Power Play

Bayview native Theo Ellington is many things: a husband and father, community organizer, interim executive director of the Ruth Williams Opera House, former city commissioner, and political dealmaker who served as the Golden State Warriors’ first head of public affairs.

Now, he wants to add District 10 supervisor to his résumé. 

Ellington exclusively told Power Play he plans to file paperwork Monday with the Department of Elections to run in next year’s election, his second time vying for the job after finishing third in the 2018 race won by Supervisor Shamann Walton. 

Since then, Ellington has served in numerous governmental, business, and nonprofit roles, which he said have prepared him to become supervisor. He has also organized community events, including a June discussion on the fraught future of the Democratic Party and Saturday’s Afro Latinx concert at the opera house.

“What I was going up against was sort of the machine,” said Ellington, 37. “I was the youngest in the race by at least 10 years. The main competitors had run at least two campaigns before. So, if you looked on paper, I was the kid with potential. Today, I’ve got work experience. I’ve got stability in my family.”

He’s also got big plans. During an extended tour of the district Friday, Ellington talked about the needs and opportunities for D10 neighborhoods like the Bayview, Dogpatch, Hunters Point, Potrero Hill, Sunnydale, and Visitacion Valley — areas, he said, that have not received enough attention from Walton and the city. Ellington gave Walton credit for opposing expanded shelter operations in the Bayview but criticized the supervisor for his standup-comedy side hustle. Natalie Gee, chief of staff to Walton, declined to comment. 

“I don't doubt that he loves [the Bayview] and loves the people of this neighborhood, but we need development,” Ellington said. “Nowhere else in San Francisco do you have empty plots of land or shuttered businesses primed for development. I think you can do that without displacing people.”

He added, “You got to have skin in the game. I tell people, ‘I’m not going anywhere.’ I’m literally building for my family and for the rest of the families that I want my kids to grow up with.”

Ellington will be the fifth candidate to declare their run for D10. The others are Board of Appeals commissioner J.R. Eppler, community organizer Jameel Patterson, and political outsiders Mike Lin and Pearci Bastiany. DJ Brookter, CEO of the nonprofit Young Community Developers, which Walton formerly led, is also expected to run. 

Ellington said he’s been laying the groundwork for a campaign for a year.

“I've been going out to seek the knowledge to be successful at this job.” 

— Josh Koehn

Got tips? Send us an email at powerplay@sfstandard.com.

POLITICALLY ENGAGED: When Mayor Daniel Lurie revealed the Downtown Development Corporation nonprofit in March, the group was advertised to supercharge the downtrodden neighborhood with hundreds of millions from private donors.

What wasn’t publicized was the nonprofit’s 501(c)(4) “action” arm, an entity that legally authorizes it to participate in separate political activities. It’s not unusual for nonprofits, including the Sierra Club and Planned Parenthood, to establish arms allowing for greater advocacy and lobbying. 

DDC spokesperson Jess Montejano told Power Play that the group has no plans to engage in lobbying or politics but that lawyers had advised forming an “action” entity. 

This could offer the nonprofit additional legal protections as its members interact with City Hall officials to raise money for downtown projects. Members of the DDC include private equity chief David Stiepleman, tech titan Chris Larsen, and labor leader Olga Miranda. (While registered lobbyists must disclose their interactions with public officials, nonprofit board members don’t have to.)

Gene Takagi, a San Francisco-based nonprofit law expert, said that though the group might not have political goals, that could change — thus, the need for the 501(c)(4).

“They might not have any plans now, but if a new bill popped up, or a ballot measure popped up where they felt they needed to act, they have this entity ready to go,” said Takagi.

— Gabriel Greschler 

MAWULI’S VISION: Of all the tough City Hall jobs, Human Rights Commission Executive Director Mawuli Tugbenyoh may have one of the hardest. After a major scandal last year involving allegations of financial mismanagement and unethical behavior by the agency’s former chief, Sheryl Davis, Tugbenyoh replaced her as acting head of the HRC in 2024. Lurie appointed him permanently to the post in September. 

Tugbenyoh is charged with rebranding the agency — and he’s banking on a new batch of funding and a reorganization to be the spark that gets it back on its feet. 

“We've had to restructure, or even completely write from scratch, new policies and procedures at every level and every division of the department,” he told Power Play. On Friday, the department released a list of the organizations invited to apply for a total of  $14.4 million in funding.

“I'm confident that once we enter into these new contracts, that we start focusing on launching and relaunching all of our programming, that we're going to come out of this much stronger,” said Mawuli.

When asked how he’s managed through the last year, Mawuli wasn’t shy about the challenges he and the department have faced.

“It has been a very difficult time, a very difficult transition for the community, between funding being paused and us having to cancel some contracts and re-bid them out,” he said. 

— Gabriel Greschler and Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez

THAT'S LOVE: Cynthia Wu found her match with Supervisor Bilal Mahmood after a minor political flex and an almost-missed Hinge date. 

BIG SPENDER: Mimi Haas, the mayor’s mom, donated $750,000 to the campaign for Proposition 50, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s redistricting ballot measure to bolster Democrats’ odds at retaking the U.S. House next year.

SOBERING VETO: Lurie criticized Newsom on Thursday for vetoing a bill that would have authorized California to set aside funding specifically for sober-housing projects.

— Edited by Hannah Wiley