In 2022, when Joel Engardio unseated incumbent Gordon Mar, he made the claim that Mar did not “represent the will of the voters.” The allegation came in response to Mar’s refusal to back the reactionary school board recall of 2022 which launched the careers of many of the “moderates” covered on this blog. Engardio himself saw his political star rise as an organizer for the recall after three previous campaigns for the board of supervisors in a neighboring district had fallen short.

Fast forward to today and Engardio is in hot water with his constituents over his backing of Proposition K, the ballot measure that permanently closed the Great Highway to cars. Last week, a group of Sunset residents enraged by the passage of Prop K filed paperwork to recall Engardio. While Prop K passed with 55% of the citywide vote, 64% of Engardio’s constituents in District 4 opposed it. Sunset residents are concerned about the traffic strain that this road closure will have on their already limited points of access to the rest of the city. This past week’s tsunami warning alerted many residents to the challenges in emergency evacuation that Prop K would present. In addition, many Chinese-American residents in the Sunset expressed concerns over how closing the Great Highway to cars would affect their ability to visit extended family who have moved to the South Bay.

On its face, backing Prop K was a baffling choice for someone who won on the promise of representing the will of the voters in his district. The decision becomes much less baffling when one follows the money behind Engardio. Many of the ultra-wealthy backers who helped Engardio take office have also pumped money into the Prop K effort-and they are Engardio’s most important constituency.

GrowSF is an important common thread between Engardio and Proposition K. Engardio held a leadership position at Grow SF during the school board recall and received $74,000 from the group for his 2022 supervisor run. GrowSF provided $14,940 to support Prop K. The group is, of course, one of the many arms of the Astroturf Network, receiving $150,000 from billionaire Chris Larsen, and $65,000 from William Oberndorf’s Neighbors for a Better San Francisco. Engardio’s campaign around public safety falls right in line with the GrowSF agenda pushing more aggressive policing.

Another ultra-wealthy donor in Engardio’s corner, tech chief executive Zack Rosen, has been a major proponent for Prop K after his success leading the push to eliminate cars on JFK Drive. Rosen is the founder of SF YIMBY and the Abundance Network (formerly Abundant SF), two groups with ties to the dark money network pushing for neoliberal solutions across the city under the guise of urbanist, pro-housing rhetoric. SF YIMBY endorsed Engardio in his 2022 supervisor run and Rosen himself donated $15,000 to the school board recall effort. Through Abundant SF, Rosen helped raise $780,000 towards Prop K, with serious support from Yelp founder Jeremy Stoppleman who contributed $350,000. Additionally, the Abundance Network makes political contributions through Families for a Vibrant SF, another Chris Larsen backed political action group that worked to reshape the Democratic Party in San Francisco on behalf of “moderates.” One of the major donors to the Vibrant PAC is Twitch founder, former OpenAI CEO and Y Combinator partner Emmett Shear, who also gave $75,000 in support of Prop K.

When looking back at how Engardio won his supervisor seat, it’s no wonder he’s prioritizing the mega-donors over his constituents despite his resident-first rhetoric. Engardio won his seat by a mere 490 votes, a margin of victory that can be attributed to the newly gerrymandered supervisorial districts. In the three precincts added to District 4 for the 2022 race, Engardio won by 529 votes. In an internally leaked document, TogetherSF claims that Engardio’s slim victory over incumbent Gordon Mar was a testament to TogetherSF’s organizing prowess, while GrowSF claims that Engardio’s victory has been one of the organization’s greatest wins to-date. Indeed, Engardio seemingly owes more to these groups for his victory than to the residents of the district he represents.

Interestingly enough, Neighbors for a Better SF donated $89,000 against Prop K, while their major financial backers Steven Merrill (who also serves on Neighbors' board) and Republican mega-donor Diane “Dede” Wilsey poured an additional $50,000 behind the measure, signalling a split in the Astroturf Network, at least on this issue. Engardio has received significant backing from Neighbors in the past; when he led Stop Crime SF as part of the recall of Chesa Boudin, Neighbors donated $750,000 to the group. It has yet to be seen however if Neighbors will throw this kind of money into Engardio’s recall over the Prop K schism.

There’s an obvious irony to Joel Engardio facing the threat of recall when he rode the recall frenzy of 2022 into his current office. Unlike the 2022 recalls however, this effort is truly a grassroots, neighborhood-led movement — one that big money has yet to congeal around. Given the billionaire backing for both Prop K and Engardio, he may retain his seat, however this incident may serve as a message to the other self-described “moderates” on the board that their constituents are paying attention when their interests are pushed aside for the Astroturf agenda.