Marjan Philhour’s Hypocritical Crusade Against “Dark Money”
With a few weeks left before the final ballots of the 2020 election are cast, residents of San Francisco’s District 1 are unsurprised when opening their mailboxes to see scores of mailers from campaigns, Democratic clubs, independent expenditures, and Super PACs. In the Richmond District neighbors are all-too familiar with glossy mailers from a half a dozen new groups showing their support for Marjan Philhour, a political consultant, former senior advisor to Mayor Breed, and a small business owner in the Balboa corridor.
Philhour, who ran in 2016 with hundreds of thousands of dollars in corporate money backing her, started her 2020 run with a pledge to reject all outside spending and cut off her financial dependence from the San Francisco Police Officers Association. This was in response to the criticism she received for having dark money backers in her previous race, something she called a “distraction”.
Now, with the election on the horizon and voters already turning in their ballots, a $3 million, Republican-backed, dark money Super PAC called Neighbors for a Better San Francisco is spending large sums of money on a multitude of races. This includes District 1, where money has found its way into several new and mysterious mailers from organizations that have sprung up in the last few months.
Philhour, who is the beneficiary of these mailers, has been silent about the hundreds of thousands of dollars of special interests that have flowed into this race. Instead she has been raging a crusade against two mailers that went out against her. One paid for by labor leaders, including essential workers and teachers, and the other from the Affordable Housing Alliance, a mailer that supporter the progressive left in San Francisco every cycle.
The Affordable Housing Alliance mailer has been a particular target of Philhour’s. This mailer highlighted the nearly $700,000 in corporate money that backed Philhour in 2016 and her coziness with big tech, real estate, and other traditional San Franciscan moderate donors. This mailer was accurate in several ways:
- Philhour DID and IS benefitting from hundreds of thousands of corporate, billionaire, and Republican money.
- Philhour IS a moderate, pro large business and developer candidate.
- The rich ARE getting richer in this nation, and especially in San Francisco where the top 1% earn 44x what the bottom 99% earn.
Rather than address these issues, and the dark money PACs that are spending for her, Philhour decided to do something different and throw a stone in a glass house.
The day after the mailer was sent to the mailboxes of Richmond residents, Philhour took to social media to condemn the attack piece as “sexist” without addressing the actual content of the mailer.
The day after her social media posts, Philhour held a press conference with Mayor Breed, and other supporters to condemn the attack as sexist. She tried to tie Connie Chan, her opponent with an all woman of color staff and a female consultant, to Stearns by highlighting that Stearns consulted for outgoing Supervisor Sandra Lee Fewer. This continues the ongoing narrative that Chan is not independent and is simply the next iteration of Fewer, both Fewer and Chan being Chinese-American women.
She then followed up with her own attack mailer, and given the timeline this mailer was already designed, paid for, and approved to go out. So she held a rally condemning attack ads while hers was already on its way to voters.
Folks, It’s All A Distraction
If you’re like many of us who recognize the huge harm Citizens United has caused to our political process, then you will agree that unfettered corporate cash flowing behind one candidate actually is a big issue. Money in politics is causing direct harm to our political process, and it is ridiculous to tie criticisms of it to sexism.
But as Marjan calls big money spending a “distraction,” she also tries to cover up and hide all criticisms towards her. And yes, she is trying to distract you from the real dark money in this race.
Briefly after condemning these attacks from PACs, the SF Workforce Alliance PAC filed a radio ad buy and sent out a mailer opposing Connie Chan for Supervisor. This ad buy was helped funded by Neighbors for a Better San Francisco, a shady state Super PAC which is financially backed by William Oberndorf, a wealthy hedge fund manager who recently donated $1 million to help Republicans in the Senate. Philhour herself accepted the max contribution from Oberndorf, as well as from other Repubican donors.
Neighbors for a Better San Francisco has been funneling dark money into dozens of fake and real groups throughout the city trying to defeat progressive supervisor candidates and to try and get moderate, pro-business candidates elected. It has spent big time on Marjan Philhour, sending mailers out under names like “Pro Housing Guide”, “Democratic Victory Guide”, “San Francisco Renter’s Alliance”, “San Francisco Families First”, “SF Workforce Housing Alliance”, and “SF Women for Common Sense Government”. Most of these groups never existed a few months ago.
Many of these groups have been organized by close supporters of Philhour, including members of SF YIMBY, a pro developer group hell bent on opening up the Richmond to market rate development. YIMBY has had a long history of working closely with big tech and big real estate, including having huge tech companies like Lyft, as well as horrid eviction law firms, sponsor their gala this year.
Philhour also kicked off her campaign by blocking leftist activists on Twitter and Facebook, ensuring that her campaign could not receive public criticism for others to see. Meanwhile, she has been supported by dozens of fake accounts on Twitter which are attempting to attack Connie Chan and her supporters. These accounts were linked back to the Neighbors for a Better San Francisco by progressive organizers and Mission Local and have been saying racist and sexist things about Chan.
This nasty narrative against Chan has also been present in both the community and NextDoor. Philhour supporters have worked together to form “Save Our Amazing Richmond,” an organization that was founded by people on NextDoor who were upset about progressives and is headed by a Trump appointee to the Presidio Trust and a man who exclusively followed pro-Trump Twitter accounts until someone called him out for it. Their members have led a smear campaign against Chan, using racist terms like “Commie Chan” or making sexist and racist remarks about her and her qualifications.
These comments have made their way to the streets of District 1, leading to Chan signs being vandalized and horrible, red baiting, and racist imagery being used to describe her and outgoing Supervisor Fewer.
These are real racist and misogynistic attacks, and Marjan has stood silent while they’re being made. Doesn’t that seem just a bit hypocritical?
So if you’re a District 1 resident you need to ignore the distractions thrown up by Philhour and her supporters. It is not sexist to criticize the influence of money in politics, and Philhour does a disservice to the community by trying to change the narrative so you cannot criticize her while ignoring the sexism her opponent is facing. It is clear Philhour cannot handle criticism, and as a public servant that is a huge problem.
Connie Chan has handled these disgusting remarks with grace and poise, and that is just one of many reasons why she deserves to be our next District 1 Supervisor.
