Mayor Daniel Lurie has asked some of San Francisco’s richest residents to write checks to fuel the city’s economic and reputational recovery.
He’s also asked the same of himself.
Over the course of 2025, the mayor racked up more than $1 million in personal expenses for a small army of well-paid political strategists, speech writers, poll-takers, and opposition researchers, an arrangement that has no precedent in modern San Francisco history.
The figures, revealed in newly filed campaign finance records, show how Lurie leveraged his family wealth during his first year in office, giving him strategic advantages and additional manpower that previous mayors could only dream of.
In August, The Standard was the first to report that Lurie had spent hundreds of thousands on political operatives in the first six months of his tenure, helping him construct a tightly coordinated public relations campaign that has boosted his image and that of the city.
His spending continued unabated in the second half of 2025.
Lurie has accrued over $1 million in costs associated with outside consultants and other expenses. | Source: Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/The Standard
On July 25, Lurie plunked $70,000 into his “Daniel Lurie for Mayor 2024” campaign account. On Aug. 29, he deposited another $105,000. From roughly mid-September to late November, he forked over an additional $253,000 in three separate transactions.
In total, Lurie has paid about $870,000 into the campaign account. If unpaid bills are included in the total, his 2025 expenditures for the team and other costs amount to $1,012,184 — equivalent to approximately three years of wages for his predecessor, Mayor London Breed. (Lurie takes $1 as his annual pay.)
Lurie’s ability to use private cash on political and communications consultants is allowed under local laws as long as operatives do not lobby the mayor or make governmental decisions, such as signing a city contract.
But some of the mayor’s expenditures on outside players are particularly unusual.
Lurie racked up nearly $100,000 in charges last year with VR Research, an Oakland- and Washington, D.C.-based opposition research firm that analyzes “public records to help our clients make informed strategic decisions and maximize opportunities as they arise.”
“I’ve never heard of an opposition research firm retained on an ongoing basis by a mayoral administration,” said veteran political consultant Jim Ross. “But that’s also what happens when you have a mayor who is very wealthy. He has resources that other mayors didn’t have.”
During campaign season, it’s normal for candidates to hire researchers to dig up dirt on opponents. The sleuths usually comb through court records or bankruptcy filings, finding juicy tidbits they can leverage in attack ads or disseminate to journalists.
Mayors are allowed to have outside consultants as long as they don’t lobby or make governmental decisions, like signing a government contract. | Source: Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/The Standard
But Lurie won his election handily more than a year ago, raising the question of why he needs the services of VR Research going into year two of his administration.
“Any one of the things on that [campaign finance] report is so unusual in the context of other mayors and other elected officials,” said Daniel Anderson, a consultant on District 4 candidate Natalie Gee’s campaign. “The opposition research stands out as uniquely strange.”
Charles Lutvak, the mayor’s City Hall spokesperson, deferred comment to Lurie’s political consultants.
Max Szabo, a communications consultant who is on Lurie’s private payroll, declined to share details of how the mayor’s team utilizes VR Research.
“Research,” Szabo said about the use of the company. “I don’t want to go beyond that.”
In a statement provided by Szabo, Lurie said, “My entire team shares an unwavering commitment to San Francisco’s success. When I ran for mayor, I promised to listen to perspectives from outside of City Hall, and as mayor, that’s how I’m governing.”
Mike Rice, cofounder of VR Research, did not respond to a request for comment.
The firm keeps a low online profile. In April, The Oaklandside reported (opens in new tab) that VR Research had produced an 80-page report on Oakland mayoral candidate Barbara Lee that included political donations she had received from a family involved in a federal corruption scandal. VR Research has clients outside the Bay Area, including in Maine (opens in new tab), where environmental advocates raised concerns in 2020 about a power company’s $46,800 payment to the firm.
Lurie has retained the services of VR Research, an opposition research firm based in Oakland and Washington, D.C. | Source: Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/The Standard
Opposition researchers are sometimes hired to conduct vetting of potential political candidates. A lack of due diligence caused trouble for Lurie in his first year; particularly after he appointed Isabella “Beya” Alcaraz as supervisor in November, unaware that she faced allegations of improprieties during her previous job as a pet store owner. The mayor’s team then hired an unnamed company to look into new candidates for the supervisor role, though it’s unclear if it was VR Research.
Lurie’s political battles this year include a union-led proposed CEO tax that his moderate coalition says would slow the city’s economic recovery. It’s possible VR Research may be employed to dig into proponents of that and other efforts that run afoul of the mayor’s agenda, sources said.
Other expenses by Lurie in 2025 included $190,000 to Szabo, his spokesperson during the 2024 campaign; $100,000 to speech writer Jennifer Pitts, who worked with Lurie before he became mayor; $160,000 to strategist Tyler Law; and $90,000 to Lis Smith, who helps get Lurie national media attention and previously worked on Pete Buttigieg’s 2020 presidential campaign.
