{"id":2340929,"date":"2024-09-13T18:09:59","date_gmt":"2024-09-13T22:09:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/san-francisco-mayoral-candidate-accused-of-violating-campaign-finance-law-washington-examiner\/"},"modified":"2024-09-13T18:19:47","modified_gmt":"2024-09-13T22:19:47","slug":"san-francisco-mayoral-candidate-accused-of-violating-campaign-finance-law-washington-examiner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/san-francisco-mayoral-candidate-accused-of-violating-campaign-finance-law-washington-examiner\/","title":{"rendered":"San Francisco mayoral candidate accused of violating campaign finance law &#8211; Washington Examiner"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fsan-francisco-mayoral-candidate-accused-of-violating-campaign-finance-law-washington-examiner%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2340929&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>A San Francisco mayoral candidate, Mark Farrell, is facing accusations of violating campaign \u200dfinance law due \u2062to a recently sent mailer. \u200bOpponents claim \u2064the mailer, \u200bwhich promotes a reform measure called Proposition\u2064 D, \u2062also functions as a campaign\u200b advertisement\u2062 for Farrell himself. One side urges\u2064 voters to support the measure aimed at enhancing \u2063mayoral powers, while the other side highlights Farrell\u2019s achievements\u2062 as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/mayor-of-hyattsville-maryland-dead-from-apparent-suicide\/\" title=\"Mayor of Hyattsville, Maryland Dead from Apparent Suicide\">interim mayor<\/a>, particularly his actions against \u2064drug dealing and\u200c homelessness, without directly addressing how these relate to Prop D. His \u2063campaign attorney insists that all communications are vetted for legality. However, rivals argue that the mailer improperly blends advocacy\u2062 for the ballot measure with Farrell&#8217;s campaign messaging, which could be seen as exploiting contributions meant for the ballot measure\u200c to\u200b bolster his candidacy. The \u2062controversy underscores the complex dynamics of campaign financing in \u2063San \u2063Francisco, where measures are often intertwined with \u2062candidates&#8217; promotional\u2064 strategies.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">San Francisco mayoral candidate accused of violating campaign finance law<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div id=\"Brid_1757775\" class=\"tpd-featured-video bridtv\"><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/san-francisco\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"San Francisco\">San Francisco<\/a> mayoral candidate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markfarrell.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Mark Farrell\">Mark Farrell<\/a> could be in hot water over a new mailer he sent out that his rivals claim violates <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/campaigns\/3147957\/san-francisco-mayoral-race-london-breed\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"campaign\">campaign<\/a> law. <\/p>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p>Farrell&rsquo;s mailer urges voters to support a reform measure but then on the backside touts his unrelated accomplishments as interim mayor. <\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">FILE &ndash; Onetime San Francisco Interim Mayor Mark Farrell speaks to reporters after being sworn into office at City Hall on Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2018. (AP Photo\/Joel Angel Juarez, File)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>One side of the 8-by-11-inch card features a smiling Farrell urging a &ldquo;yes&rdquo; vote on the TogetherSF ballot measure, which&nbsp;would enhance mayoral power. The mailer was paid for by Mayor Mark Farrell for Yes on Prop. D, Farrell&rsquo;s candidate-controlled committee backing the measure.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The problem is that&nbsp;on the other side of the mailer, there is a straight-out campaign ad for Farrell with the text:&nbsp;&ldquo;As interim mayor, I targeted drug dealing and cleared all large tent encampments in just six months. But since then, our leaders have failed us.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The statement is attributed to &ldquo;Democrat Mark Farrell.&rdquo; Farrell&rsquo;s body is superimposed in front of City Hall. Proposition D, which&nbsp;would shrink city commissions from 130 to 65,&nbsp;is not mentioned. It&rsquo;s also unclear how Farrell&rsquo;s focus on drugs and homelessness during his stint as interim mayor would play a part in his push for Proposition D.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Mission Local<\/em>, which <a href=\"https:\/\/missionlocal.org\/2024\/09\/mark-farrell-ads-violate-campaign-law-opponents-say\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"first reported the story\">reported the story<\/a>, contacted Farrell&rsquo;s campaign attorney, who said, &ldquo;Every paid&nbsp;communication we share with voters is vetted and approved by counsel. We follow all <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-announces-plan-to-radically-alter-the-supreme-court-because-he-didnt-like-trump-ruling\/\" title=\"Biden Announces Plan to Radically Alter the Supreme Court Because He Didn&#039;t Like Trump Ruling\">laws &#038;mdash<\/a>; period.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>However, Farrell&rsquo;s political rivals say his mailer crossed the line.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;It is perfectly legal for candidates to control ballot measures committees and take positions on ballot measures. That happens all the time,&rdquo; Jim Sutton, the campaign attorney for Daniel Lurie&rsquo;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/dem-nyc-mayoral-candidate-stringer-accused-of-sexual-abuse\/\" title=\"Dem. NYC mayoral candidate stringer accused of sexual abuse\">mayoral campaign<\/a>, told&nbsp;<em>Mission Local<\/em>. &ldquo;But the communications have to actually be about the ballot measure. Not their qualifications for office and not a public policy issue &mdash;&nbsp;drug-dealing and tent encampments &mdash;&nbsp;which have nothing to do with the underlying measure.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Mark Farrell answers a question during a debate for the top five candidates in the race for San Francisco mayor, at Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco on Wednesday, June 12, 2024. From left are Ahsha Safa&iacute;, Farrell, Daniel Lurie, Mayor London Breed, and Aaron Peskin. (Carlos Avila Gonzalez\/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&ldquo;Any judge will see this is a not-that-thinly veiled attempt to use over-the-limit corporate contributions to promote his mayoral candidacy,&rdquo; Sutton added.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Incumbent Democratic Mayor London Breed&rsquo;s camp also has problems with Farrell&rsquo;s postal push.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;If it has been a&nbsp;mailer about Prop. D completely and didn&rsquo;t have the stuff about his qualifications for office, that&rsquo;d be OK,&rdquo; Tom Willis, Breed&rsquo;s campaign attorney, said. &ldquo;But that&rsquo;s obviously not what it&rsquo;s about. It talks about being interim mayor, being a Democrat, all those things. It replicates his campaign messaging.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Candidates putting measures on a ballot and then linking themselves to it as a publicity generator happens pretty frequently. The measures typically highlight subjects the candidate&nbsp;wants to talk about but can also serve as indirect fundraising tools. San Francisco campaign laws cap individual contributions at $500 but there is no limit for people who want to give to a ballot measure committee.<\/p>\n<p>The allegation in Farrell&rsquo;s case is that the money spent under the guise of his Proposition D campaign is actually being spent on his mayoral campaign and that donors and Farrell are making a mockery out of the individual campaign donor cap.<\/p>\n<p>It is unclear what, if anything, will be done. His rivals could file a complaint with the Ethics Commission or the&nbsp;California Fair Political Practices Commission. However, any complaint filed will likely not be addressed before November&rsquo;s election.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Farrell also made headlines this week for edging out Breed in a new&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kron4.com\/news\/bay-area\/farrell-edges-ahead-of-breed-in-sf-mayors-race-according-to-kron4-poll\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">KRON4 News-Emerson College Poll<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER\">CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>With less than two months to go before the election, 20.6% of voters said they&rsquo;d vote for Farrell as their first choice while 20.3% said they&rsquo;d back Breed.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Lurie, a nonprofit executive and heir to the Levi&rsquo;s fortune, is not far behind with 17.5% of voters backing him as their first choice.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <script data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/cdn-cgi\/scripts\/5c5dd728\/cloudflare-static\/email-decode.min.js\"><\/script><script>!function(){var g=window;g.googletag=g.googletag||{},g.googletag.cmd=g.googletag.cmd||[],g.googletag.cmd.push(function(){g.googletag.pubads().setTargeting(\"has-featured-video\",\"true\")})}();<\/script><script>var _bp=_bp||[];_bp.push({\"div\":\"Brid_1757775\",\"obj\":{\"id\":\"27789\",\"width\":\"1280\",\"height\":\"720\",\"stickyDirection\":\"below\",\"video\":\"1757775\"}});<\/script><script defer src=\"https:\/\/services.brid.tv\/player\/build\/brid.min.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>San Francisco mayoral candidate Mark Farrell is facing scrutiny for a recent mailer that his opponents allege breaches campaign finance regulations. The mailer encourages voters to back a reform initiative, but the reverse side highlights Farrell&#8217;s unrelated achievements during his time as interim mayor. <\/p>\n<p>The 8-by-11-inch card features an image of a smiling Farrell advocating for a &#8220;yes&#8221; vote on the TogetherSF measure, which aims to increase the powers of the mayor. This mailer was funded by his candidate-controlled committee, Mayor Mark Farrell for Yes on Prop. D. However, critics point out that the other side serves as a campaign advertisement for Farrell, stating: \u201cAs interim mayor, I targeted drug dealing and cleared all large tent encampments in just six months. But since then, our leaders have failed us,\u201d with attribution to \u201cDemocrat Mark Farrell.\u201d Notably absent from this side is any mention of Proposition D or how his focus on drugs and homelessness relates to it.<\/p>\n<p>Mission Local reached out to Farrell\u2019s campaign attorney who asserted that all communications are reviewed and comply with legal standards. Nevertheless, rivals argue that the mailer crosses ethical boundaries. Jim Sutton, representing Daniel Lurie\u2019s campaign, noted that while candidates can manage ballot measure committees and express their views on them legally, communications must pertain directly to those measures rather than personal qualifications or unrelated public policy issues.<\/p>\n<p>Sutton further remarked that any judge would recognize this as an attempt to leverage excessive corporate contributions for promoting his candidacy. Incumbent Mayor London Breed&#8217;s team also criticized the mailer; her campaign attorney Tom Willis stated it should have focused solely on Proposition D without referencing Farrell&#8217;s qualifications.<\/p>\n<p>Candidates often use ballot measures as platforms for publicity while discussing topics they wish to highlight; these measures can also serve as indirect fundraising mechanisms since San Francisco law limits individual contributions but not donations made towards ballot measure committees.<\/p>\n<p>The allegations against Farrell suggest he may be misusing funds intended for Proposition D in support of his mayoral bid while circumventing individual contribution limits set by law. It remains uncertain if any action will be taken against him; rivals could file complaints with either the Ethics Commission or California Fair Political Practices Commission\u2014though such complaints likely won&#8217;t be resolved before November&#8217;s election.<\/p>\n<p>In related news this week, polling data indicated that with less than two months until election day, 20.6% of voters favored Farrell as their first choice compared to 20.3% supporting Breed; Lurie follows closely behind at 17.5%<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2646,"featured_media":2340930,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/AP24043633668320.jpeg.optimal.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[40871,40870,32603,32422],"class_list":["post-2340929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-campaign-finance-law","tag-mayoral-election","tag-political-news","tag-san-francisco"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/AP24043633668320.jpeg.optimal.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2340929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2646"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2340929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2340929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2340930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2340929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2340929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2340929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}