August 13, 2003
In This Issue
WHEN A CANDIDATE for mayor of San Francisco raises close to $2 million – the kind of money that rivals what the sleaze king, Mayor Willie Brown, put together in his last reelection campaign, when the entire town was for sale – the sheer volume of contributions can boggle the mind. Gavin Newsom's campaign disclosure statement is huge, with thousands of entries. It can take months just to figure out what it all means.
In fact, Tali Woodward and Rachel Brahinsky have been working since early summer to analyze, in depth, all of the money Newsom has received, not only for this campaign but also for three supervisorial races and his antihomeless initiative, Care Not Cash (see page 19). The idea was to get beyond the long rows of numbers, untangle the webs of confusion that contributors and campaign treasurers build (although the city limits individual contributions to $500, lots and lots of companies and organizations get their employees and family members to contribute the maximum amount, so the total bundled effect amounts to thousands and thousands of dollars), and figure out who really owns Newsom.
There are a few things that leap out of the analysis. For starters, a huge percentage of Newsom's money came in $500 chunks. There are comparatively few people backing him who were only able to chip in $50 or $100. Put simply, most of his supporters are at the very least well-off, if not rich. People who don't have that kind of money to toss at a political campaign (and that's most San Franciscans) seem to recognize that Newsom isn't going to represent their interests.
The second remarkable thing: almost the entire rotten crew of lobbyists and cronies who pulled the strings during the Brown administration is onboard with Newsom. Bob McCarthy, Steve Besser, Solem and Associates, Barnes Mosher Whitehurst Lauter and Partners, Marcia Smolens, Platinum Advisors, the Fishers, the Gattis, even the mayor himself – they've all given money to Newsom. And they all clearly think that under Mayor Gavin, they'll get the same type of treatment they got under Mayor Willie. The backroom deals will continue, the contract money will keep flowing – and while a few insiders and their pals get rich, the destruction of the city will continue, unabated.
The third clear pattern: Newsom is the candidate of the real estate industry, the hospitality industry, the builders and developers, and the big city contractors. It's all there, in the fine print.