the Nov. 4 election, he has raised more than $2 million – twice as much as all of his competitors combined. It's a notable feat: with the city's $500 cap, more than 4,000 individuals, businesses, and organizations have had to contribute to reach that level.

A fair number of Newsom for Mayor donors are city contractors.

The Bay Guardian has identified at least 63 donors to Newsom who have had city contracts during the past four years. They worked on contracts worth at least $3 billion. (A list of these contractors and further details about donors are available online at sfbg.com.)

Among those companies are Obayashi, which has a piece of the Third Street Light Rail project, and architecture firm Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill, which is helping design the new $400 million cruise ship terminal.

Treadwell and Rollo, an engineering firm with expertise in seismic upgrades, has done work on the new Asian Art Museum, Yerba Buena Gardens, the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, and the new San Francisco Ferry Terminal. According to databases from the city controller – which are not 100 percent complete – the city paid Treadwell and Rollo and two partnerships in which the firm was involved $2.2 million during the past four years. The firm and engineer Frank Rollo each gave the $500 maximum to the Newsom for Mayor campaign.

Olivia Chen Consulting manages construction projects for numerous city departments, including the Department of Public Works, the Public Utilities Commission, and San Francisco International Airport. The firm, which made at least $3 million working for the PUC in 2001 through 2003, and Olivia Chen herself together gave Newsom $1,000 this year.

Several law firms that provide outside counsel to the San Francisco City Attorney's Office have donated to Newsom. These include Leif, Cabraser, Heimann, and Bernstein; Moscone, Emblidge, and Quadra; and Orrick, Herrington, and Sutcliffe. Other frequent donors are employed by firms such as Morrison and Foerster, which did $500,000 worth of work for the airport last year, and Cotchett, Pitre, and Simon, which has at least one large contract with the San Francisco Unified School District. Cotchett employees have contributed at least $8,600 to Newsom's mayoral campaign, largely in $500 donations.

Other donors may be looking not so much for city contract money, but for city approval of their private-sector projects; this is particularly true of development and construction interests. Law firm Reuben and Alter is managing at least 32 permit applications now pending approval of the Planning Commission, which is made up partly of mayoral appointees.

A review of the Planning Department's permit-application database shows that these projects have a total worth of more than $324 million. Employees of Reuben and Alter, which includes among its clients downtown office buildings, Home Depot, and Blockbuster, have given $4,250 to Newsom since 1998. (Attorney James Reuben also donated $500 to mayoral candidate Angela Alioto.)

Peckar and Abramson, a New Jersey law firm that specializes in representing construction firms, has also showered Newsom with donations. The firm and its attorneys have given him at least $8,400 since 1998. They directed another $1,500 to Care Not Cash, the welfare reform ballot measure Newsom drafted and promoted.

Newsom spokesperson John Shanley insists these donations shouldn't raise concerns. "Newsom's campaign represents a large grass roots movement," Shanley told us in an e-mail. "All of the individuals who have contributed to the campaign are part of our movement for change." In accordance with city law, Shanley wrote, no donations were accepted "from individuals who have benefited from Supervisor Newsom's votes."

Newsom opponents told us these sorts of donors are clearly after access to the mayor. "In many ways it's old school," mayoral candidate Tom Ammiano said. "They're trying to reestablish that you can buy an office."

Alioto said that donating to Newsom "will give all these developers security for their contracts. I think this guy is going to make Willie look like a slow-growth mayor."

Friends of Willie

Newsom has taken pains to distance himself from Mayor Brown and the specter of corruption that has lingered over his administration.

But the campaign-finance figures suggest the two have a fair amount in common. One of the most striking revelations is that nearly all of the major lobbyists who have worked closely with Brown are behind Newsom. And only one of those lobbyists has given to another mayoral candidate, suggesting the lobbying crew views Newsom as the safest bet for moving forward the largely pro-development agenda of their clients.

Among the key firms backing Newsom since his 1998 run for supervisor:

• Solem and Associates, whose client list includes Pacific Gas and Electric Co., Sprint PCS, and Arco. Solem and its employees have given $1,500 to Newsom and $5,360 to Care Not Cash.

• Barnes Mosher Whitehurst Lauter and Partners – which represents Clear Channel Outdoor and the Golden Gate Restaurant Association – and its employees have given Newsom $2,200.

• HMS Associates, run by Marcia Smolens, which lobbies on behalf of AT&T, Catellus, Sony, and Kaiser, has given Newsom $1,000 and Care Not Cash $1,000.

• The Platinum Advisors, with offices in Washington, D.C., Sacramento, and San Francisco and with various ties to Brown, gave (including employee contributions) $5,400 to Care Not Cash and has donated $2,400 to Newsom's mayoral campaign. On the firm's lengthy client roster are Clear Channel Adshel International, Lennar, PG&E, and Sutter Health.

A few of Brown's department heads, including Department of Public Health director Mitchell Katz, have donated to Newsom. They have been joined by a longer list of Brown-appointed commissioners – such as Ann Moller Caen of the PUC, police commissioner Victor Makras, redevelopment commissioner Benny Yee, and airport commissioners Michael Strunsky and Theresa Lee.

Marivic Bamba – who was chair of the Human Rights Commission when it refused, allegedly at the mayor's request, to investigate charges of racism and illegal contracting practices by Hensel Phelps Construction – is a Newsom donor. Hensel Phelps also contributed.

Other key supporters of Brown and Newsom include Norcal Waste Systems and its subsidiaries, financier Warren Hellman (who also gave to candidate Susan Leal), North Point Investors, PG&E, and the Emerald Fund.

In the 1999 mayor's race, a massive onslaught of last-minute soft-money expenditures on behalf of Brown helped launch him to victory in the runoff against Ammiano. Several organizations responsible for that flood of money are already throwing their support behind Newsom. The Committee on Jobs, a pro-business lobbying group, and the Golden Gate Restaurant Association, which spent more than $200,000 on Brown's behalf, have already given big chunks of change to Newsom. Although Newsom's campaign literature discourages donors from contributing soft money, there's no telling what expenditures these groups may orchestrate for him.

Who's in, who's out

The people and groups that have chosen to give to Newsom is telling – but it's also worth noting who's steering clear of the candidate, and who's giving money to his competitors.

What stands out the most is Newsom's lack of labor support.

The San Francisco Labor Council was unable to procure a majority vote among its members for any single candidate and is not expected to endorse anyone for mayor unless there's a runoff election. That means the significant time and resources generally wielded by its Labor to Neighbor program won't be behind Newsom or any of the other candidates. It's one factor that distinguishes him significantly from Brown, who built relationships with labor over his years in the state assembly that continued when he moved into City Hall Room 200.

The candidate with the strongest labor support is Alioto, whose contribution reports show donations from at least 25 union locals from around the country, many affiliated with Service Employees International Union, Local 250, the massive health care workers union, and the plumbers, steamfitters, and pipe fitters unions. In Newsom's entire political career, we could only identify 19 contributions from labor organizations, including the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 1245 (the PG&E employees union), maritime workers, and firefighters. His most reliable support comes from cops: 24 San Francisco police officers and the Police Officers Association are Newsom donors.

Brown has also had the political backing of major nonprofit directors, but Newsom has received only a few donations.

Newsom's support is, by local standards, politically conservative. In this generally pro-tenant town, for example, he's got the backing of the San Francisco Apartment Association, a powerful landlord group. And while Newsom claims to represent the average San Franciscan, a full 75 percent of his money came from donors who could afford to write single $500 checks. (And that doesn't even account for donors who gave the maximum in smaller installments.)

It's also worth noting that Newsom has received the support of a couple of people who, even by more narrow national standards, are considered well to the right of center.

One of his most reliable – and, if dollar amounts are any indication, enthusiastic – sources of support is the family of Gap founder and local Republican powerhouse Donald Fisher. Fisher, his wife, Doris, and their sons and spouses, have pumped $8,750 into Newsom's campaigns. They also anted up $3,150 for Care Not Cash.

There's also John Bowes, the CEO of Kransco – the San Francisco-based toy manufacturer that opened one of Tijuana's first sweatshops in the 1970s. This major Republican donor has given to Newsom at nearly every opportunity and together with his wife has supplied $2,950 to Newsom's campaign chest.

E-mail Tali Woodward and Rachel Brahinsky