The Astroturf Network’s involvement in the city’s mayoral race has attracted the most headlines leading up to the November 2024 election. For good reason: More than $28 million has been raised, to date, on the battle for San Francisco’s top job, with two candidates — Mayor London Breed, former District 2 Supervisor Mark Farrell — receiving lavish donations from uber-wealthy elites. A third, Levi Strauss heir Daniel Lurie, is a billionaire in his own right who has largely self-funded his campaign, but has also received generous contributions totalling well over $1 million from his family. Only one candidate, Board of Supervisor President Aaron Peskin, has publicly denounced the Astroturf Network’s involvement in local elections.

Focusing exclusively on the mayor’s race understates the Astroturf Network’s enormous ambitions. Few races have been left untouched by billionaire-backed GrowSF, TogetherSF, and Neighbors for a Better San Francisco and their vast repositories of wealth. 

The brisk march toward a City Hall takeover began with the 2022 redistricting of San Francisco’s 11 supervisorial districts. The effort to create more conservative districts that would, in turn, elect more conservative candidates, was among the Astroturf Network’s first great successes. It resulted in the replacement of District 4 Supervisor Gordon Mar, one of two Chinese-Americans on the Board of Supervisors, by Joel Engardio, a right-wing candidate with no roots in that district who has enjoyed a long association with GrowSF and TogetherSF.

The Network’s redistricting manipulations came on the heels of its successful efforts to recall three members of the San Francisco Board of Education and progressive District Attorney Chesa Boudin. School board commissioners Alison Collins, Gabriela Lopez and Faauuga Moliga were ousted from office, replaced by Breed appointees Ann Hsu, Lainie Motamedi and Lisa Weissman-Ward, all backed for re-election by the Astroturf Network. (Only Hsu failed to be re-elected.) Months later, Boudin was pushed out of office, supplanted by mayoral pick Brooke Jenkins, a former Neighbors for a Better San Francisco employee who was enthusiastically embraced by the rest of the Astroturf Network.

Bolstered by a string of wins, the Network took on the project of remaking San Francisco’s arm of the Democratic Party, known as the Democratic County Central Committee (DCCC). It poured unprecedented sums to move the DCCC rightward. Although obscure to most voters, the DCCC’s endorsement, carrying with it the weight of the Democratic Party, is among the most coveted in San Francisco politics. The network handsomely funded a slate of generally unknown candidates carefully selected for their willingness to parrot their talking points, a strange mash-up of tough-on-crime policies and a laissez-faire approach to real estate development. The money it raised and spent overwhelmed a competing progressive slate of candidates. In the March 2024 election, the Astroturf Network won 18 of the 24 open seats on the DCCC.

A handful of the newly elected DCCC members were singled out to run for open supervisor seats. Trevor Chandler, running for District 9, is typical of the Astroturf Network’s chosen candidate. Like other candidates running with the support of the network, including  Michael Lai in District 11, and Bilal Mahmood in District 5, Chandler is a newcomer to the neighborhood he hopes to represent. Should he be elected, community ties won’t complicate Chandler’s relationship with the uber-wealthy who will have bankrolled him into office. Like Lai and Mahmood, Chandler’s resume raises questions. He claims to be a San Francisco public school teacher, but it turns out that he applied to be a district substitute shortly before filing to run for office. Given the demands of running for office, it seems unlikely that he’s spent actual time in a San Francisco Unified classroom.

Although Chandler calls himself a progressive, his most significant job experience was as a lobbyist for the conservative American Israel Public Affairs Committee, known as AIPAC. As a New Hampshire college student, he was a member of the Students for John McCain, the Republican candidate who lost to former President Barack Obama in the 2008 election. 

Chandler, who is serving up the Astroturf Network’s typical anti-crime and pro-real estate rhetoric would seem a strange choice for District 9 which includes a large working-class LatinX population.

Even “down ballot” candidates have not escaped the Astroturf Network’s attention. The Network has funded four candidates for the San Francisco School Board: Parag Gupta, Jaimie Huling, John Jersin and Supryia Ray, all supporters of the since tabled plan to shutter San Francisco public schools. The Network has also financed four candidates for Community College Board: Aliya Chisti, Ruth Ferguson, Heather McCarty and Luis Zamora. On their various slate cards, the Network emphasizes fiscal responsibility of these important public educational institutions. Rarely are community needs mentioned in their political propaganda.

Minor offices like the school and community college boards often serve as the training ground for ambitious politicians. Many go on to serve as members of the Board of Supervisors or the State Legislature. The Network’s efforts to recruit and shape political neophytes are indications that it is only part of the long game they are playing.