Exposing the Phoenix Project: How San Francisco's Anti-Housing Crusaders Brought Their Nonsense to Oakland
The Phoenix Project brands itself as a watchdog group, but its actions tell a much different story. From ethical red flags to hyper-editorialized smears against housing advocates.
As a follow-up to my post yesterday, I started to dig into who exactly is bringing the SF political drama to the East Bay. Who is this Phoenix Project that created this one-sided anti-housing “astroturfing” infographic?
This Phoenix Project meticulously details funds flowing to groups opposing candidates they seemingly favor, like Carroll Fife and Nikki Fortunato Bas. Still, it entirely overlooks the substantial financial support that helped elect these candidates in their selective “astroturfing” map.
Union Money and Mega-Donors: The Data They Missed
Take Carroll Fife as an example (I’m not at all personally opposed to Carrol Fife but this is illustrative). Although Phoenix Project paints her as a victim of shadowy “dark money,” the reality is that Fife’s campaign was heavily bolstered by union-sponsored PACs.
Data from official FPPC filings show that nearly $475,000 flowed from local labor organizations into a committee created specifically to support Fife’s re-election. (The Oaklandside) These aren’t nefarious, secret contributions—they’re openly reported and sourced from powerful unions that believe more affordable housing and tenant protections are essential.
Similarly, for Nikki Fortunato Bas (another candidate I have no issue with), her campaign raised over $450,000 in 2024 alone. A significant portion of that funding came from mega-donors and union-backed PACs. For instance, Bas received around $20,000 from the Alameda Labor Council’s “Unity” PAC and similar sums from the Building Trades Council. Moreover, well-known progressive benefactors like Quinn Delaney and Wayne Jordan contributed sizable donations. These funds, which Phoenix Project conveniently leaves off its map, underscore that Bas’s success wasn’t a grassroots fluke—it was supported by a robust network of labor and ideological allies.
For the two recall efforts (and for the record I was personally publically against both), this chart blaring leaves off the money that went into the campaigns against the recall. Over 60% of anti-recall funding for Pam Price came from outside Alameda County, according to campaign finance data. Major national PACs poured money into that race.
Now even in the current Oakland mayoral race, former Rep. Barbara Lee, a candidate seemingly favored by the Phoenix Project supporters, has amassed significant financial backing. Recent reports indicate that Lee's campaign has raised approximately $694,000, with major contributions from city unions, building trades, and corporations like PG&E. (SF Chronical) While these contributions are legally disclosed, the broader network of political action committees (PACs) and nonprofit organizations supporting her may not fully reveal their donor bases, raising concerns about transparency. And maybe that race is too recent for them to capture; they are trying to capture her presumed front-running competitor, Lauren Taylor, and his affiliated group.
Who’s Behind the Curtain?
The Phoenix Project was founded in early 2024 by a small clique of San Francisco progressive operatives — and yes, NIMBYs — with long histories of fighting pro-housing legislation. The leadership is stacked with DSA-adjacent and SF DCCC insiders:
Julie Pitta, President — Fired as a local journalist for tearing down a moderate candidate’s campaign sign of moderate candidate Marjan Philhour — an action the paper called "unethical" and "unacceptable for a journalist" (SF Standard). Instead of backing off, Pitta doubled down, launching the Phoenix Project as a platform to continue her fight against SF’s moderate and left of center faction.
Jeremy Mack, Executive Director — Former staffer to Supervisor Dean Preston, one of the city's most vocal opponents of state housing reforms and a longtime antagonist of Senator Scott Wiener. Mack’s political instincts were forged inside Preston’s combative office, which regularly attacked pro-housing legislation like SB50 and SB9 (SF Standard).
Anabel Ibanez, Vice President — Former SF DCCC officer, known for weaponizing party rules to block moderate Democrats. She was among the progressives who attempted to block the chartering of a moderate parents' club by labeling them the "Moms for Liberty of San Francisco" — a baseless smear that fell apart under scrutiny (SF Chronicle).
The Phoenix Project’s leadership is composed almost entirely of partisan activists from SF’s left/anti-housing aligned wing – people deeply involved in the local Democratic Party wars and hostile to pro-housing YIMBY activists.
This is not a coalition of neutral observers — it's a “who' s who” of San Francisco's anti-growth political machine disguised as a public interest group.
The Anti-YIMBY Agenda
From day one, the Phoenix Project has pushed a narrative that all pro-housing organizations are tools of tech billionaires. They smear YIMBY groups, reformers, and even labor unions that support housing construction. In their world:
Tenant unions = Good
Unions that build housing = Bad
Public money for legacy nonprofits = Pure
Private donations to any moderate candidate = Sinister Corruption
Their framing is entirely one-sided. While real concerns about big money exist, Phoenix only sees "dark money" when it helps people they don’t like. They are a partisan opposition research team pretending to be journalists.
In social media posts and interviews, Phoenix leadership routinely dismisses YIMBY Action and housing groups like SPUR and GrowSF as “fake grassroots” funded by oligarchs. They ignore the fact that these groups publicly disclose their donors and operate within campaign finance law. In contrast, Phoenix Project is a 501(c)(4) and has refused to disclose its own donors — the very definition of dark money.
They aren’t against dark money — they’re against your dark money.
From SF Grudges to Oakland Smears
This Phoenix Project "Oakland Astroturf Map" is the clearest example yet of their agenda: taking SF's political feuds and exporting them across the Bay.
They accuse pro-housing Oakland PACs of being fronts for billionaires while ignoring massive labor and nonprofit spending for their preferred candidates and initiatives.
They link Oakland candidates to SF political groups like the SF DCCC or Senator Scott Wiener (who doesn’t even represent Oakland! but somehow he needs to be on here?)
They draw lines from unions, nonprofits, and housing orgs based on the flimsiest of associations — someone once served on a board together? (Scandal!) Some of these are all just leaf nodes that aren’t outwardly connected to anything but they seemingly just want to make a connection in this smear campaign.
This isn’t watchdog journalism - it’s guilt by association at its laziest.
It’s like if you once shared a consultant or served on a board together then you’re on the map. Even groups like the Housing Action Coalition, which works across the entire region, were smeared as shady simply for endorsing housing-focused candidates.
The Real Agenda: Selective Outrage and Partisan Smears
Phoenix Project claims to oppose dark money in politics. But their outrage is deeply selective. They ignore millions spent by labor PACs and other foundations that bankroll their allies.
From watching who shared early versions of the map coming into shared spaces of local political groups from well-known anti-growth advocates, many of whom have faced ethics complaints and campaign finance issues and who have ran on a staunch anti-YIMBY platform, it’s clear this is not grassroots research — it’s an insider oppo.
What Real Transparency Looks Like
Money in politics is a problem. But a real transparency effort would:
Track all PACs — not just the ones they disagree with.
Call out hypocrisy across the spectrum — including unions and left-leaning mega-donors too.
Avoid using visual propaganda to imply wrongdoing where there is none.
If this Phoenix Project really cared about transparency, they’d disclose their own donors as they said they would. And they’d admit their maps are editorial. And they’d stop pretending that normal campaign activities — like mailers, texting, or endorsements — are evidence of corruption..
The Phoenix Project isn’t cleaning up politics. It’s repackaging San Francisco’s feux progressive feuds and dragging them into East Bay elections. They aren’t truth-tellers — they’re operatives with grudges, repackaging old beefs as new scandals.
If we want real political reform, we need real transparency. Not weaponized infographics. Not selectively edited PDFs. And definitely not another political machine pretending it’s journalism.
How about instead, lets work to get money out of politics completely. End independent expenditure PACs that can spend ridiculous amounts of money on all sides. It’s hurting Democracy.