Slates

As you know, GFC supports candidates for important local races when we are asked to do so by people we respect. Recently one of the people we respect most, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, asked us to support Anthony Tordillos…

Please see the note below about a very important contest that could bring Oakland into alignment with San Jose and San Francisco where two pragmatic mayors (Matt Mahan and Daniel Lurie) have been elected. Please help add Loren Taylor to that mix.

When GFC launched in 2011, Republicans held enough seats in the California Legislature that occasionally they could exercise some leverage by joining with pragmatic Democrats to bridge some gaps.

Last month we wrote you about Friends of the University, a muscular addition to California’s political philanthropy ecosystem that advocates for the University of California, which for far too long has been treated like a doormat by elected state officials.

Inspired by the success of pragmatic political coalitions in San Francisco, two GFC chapters led by Alistair Thornton and Eli Bildner have identified political giving opportunities in the East Bay.

Yesterday San Francisco Mayor London Breed made a gutsy appointment to the presidency of the SF Board of Education when she selected Phil Kim, who served as the national director of STEM education for the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) and is a charter school champion.

Everyone knows the truth. In California it is serious drug addiction that drives homelessness, overdose deaths and retail theft. The solution is mass treatment. Voters took a step in that direction in March by approving Proposition 1, which authorizes Bonds for Mental Health Treatment Facilities. The next step must be taken in November with voter approval of Proposition 36, The Homelessness, Drug Addiction, and Theft Reduction Act that will give judges the tools to require treatment.

A political renaissance is taking place in San Francisco thanks to a robust ecosystem of political philanthropies operating in that city.