District 3 Race Most Expensive—But Soft Money Will Flourish in D1 and D11

But “soft money” routes—such as Proposition V—will certainly play a role not reflected in these donations. In D3, Joe Alioto Jr. took the lion’s share of landlord and downtown money—with many interesting donors—while Claudine Cheng gave her own campaign $50,000. Denise McCarthy raked in the building trades, while David Chiu kept mining his personal connections. In D1, Sue Lee took money from real estate and business interests—while Eric Mar took checks from various labor unions. In both races, powerful interests are “hedging their bets” by giving to multiple candidates. D11 candidates John Avalos, Ahsha Safai and Randy Knox each raised about $30,000—but Avalos got union and non-profit support, and Safai got real estate money and $19,000 in “unitemized receipts” (which he says were small donations.) Knox raised his funds from attorneys—including $500 from Ellis Act eviction lawyer Andrew Zacks, which will hurt his standing with tenants.

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