THE BUZZ: MONEY TALKS — Forget about ultra-wealthy tech tycoons dominating San Francisco politics with their vast funding. The candidate surging in the mayor’s race is as old money as they come on the West Coast. Levi Strauss heir Daniel Lurie, a nonprofit founder, has gained momentum in the final weeks of the election as he self-funds his campaign to an unprecedented degree. Lurie and his mother, billionaire Mimi Haas, have poured nearly $10 million into the crowded contest. The most recent poll from the San Francisco Chronicle shows Lurie leaping ahead of embattled incumbent London Breed in the ranked-choice election, though other polls suggest the contest is still close. Breed has raised about $2.3 million, by comparison. Lurie’s showing in the home stretch of the campaign has upended city politics, frazzling city insiders, who say San Francisco has never had a candidate self-fund to this degree. San Francisco has no shortage of wealth: The city is home to at least 50 billionaires and dozens more near-billionaires. But members of that mega-rich class have historically played in local elections from the sidelines, as benefactors writing checks for politicians. There have long been rumors in local politics about darkhorse candidates who could dominate local elections with their extreme wealth. Lurie is the first in modern history to actually take the plunge. Breed and the other top contenders in the race — former interim Mayor Mark Farrell and Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin — have hammered Lurie for relying on his family’s money. Insults like “trust fund kid” and ads showing piggy banks and silver spoons have abounded. But for all of the criticism, Lurie’s spending has yet to blunt his momentum in recent polls. Kanishka Cheng , founder of Together SF Action, a moderate advocacy group that has given Farrell its first endorsement, said she is baffled by how little Lurie’s wealth has been a factor. She said groups like hers are criticized “left and right” over their support from tech magnates. “He doesn’t get any of that scrutiny, and it’s just kind of shocking,” Cheng told Playbook. “We didn’t really see him moving up in the polls until about $8 million was spent.” Lurie isn’t like other wealthy San Franciscans who spend heavily in city politics for one big obvious reason: He’s not a techie, so he can avoid the trope of rich tech bros taking over the liberal city, an archetype that local progressives love to hate. His family’s company is also a source of local pride. Lurie’s late stepfather, Peter Haas, was the great-grandnephew of Levi Strauss , whose company made the first blue jeans in San Francisco in the 1850s. Moreover, the attack line also might not resonate as much with voters in San Francisco — where the median household income is about $146,00, nearly double the national figure — as in other political contests like the presidential race, where Kamala Harris and Donald Trump seem locked in a game of one-upmanship to appeal to average Joes (see the latest McDonald's kerfuffle). Tyler Law, Lurie’s consultant, noted that Farrell and Breed both have a pack of wealthy benefactors. The incumbent mayor has been heavily supported by billionaire businessmen Chris Larsen and Michael Bloomberg. Farrell, meanwhile, has the support of billionaires Michael Moritz, Thomas Coates and Bill Oberndorf. “Each of them has the support of billionaires who can spend an unlimited amount,” Law told Playbook. “This idea about crying poor and making excuses really falls on deaf ears.”
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