Bevan Dufty Brings in the Big Bucks

Money is good, but votes are better

​Earlier this month, SF Weekly first reported that Bevan Dufty was officially rebuilding his beleaguered mayoral campaign. When it came to raising cash, Dufty knew he was in a bad position.

At the time, he challenged us to call back in a month, promising that he would be in a much stronger position -- financially speaking.

So on Tuesday, we followed up with the former supervisor, who has since hired a new campaign consultant and dropped his self-imposed campaign contribution cap limiting him to $200 per donor -- which was truly dragging him down in this race. 

When we reached him by phone, he had about five minutes to talk, because he was in the middle of making calls to donors.

But he gave us a quick rundown, reporting that in the last month he has been raking in the dough; he raised $25,000 in a recent trip to Washington, D.C., and he received $254,000 over the last 48 hours alone, most of which came from San Francisco donors, he said.

"And the checks just keep coming," Dufty told SF Weekly.

Dufty only needs to raise $8,000 more before he can access his public financing matching funds.

Dufty recently picked up the endorsement of the Victory Fund, a high-powered gay and lesbian political group that helped get Annise Parker elected as the first openly gay mayor in Houston, Texas.

And as predicted by political consultants, this endorsement would surely change the course of Dufty's campaign.

"It's given me a national audience," Dufty said. "And I'm being invited to fundraising events nationally."

Then he quickly got off the phone.

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