This article is from Power Play, a twice-weekly newsletter rounding up the latest City Hall and local politics gossip. To sign up, visit The Standard’s newsletter page.

Billionaire investor Tom Steyer has vastly outspent every opponent in the 2026 race for California governor, pouring $120 million of his own cash into his campaign.

Now one of the state’s most powerful and politically connected corporations is trying to give him a run for his money … just as Steyer is seeing a boost in the polls post-Eric Swalwell scandal. 

Pacific Gas & Electric has injected close to $10 million into an anti-Steyer PAC called “Californians for Resilient and Affordable Energy,” according to new campaign finance disclosures. The PAC is also supported by the California Electric Utility Industry Labor Management Cooperation Committee and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1245, which represents around 30,000 utility workers in California and Nevada. 

Though PG&E’s millions are helping the effort behind ads that rip Steyer for his Proposition 13 reforms and wealthy background, you’d have to have a quick eye to realize the utility company is somehow connected.

That’s because Californians for Resilient and Affordable Energy is actually taking its money and putting it into another anti-Steyer PAC, California Is Not for Sale, the group running the ads. California Is Not for Sale is supported by the real estate and construction industry. The disclosure at the end of the ads is a block of text, with the utility nestled in as one of its top funders.

So why is PG&E going after Steyer? 

If he becomes governor, Steyer plans to introduce electricity reforms that could end up being a threat to the company and other investor-owned utilities. Steyer has promised (opens in new tab) to appoint people to the California Public Utilities Commission who are critical of utility profits and to pull back on expensive infrastructure projects, among other changes. 

The anti-Steyer blitz does not rip the candidate for his proposals to “smash the utility monopolies.” Instead, one ad (opens in new tab) skewers the candidate for his Prop. 13 reform proposal, which would increase commercial property taxes. “What’s billionaire Tom Steyer’s plan to make California more affordable? Higher property taxes,” a voice says before a record scratch. “Wait, what? That’s right … of course, billionaire Steyer doesn’t have to worry about the cost of things like groceries, electricity, or property taxes.” (Steyer’s team says his reforms would not touch residential properties.)

For his part, Steyer has created cheeky videos (opens in new tab) about PG&E, including one on Valentine’s Day that poked fun at CEO Patti Poppe’s message of “leading with love (opens in new tab).” “Let’s be clear, a monopoly can’t love you,” Steyer says in the video as he stands in front of the substation that caught fire in December, leading to 130,000 PG&E customers losing power. “A monopoly is an abusive relationship.” In another video, titled “Busting Utility Monopolies (opens in new tab),” he ambitiously promises to cut energy costs by 25%.

PG&E deferred comment to California Is Not for Sale, which said in a statement, “The only ‘big money interest’ in this race is Tom Steyer.”

— Gabe Greschler

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DEAD BILL: If PG&E is able to squelch Steyer’s momentum, it won’t be their only win this year.

On Tuesday, state Sen. Scott Wiener’s SB 875 — a bill that would give cities more power to separate from their utility company by winnowing the role of the California Public Utilities Commission — failed to pass out of the Senate committee on energy, utilities, and communications. The legislation faced stiff opposition from PG&E and other powerful private utilities, the Bay Area Council, and the California Chamber of Commerce.

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Opponents claimed that the bill would be disastrous for the region’s utility jobs. Scott Wetch of the California Coalition of Utility Employees said at the hearing that 1,500 jobs could be lost if San Francisco turns to public power, adding that members’ pensions would be wrecked. 

“At a time when California should be strengthening the grid and protecting affordability, SB 875 instead introduces cost-shifts, uncertainty, and weakened oversight,” said Joshua Levenberg, an attorney for PG&E.

And in one last PG&E-related piece of news: The city’s Public Utilities Commission submitted (opens in new tab) a cost estimate Monday of how much San Francisco would need to take over the utility company’s equipment in a switch to public power. The total: $3.4 billion — about a billion more than what the city offered in 2019. PG&E told NBC Bay Area (opens in new tab) its assets are “not for sale.”

Considering the budget situation, maybe the city can ask Steyer to pitch in?

— G.G.

DC DUO: In the race to replace Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi in Congress, one person has been conspicuously missing — Pelosi herself.

Well, congressional candidate and Supervisor Connie Chan must be smiling widely, as Pelosi made an appearance at the candidate's Capitol Hill fundraiser Wednesday night, insiders told Power Play.

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While Politico did just spot (opens in new tab) Chan hopping out of Pelosi's office — Chan is in D.C. for a building trades conference — the San Francisco legend's hobnobbing amidst funders gnoshing on vegetable dumplings may give Chan's coffers a hopeful bump. Her fundraising lagged behind opponents Wiener and Saikat Chakrabarti, the latter of whom has self-funded to the tune of nearly $5 million. There were dozens of attendees at the fundraiser hosted by Sen. Adam Schiff, Reps. Grace Meng and Judy Chu, as well as a smattering of groups, including the Asian American Action Fund and a national Teamsters PAC.

— Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez

A LITTLE SUMTHIN SUMTHIN: For contractors doing business with the city, donating money to candidates whose office would deal with said contractor is an ethical nope. San Francisco bars the practice, as it reeks of seeking undue influence. But that doesn’t stop folks from trying: A San Francisco Ethics Commission audit presented this month (opens in new tab) found a preliminary count of roughly 200 restricted donors giving to 2024 campaigns.

The presentation came with a caveat: The findings aren’t final. Ethics Commission staff still needs to comb through the data to verify that the process — which looked at lists of campaign donors and prohibited contractors — didn’t mistakenly match people with identical names. 

One takeaway from the early data: The mayor’s race was the main focus of prohibited contractor donations. Shocker. While most of the prohibited donations went to former Mayor London Breed (with a count of 58), Mark Farrell, Aaron Peskin, and Mayor Daniel Lurie all netted between 35 and 38. 

While the donors and politician recipients are culled from public data, naming individual donors would be problematic, considering the draft nature of the findings. Broadly, however, Lurie’s prohibited donations run the gamut from rag-tag nonprofit healthcare contractors to deep-pocketed developers.

When the list is verified, don’t expect to see any big fines levied against candidates for accepting the money. All they’ve got to do is give it back.

— J. F. R.

MONEY HERE, MONEY THERE: For years, people running for the Board of Supervisors and the local Democratic Party board have enjoyed a Caldecott Tunnel-sized loophole (opens in new tab) in campaign finance law: While supervisor candidates are limited to $500 donations per person, Democratic Party candidates can rake in far larger amounts, often in the thousands. 

Much hay has been made about the alleged “slush fund (opens in new tab),” which slowly faded from use until just this week. Insiders spotted the Police Officers Association donating an eyebrow-raising $2,500 to Supervisor Matt Dorsey’s 2024 Democratic Party campaign committee (opens in new tab). The race is long over — why do you need campaign donations? 

Dorsey said he used the campaign bank account for permitted “office-holder” purposes. Before the police union donations, Dorsey’s Democratic Party campaign funds paid for a poll to take the electorate’s temperature on his signature drug-free supportive housing measure (opens in new tab). He plans to use the new donation to buy tickets for the Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ Democratic Club’s annual Pride breakfast (opens in new tab) in June. 

Coming up through the city attorney’s office “makes you very careful about dotting i's and crossing t's,” Dorsey said. 

— J.F.R.

FULL OF ENERGY: Lurie’s first international trip to Asia is wrapping up after stops in Shanghai and Seoul to promote tourism, arts, and cultural exchange.

Chinese-language media have largely portrayed him positively, highlighting his social-media savvy and his slogan “Let’s go, San Francisco.”

Coverage also emphasized his packed schedule and high energy as he rushed between events across Shanghai. One video (opens in new tab) showed the mayor running up the stairs at the Shanghai Grand Opera House while his communications director Han Zou and a security detail struggled to keep up. “I’m a little out of breath,” the mayor said in an Instagram post (opens in new tab) afterward.

Another article noted (opens in new tab) his surprise at Shanghai’s vibrant nightlife. Some Chinese media outlets apparently received a note from the mayor’s office describing (opens in new tab) Lurie as a “moderate Democrat” who supports “cracking down on crime and improving public safety,” with an approval rating of 70% (opens in new tab).

In Korea, Lurie also toured the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art and the Global Business Complex site, where San Francisco’s Exploratorium is partnering with Hyundai Motor Group to open a new hands-on science museum. He will travel to Virginia for a conference after the Asia trip and is scheduled to return to San Francisco on Saturday.

— Han Li