Politics
Yekutiel campaign says it remains active as San Francisco seeks clarity on $255,000 in public funds
Manny Yekutiel’s campaign has not returned $255,000 in public financing after he said he was leaving the District 8 supervisor’s race. The Ethics Commission says his committee told the agency it had suspended some activities but had not shut down.
Manny Yekutiel’s campaign has not repaid $255,000 in public funds two weeks after he announced he was ending his run for San Francisco supervisor, leaving the city to assess whether the campaign has formally ended or is only on hold.
City law requires candidates who end their campaigns to return public financing. But the San Francisco Ethics Commission said in a public notice Thursday that a representative for Yekutiel’s committee described the campaign as suspended, not closed.
According to the commission, the representative said on Oct. 9 that Yekutiel continued to employ staff and maintain a campaign headquarters, and that suspended activities could resume. The committee also said Yekutiel could still win the nomination, the commission reported.
That distinction could affect whether the campaign must return the money before Election Day. Yekutiel, who owns the Mission District café, bookstore and civic gathering space Manny’s, announced he was ending his District 8 campaign amid sexual assault allegations. The allegations are not detailed in the information available here.
The $255,000 came through San Francisco’s public financing program, which provides taxpayer funds to eligible candidates. The Ethics Commission’s notice addressed the status of Yekutiel’s campaign as well as public financing rules for candidates in the November 2026 election.
The commission did not say in the notice that the campaign had repaid the funds. Whether the committee’s continued staffing and headquarters amount to an active campaign, rather than a terminated one, remains central to the repayment question.