Airbnb contributed $230,000 to candidates and measures on the June 7 ballot in the days leading up to and just after legislation was introduced at the Board of Supervisors that could expose the short-term rental company to millions of dollars in fines and potential misdemeanor charges. The contributions were detailed in the latest round of campaign finance reports required by the San Francisco Ethics Commission, which cover the start of the year through April 23. The reports also showed that the race for the influential Democrat County Central Committee has became even more heated, with hundreds of thousands of dollars raised for candidates vying for the 24 open seats. The committee’s makeup is especially important this year because those elected in June will make the official Democratic Party endorsements of candidates for office in November, including those running for the Board of Supervisors, the state Senate and other races. On Tuesday, Supervisors David Campos and Aaron Peskin introduced legislation that would make short-term-rental sites like Airbnb and HomeAway/VRBO responsible for ensuring that their hosts follow the city’s registration requirements. Jung is a registered lobbyist for real estate interests, which has led to claims from progressives that she is beholden to special-interest groups. [...] sitting and aspiring politicians are using the DCCC as a way to increase their name recognition — and circumvent the $500 campaign contribution limit for supervisorial races. To be fair, the DCCC election is in June and the supervisorial race is in November, but it’s an open secret in City Hall that money raised for the DCCC benefits supervisorial campaigns. Candidates who are not elected have to return the money to their donors or donate it to a charitable organization or the city, according to the Ethics Commission.

 

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