The Astroturf Network’s only major success this cycle was the ouster of District 5’s Dean Preston, the most progressive member of the Board of Supervisors. Preston’s loss in the November 2024 election can serve as a case study for how the Network uses its almost unlimited financial resources to move San Francisco rightward.

Preston, a tenants’ rights attorney and the only Democratic Socialist sitting on the Board of Supervisors, was the primary target of the conservative political groups like GrowSF, Neighbors for a Better San Francisco, TogetherSF, and relative newcomer, the Abundance Network. The Astroturf Network and its allies began its project by blaming Preston for the ills they claim are plaguing San Francisco.

The Network was driven by Preston’s focus on protecting renters and building affordable housing because two pillars of the Network’s plan involve unfettered policing and real estate development. As an advocate for renters and other vulnerable San Franciscans, Preston became the subject of a two-year disinformation campaign in which he was called anti-housing and anti-police.

More than a year ago, billionaire Elon Musk called for Preston to be “imprisoned” after the supervisor introduced legislation to ban store security guards from drawing firearms to protect private property. Preston’s resolution came after a Walgreen’s security guard shot and killed Banko Brown, a transgender man suspected of stealing snacks.

Musk claimed Preston “is arguably the person most responsible for the destruction of San Francisco,” and promised to donate $100,000 to GrowSF’s “Dump Dean” political action committee. A friend of GrowSF’s Garry Tan, Musk never made good on his promise, but his Tweets drew attention to the PAC. It eventually raised about $300,000, most of it from Y Combinator, the world’s largest incubator of technology startups where Tan serves as president.

A prolific Tweeter, himself, Tan frequently took to the social media platform to trumpet his disapproval of Preston to his nearly half-million followers. “Dean Preston lies to voters and is unfit to serve,” Tan Tweeted earlier this year. “Vote him and his NIMBY friends out of office and fix SF.” Earlier in the year, Tan issued a death threat to Preston and six other members of the Board of Supervisors that he perceived were obstacles to the Network’s agenda.

The seeds of Preston’s destruction were sown in the 2022 redistricting of San Francisco’s 11 supervisorial districts. Outgoing Mayor London Breed, bolstered by the Network which had bankrolled her first run for the city’s top job, used redistricting as an opportunity to weaken her political enemies. Under Breed’s direction, the Redistricting Task Force removed a reliable progressive portion of the Inner Sunset, from Preston’s District 5. At the same time, the Tenderloin was grafted onto District 5. Although the neighborhood would seem to be a good fit for Preston, it suffers from one of the lowest voter turnout rates in the city. Also cut from the district was the reliably progressive neighborhood of the inner Sunset just south of Golden Gate Park, which was incorporated into District 7. 

From its success in redrawing district lines, the Network set its sights on the March 2024 election. It was instrumental to the victory of a ballot measure reducing civilian oversight of the long-troubled San Francisco Police Department. Preston, it should be noted, had called for a financial audit of the SFPD, which frequently exceeds its budget, but fails to deliver compelling results. A 2022 report from the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice found that San Francisco has more police officers per capita than any California municipality, Los Angeles included, but it solves far fewer cases. Preston’s request for an audit was poorly received by some voters who had been successfully fear-mongered during the COVID-19 epidemic. 

The Network also handpicked — and handsomely funded — a slate of conservative candidates for the San Francisco’s Democratic County Central Committee, known as the DCCC. An obscure elected body, the DCCC’s election endorsements are considered one of the most valuable in San Francisco. The Network-backed slate won 18 of the 24 open seats in March. Among the victors was Preston’s leading challenger, Bilal Mahmood.

Emboldened by its wins, the Network set up Bilal Mahmood as well as newly elected DCCC members Trevor Chandler, Michael Lai and Marjan Philhour, as supervisorial candidates. Mahmood, Chandler and Lai were newcomers to the districts they hoped to represent. The Network believed their lack of community ties would serve as an advantage since there would be no competition for their loyalties. 

Chandler, Lai and Philhour were defeated. Mahmood won, bolstered by a rank-choice strategy with two other conservative contenders for Preston’s seat, Scotty Jacobs and Autumn Looijen, and lavish spending from the Network. With Preston’s ouster, District 5 lost a champion for struggling San Franciscans. It has gained a representative completely beholden to the Astroturf Network’s interests which can be boiled down to this: Preserving and increasing its vast wealth.