A state agency is investigating allegations made last year by supporters of former San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin that a group funding the recall campaign against him violated campaign finance laws.
The California Fair Political Practices Commission opened an investigation into allegations against San Franciscans for Public Safety Supporting the Recall of Chesa Boudin and three other organizations on Sept. 21 after receiving a complaint from an attorney representing San Franciscans Against the Recall of Chesa Boudin.
The state agency opens an investigation when it determines a complaint has indications of potential violations. Some cases result in financial penalties, and the agency assessed about $472,000 in fines in 2021.
The complaint filed on Aug. 6, 2021, names four organizations as respondents — Neighbors for a Better San Francisco Advocacy, San Franciscans for Public Safety Supporting the Recall of Chesa Boudin, San Francisco Common Sense Voter Guide and Stop All Asian Hate.
The complaint alleges that Neighbors for a Better San Francisco Advocacy funneled donations from nine major donors to the recall directly and through the two other organizations days after they were received. California law prohibits contributions made on behalf of another or through an intermediary unless properly disclosed and reported as “earmarked” for that purpose, which the complaint said the organizations did not do.
The complaint alleged that committees created an “earmarking scheme to hide crucial information about the largest contributors funding the recall effort from the public.”
The recall campaign did disclose earmarked funds from two organizations and listed them as major contributors, but did not name individual donors.
Representatives for the four organizations did not immediately respond to requests for comment or could not be reached Thursday evening.
The complainant is Becky Bond, treasurer of Super Justice PAC which sponsored the anti-recall campaign. The campaign’s lawyer David Mitrani from the law firm Sandler Reiff Lamb Rosenstein & Birkenstock sent the complaint.
“We made this complaint over a year ago in hopes (to) inform voters about who was funding all the misinformation on crime during the recall,” Bond said. “That didn’t happen. I absolutely believe that if at that time voters had more information about the funders behind the recall it could have made a difference in the outcome.”
Neighbors for a Better San Francisco Advocacy, a 501c(4) political organization, is currently under scrutiny because of its close connection to a similarly named nonprofit, Neighbors for a Better San Francisco. The 501c(3) nonprofit paid District Attorney Brooke Jenkins more than $100,000 for consulting work she did before taking office, and both groups are linked to a billionaire who backed the recall.
The allegations made by San Franciscans Against the Recall of Chesa Boudin came while Jenkins was still working under her former boss Boudin, before she quit to join the recall and work for Neighbors for a Better San Francisco, and do not mention her.
The complaint claims that Neighbors for a Better San Francisco Advocacy, the political organization, received $720,000 from nine donors between June 4 and June 30. At least $450,000 of those funds found their way to San Franciscans for Public Safety Supporting the Recall of Chesa Boudin within days of being donated, according to the complaint. Roughly half the funds were contributed directly and others through San Francisco Common Sense Voter Guide and Stop All Asian Hate.
According to the complaint, as a result, San Franciscans for Public Safety Supporting the Recall of Chesa Boudin failed to report the three highest contributors in its disclaimers who had given to Neighbors for a Better San Francisco Advocacy.
The complaint claims that the organizations violated multiple campaign finance laws that prohibit a committee from creating another “to avoid, or that results in the avoidance of, the disclosure of any individual, industry, business entity, controlled committee, or sponsored committee as a top contributor” and that require committees to disclose the names of top contributors.
The complaint said there’s a “strong likelihood” the donors knew their funds were being used for the recall, but it’s not clear.
Two individuals – recall campaign chair Mary Jung and Jay Cheng, who was also involved in the recall – either have past connections with or operate the four organizations. Stop All Asian Hate and San Francisco Common Sense Voter Guide list the same phone number on ethics filings and share a treasurer.
Jung and Cheng did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
Mallory Moench (she/her) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mallory.moench@sfchronicle.com Twitter:@mallorymoench
