Families for an Affordable San Francisco, an Independent Expenditure PAC supporting Scott Wiener’s congressional bid, was the primary employer for a number of staffers who also work on Wiener’s official campaign—something that would have been illegal until recently and is still in a shady political arena, experts say.
Under federal law, independent expenditure super PACs are explicitly prohibited from coordinating with campaigns. That’s because IEs can take unlimited money, and contributions to a candidate’s campaign committee are limited.
The Federal Elections Commission in 2024 issued an advisory saying that IEs and candidates can share fundraising for canvassers. That ruling is the subject of an ongoing lawsuit.
In several cases, Federal Elections Commission records show, staffers have been paid during the same period by both the Wiener for Congress Campaign and Families for Affordable San Francisco.
A former staffer, who worked briefly for the Wiener campaign, shared documents exclusively with 48hills that identify the super PAC as their employer. They noted that a similarly structured employment agreement, with Families as the employer, was circulated “to about 12 people.” Given that the Scott Wiener for Congress 2026 runs Wiener’s campaign, the former staffer expected that committee to be their employer.
“Not only have I never seen this before, but I have only seen it that campaigns and independent expenditures have zero communication, zero coordination,” they said in an exclusive interview with 48hills.
The former staffer, who shared details on the condition of anonymity, said that when they received the employment agreement that listed Families for an Affordable San Francisco as the primary employer, they flagged the concerns to higher ups. They got no response from them and chose to leave the campaign because of the legal concerns.
“I was put off by seeing Families for an Affordable San Francisco. I’ve worked on campaigns for the last couple of years … in my experience there has been an impenetrable firewall between campaign committees and independent expenditures. You would be hard pressed to find any campaign staffer in the country that doesn’t know that,” they said.
Families for an Affordable San Francisco has dispersed more than $677,000 in support of Wiener’s congressional bid. Longtime Wiener consultant Todd David is the super PAC’s treasurer. Among the disbursements are several payments to five staffers working for both the campaign committee and the super PAC.
The FEC ruling— spurred by a petition from now deceased Senator Lindsey Graham’s committee — opened the door to coordination between campaigns and IEs—on a limited basis. That said, the ruling and federal election law explicitly bars super PACs from coordinating with “any candidate or their campaign or political party” or engaging in “coordinated communication.”
Maranda Saling, founder of the political consulting firm Bellflower Communications, received more than $62,000 from Families for an Affordable SF. Her Facebook lists her as the organizing director for the Scott Wiener for Congress 2026 campaign from 2025 to the present.
Jupiter Peraza, a community liaison for the Mayor’s Office, was paid by the Wiener campaign for “gross wages” nine times between November 2025 and March of this year, with payments ranging from $750 to $1,500. Peraza, whose LinkedIn indicates she was a finance associate for Wiener’s campaign during that period, was also paid more than $12,000 for “salary” by Wiener’s super PAC during the same period.
Noah Ventosa was paid three installments of $3,100 for “gross wages” from the Scott Wiener for Congress campaign over a month period starting on Dec. 15 of last year. Fourteen days after receiving his last payment from Wiener’s campaign committee, Ventosa received his first $3,100 payment from Families for “salary.” He has been listed as the Field Director for Wiener’s congressional campaign since last November.
Olivia Reynolds, listed as an organizer for Wiener’s campaign since this January, received 11 payments of at least $2,750 from Families during the period she’s been organizing for the campaign.
Likewise, Matthew Roos was a full-time organizer for Wiener’s congressional campaign for the first three months of this year and collected five payments, totaling more than $15,000, marked as “salary” from Families for an Affordable San Francisco during that same period.
David, the longtime Wiener ally, was paid more than $21,000 by the Scott Wiener for Congress committee since last November for “canvassing consulting.” He was paid more than $62,000 by Families over the same period, mostly for the same reason.
Jim Sutton, a lawyer who is an expert on election law, told us that the situation is, at the very least, questionable.
“Coordination means: Is insider information about the candidate and how the campaign is being run, is that going to the super PAC? Or is insider information about what kind of ads the super PAC is running that goes to the candidate? That’s illegal coordination,” Sutton said. He noted that paying staffers to drop campaign flyers likely could count as insider information because they would know “where they’re dropping literature, when they’re dropping literature. That would be inside information.”
“The PAC is disclosing hundreds of thousands of dollars on canvassing but they’re not saying who the canvassing is for,” Sutton said. “If the canvassing is for Scott Wiener and they are employing people that Scott Wiener is also employing, that does raise the possibility of a coordination problem.”
None of the staffers responded to our attempts to reach them for comment. Neither the Wiener campaign nor the super PAC responded.
Full disclosure: Tim Redmond, the editor of 48hills, worked on this story. His independent adult daughter works on the Connie Chan for Congress campaign.
