Hey there, Teddy here.

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A new column comes your way below the fold, but first, a few pieces of candy from around town:

• San Francisco venture capitalist and Democratic power broker Ron Conway is officially supporting the recall of the city’s progressive D.A., Chesa Boudin, according to a confidential email he sent to associates a few months back that was passed my way. “Like me, I know you have deeply lamented the direction of San Francisco, from crime, to the conditions of the streets, to the deteriorating situation with the City's public schools,” he wrote around the holidays, an email first reported by the Chronicle. “Chesa Boudin's failure as District Attorney has made San Francisco a more dangerous place to live and work.” Conway’s attention is no longer as squared on local issues as it was a decade ago, but he remains a powerful voice for a tech community that often looks to him for guidance. Conway is asking his network to support the recall and a super PAC, Neighbors for a Better San Francisco, that is spending big against Chesa.

• Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff is coming to the Bay Area for a pair of Democratic National Committee fundraisers, according to invites I’ve seen. The hosts for the April 21 events are a mix of old and new money. The billionaire Swig family is stewarding the festivities in San Francisco, while David Rusenko—the founder of Square-owned Weebly, and someone who is increasingly engaging in Democratic politics—and his wife have dibs across the bay in Larkspur.

• Peter Thiel and allied operatives are indeed helping to seed a new G.O.P. donor group called the Rockbridge Network, as first reported by the Times. But I’d caution that, from folks I talk with, this is still a pretty nascent, aspirational effort—plus, a $30 million fundraising goal is relatively small, all things considered. This ain’t the Koch network, at least not yet. Meanwhile, time is running out for some of the Republican candidates Thiel has sponsored—the Senate primary for J.D. Vance in Ohio is in just three weeks, and Vance remains mired in the middle of the pack. Does he have another Thiel check coming?

• Speaking of big political money, readers know I am obsessed with the political machinations of Sam Bankman-Fried, the trenta-billionaire crypto king who is remaking Democratic and pandemic politics in his image. A first test—can he buy a congressional seat for a heretofore totally unknown, effective-altruist buddy? This story may not be on your radar, but the super PAC run by one of S.B.F.’s top political advisers (and funded heavily by S.B.F. himself) has spent a staggering $6 million on behalf of Carrick Flynn, an otherwise unknown newcomer running for Congress in Oregon. So much so that Democratic competitors are now going after S.B.F. by saying, among other things, “a tax-dodging billionaire in the Bahamas has no place in Oregon politics.” Welcome to primary politics, Sam!

The arrival on the political scene of the likes of Reid Hoffman, Laurene Powell Jobs, Melinda French Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and most recently, MacKenzie Scott, has changed the game. This crew, along with a dozen other liberal billionaires, have ideological instincts that skew more to the Democracy Alliance than the Chamber of Commerce. And they have established their own rival philanthropic program that in some ways outpaces the right. Conservatives may still love the rich in principle, but in practice they now believe that they are losing the money wars. Among the ten wealthiest people in America today, all but one made their fortune in Silicon Valley, and almost all of them are Democrats. For some on the right, this new cohort represents an almost existential threat: A financial-political-cultural cabal that melds do-gooder charity with D.E.I. activism to advance a pro-immigration, pro-gay rights, pro-woke political agenda under the guise of nonpartisanship...