Exclusive: How a powerful conservative S.F. donor clashed with Daniel Lurie in tense mayoral race

As the San Francisco mayoral race heated up last month, an influential yet seldom-seen figure in city politics posed a pointed question to candidate Daniel Lurie.

In a late-night email Sept. 4, the conservative donor Bill Oberndorf asked Lurie about a mailer his campaign had recently sent attacking former Supervisor Mark Farrell, one of the other leading candidates trying to unseat Mayor London Breed.

Oberndorf wrote the email the night before a board meeting of his moderate political group, Neighbors for a Better San Francisco, which rose to prominence two years ago by bankrolling the recall of former District Attorney Chesa Boudin. The Neighbors board — which Oberndorf leads — had previously endorsed Farrell, a former interim mayor, and Lurie, a nonprofit founder, as its top choices for mayor.

After Oberndorf wrote to Lurie in the email obtained by the Chronicle asking if the mailer was “accurate and true,” he received a defiant response from Lurie the next morning.


https://www.sfchronicle.com/election/article/daniel-lurie-sf-donor-clash-19778212.php