Ethics Commission says 2024 was a record year for public financing and third‑party spending; flags individual expenditure ceiling for revision

Damon Wilson, audit manager for the San Francisco Ethics Commission, told commissioners March 14 that the city—xperienced record public financing disbursements and third‑party campaign spending in 2024 and that one program designed to limit candidate spending consumed heavy staff time while rarely affecting actual expenditures.

Wilson said the commission dispersed about $8.8 million in public funds in 2024 and that total candidate spending reached nearly $27 million. He added that third‑party independent expenditures totaled about $19 million, producing roughly $45 million in total reported election spending for supervisorial and mayoral contests combined.

"This was a record year for both the public financing program and for campaign spending in general," Wilson said during the commission's public meeting, noting that the commission raws the data from campaign disclosure filings and posts dashboards on its website.

Why it matters: the audit division is required by the city's campaign and governmental conduct code to audit all publicly financed candidates. Wilson said the surge in publicly financed candidates and in the volume of filings strained the division's capacity…