Clint Reilly

Clinton Thomas Reilly (January 13, 1947 – July 18, 2026) was an American political consultant who managed the campaigns of many prominent Californian politicians, predominantly Democrats, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein. In addition to a mayor of San Francisco, he also helped elect the only Republican mayor of Los Angeles since 1961.

Later in life, Reilly became a San Francisco-based real estate investor whose holdings included the Merchants Exchange Building and was also the owner of the San Francisco Examiner.

Early life and education Clint Reilly was born in Oakland on January 13, 1947, and had nine younger siblings. His father, Joseph Reilly, worked as a milkman; He participated in politics at an early age, winning the class presidency in fifth grade with his oldest sister, Jill, creating his campaign slogan, "Take a hint, vote for Clint". After she died of cancer, he decided to become a Catholic priest; the family moved to San Leandro and he enrolled as a boarder at St. Joseph's Seminary in Mountain View. He earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy from St. Patrick's Seminary in Menlo Park, where he became involved in social justice work. He worked for Planned Parenthood, He decided that politics offered the best route to helping people, and began consulting on campaigns.

He became known for his management of Supervisor Quentin Kopp's 1979 campaign to unseat future senator Dianne Feinstein, then the interim mayor of San Francisco following the assassination of George Moscone. Although Kopp was defeated, the campaign brought Reilly publicity.

In 1982, Reilly made his first statewide foray at the helm of Bill Honig's campaign for State Superintendent of Public Instruction, following that up with Honig's reelection in 1986. He managed Nancy Pelosi's successful first campaign for the U.S. Congress in 1987 under the slogan "A Voice That Will Be Heard", overseeing more than $1 million in spending and a get-out-the-vote operation.

California has a tradition of both statewide and local ballot propositions. Reilly worked, waiving his fees, on successfully passing 1986's Proposition M, which limited annual office construction in San Francisco and was opposed by both then-Mayor Feinstein and future mayor Willie Brown. Reilly managed insurers' campaigns in favor of Propositions 104 and 106.

In 1989, Feinstein ran for governor; Feinstein and Reilly fell out publicly. On August 21, 1989, Reilly resigned from the campaign in a faxed press release, saying that Feinstein lacked the necessary "fire in the belly"; Feinstein went on to lose to then-incumbent Senator Pete Wilson. Riordan won the election and became the first Republican mayor of Los Angeles in 36 years.

Meanwhile, State Treasurer Kathleen Brown and Feinstein, now a senator, had staffed up already for the 1994 statewide election; they would lead the Democratic ticket for governor and senator, respectively. So he met with an aide to Pete Wilson, the future Republican victor of the 1994 California gubernatorial election, and Rep. Michael Huffington, who would challenge Feinstein for her Senate seat, but those efforts did not bear fruit, and Reilly joined Brown's campaign in March 1993. The following year, he managed Jordan's mayoral re-election bid against Willie Brown, who until that June had been Speaker of the State Assembly; that campaign also failed.

As a political consultant, Reilly garnered a reputation for being highly capable, expensive, and also hard-nosed, even a little paranoid. Riordan said, "The guy's a genius ... He's weird. But he's a genius." The parties reached a settlement, He denied the claims while admitting to involvement in "an incident of domestic violence", and said that he had undergone "intense counseling" after it.

Real estate In 1992, Reilly became a landlord with the purchase of an office building on Pacific Avenue in North Beach. He later bought a number of office buildings in downtown San Francisco and the Little Fox Theatre on Pacific Avenue, some of which he refinanced or sold decades later in the mid-2020s.

He drew on his wealth and skills to try to influence San Francisco politics on his own initiative. In the 1980s, he led the campaign against Willie Brown's proposed "stadium-mall" for the San Francisco 49ers; he was unsuccessful, but the project was canceled after team owner Eddie DeBartolo pled guilty to bribery. Through campaign contributions, he successfully replaced several San Francisco Supervisors loyal to Mayor Brown in the 2020 election. Clint Reilly Communications, together with his real estate and hospitality ventures, now operates under the umbrella of the Clint Reilly Organization. Clint Reilly hosted numerous charitable events at the Julia Morgan Ballroom in the Merchants Exchange Building. In 2008 he founded Bay Scholars, a nonprofit providing scholarships to private college prep schools for lower-income students; In 2025–26, it gave more than $16 million in aid to 508 students. and in 2023 by the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art at the University of California, Davis, the Reillys donated a million dollars to the museum in 2020 to create an art purchase fund. Together they founded the Janet and Clint Reilly Family Foundation, and they were jointly honored by the University of San Francisco in 2022. Janet Reilly co-founded Clinic by the Bay, which is run by Volunteers in Medicine and serves people without health insurance, and serves on the University of California Board of Regents.

Reilly admitted to having been a heavy drinker in the 1970s; he was arrested in 1979 on charges of drunk driving and resisting arrest. In 1999, he said he had quit alcohol in 1981 and sought counseling. of "chronic lung disease"; he was 79.

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