Progressive San Francisco Supervisor Jane Kim’s come-from-behind surge in the state Senate primary was boosted, in part, by a last-minute, $40,000 ad campaign paid for by a political action committee whose key contributor was Pacific Gas and Electric Co.

And how’s this for a coincidence? Kim’s chief political consultant in the Senate race, Storefront Political Media founder Eric Jaye, is also a paid adviser to PG&E on political matters — as is Joe Zago, spokesman for the Golden State Leadership, the independent expenditure committee that paid for the Kim ad mailings.

Independent expenditure committees aren’t subject to the same donor or spending limits as individual candidates’ campaigns. There is one big rule, however: By law, such committees cannot coordinate their activities — or their spending — with a candidate or a candidate’s campaign staff.

Kim nosed ahead of her main rival in the June 7 primary, fellow Supervisor Scott Wiener, just this week as the city continued counting provisional ballots. Her strong showing was a big surprise — and a definite momentum boost going into the November general election rematch with Wiener.

Kim benefited in the final weeks of the primary campaign from a mass mailing effort by the Golden State Leadership Fund PAC, whose major contributor in the June election cycle was PG&E.

The effort consisted of a pair of ads aimed in part at Asian American voters, one of which said, “This daughter of immigrants will fight for you in Sacramento.”

As is common with PAC campaigns, the donors’ names were nowhere to be found in the mailers.

For years, San Francisco’s progressives have viewed PG&E as a corporate pariah. Long before the 2010 explosion of one of the utility’s gas lines in San Bruno killed eight people, progressives and the utility were engaged in hand-to-hand combat over such issues as public power and setting up a municipal, green energy program independent of PG&E.

Jaye’s political consulting for PG&E included working against a 2008 city measure that would have allowed San Francisco to set up a clean-energy program to compete with the company. The measure failed, but the city subsequently set up a similar program.

Jaye told us that he never talked with PG&E about backing his client Kim in the primary. “Any suggestion to the contrary is simply not true,” he said.

Kim did not return our calls for comment.

PG&E made two donations to the Golden State Leadership PAC in December, totaling $39,675, state finance records show. That accounted for about 80 percent of the group’s funding for the June election cycle.

Zago, the PAC spokesman and adviser to the Kim campaign, said Golden State has raised money from lots of other business and labor groups at other times. He said the fact that Golden State’s coffers were flush with PG&E money at the time the PAC funded an independent campaign on Kim’s behalf was a coincidence.

“The PAC makes that decision on its own,” Zago said.

PG&E said, “We simply did not, and cannot, coordinate or direct any contribution.”

Oddly enough, it was Kim who first raised the issue of corporate-backed PACs being involved in the state Senate race, when she blasted Wiener for having been helped by more than $300,000 in independent spending by corporate interests such as Chevron, Airbnb and statewide labor and trade organizations.

In an online posting, the Kim campaign laid out how money from big players had made its way to help Wiener through various political action committees.

One of those PACs was California for Jobs and a Strong Economy, which cut big checks to Equality California, a gay PAC that helped Wiener.

Turns out there’s a connection on Wiener’s side, too: His chief fundraiser for the state Senate campaign, the McKinley Pillows firm in Sacramento, also raises money for California for Jobs and a Strong Economy.

Wiener declined to comment, referring comment to his campaign manager, Maggie Muir.

“McKinley Pillows is a fundraising firm, not a campaign strategy firm,” Muir said. “The firm helps us and many other candidates with fundraising, but has no input into strategy decisions.

“Similarly, McKinley Pillows raises money for California for Jobs and a Strong Economy but has no participation whatsoever in that group's strategic decisions,” she said.

Maybe, but it is interesting how all these coincidences happen.

Stalled: Swing state Ohio is going to beat out true blue San Francisco this election year in a bid to become a multimillion-dollar testing ground for driverless cars and other cutting-edge transportation technology.

San Francisco was among seven cities selected as finalists by the U.S. Department of Transportation for a $50 million Smart City Challenge Grant to study technology that could change the way we get around town. As part of San Francisco’s bid, 70 companies offered to put up $150 million worth of cars and other in-kind donations.

Alas, now comes word that Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx will announce the winner will be Columbus, Ohio.

Probably has nothing to do with the fact that Ohio is crucial to Democrat Hillary Clinton’s presidential aspirations in November.

“First the NBA championship, now the Smart City Challenge,” Deirdre Hussey, spokeswoman for Mayor Ed Lee, said when we told her of the feds’ decision. “Ohio has something going on.”

San Francisco Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross appear Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KPIX TV morning and evening news. He can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call (415) 777-8815, or email matierandross@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @matierandross