With public safety top of mind for San Francisco voters, the controversial police union has emerged as a sought-after endorsement for some moderates looking to burnish their crime-fighting bona fides.
The San Francisco Police Officers Association, which represents rank-and-file law enforcement officers, has been giving out political endorsements this year and spent more than $100,000 during the March election in support of its preferred local candidates and ballot measures, according to finance disclosures.
Some of that spending appears to have paid off. Candidates and ballot measures related to public safety and police have prevailed in recent elections, and two moderate frontrunners in the November mayoral races are actively competing for the union’s endorsement.
“I’m very much interested, for sure,” Mayor London Breed said Tuesday in Golden Gate Park during a National Night Out event, which aims to promote engagement between police and communities.
Breed spent the evening hopping around National Night Out events across the city, chatting up law enforcement officers, snapping photos with locals and strengthening her police-friendly image.
Breed had closer ties with the SFPOA early in her career, but the union did not endorse her first mayoral bid in 2018 because of her advocacy for police reform. Now, she said, things have changed.
“I think a lot of it has to do with [the union’s] leadership,” Breed said of SFPOA President Tracy McCray. “She’s really turned things around a lot.”
Breed praised McCray’s deep ties in the community, saying she is a respected member of the department who serves as “a bridge builder.”
After the 2020 murder of George Floyd, Breed briefly joining the call to defund the police. In the years since, as concerns about public safety came to the forefront, Breed has taken more pro-police positions and worked to increase the department’s budget.
McCray couldn’t be reached for comment but wrote in a defiant June blog post that the SFPOA had been approached for endorsements by mayoral candidates — a reversal from its political standing in 2020. The union hasn’t made any decision on who it will endorse for mayor.
“Bluntly put, no one came knocking at our door for an endorsement back in 2020 or even before that time,” McCray wrote in June. “Some in this city hated our guts.”
McCray emphasized that she won’t be “handing out those endorsements like candy at Halloween time,” and the decision-making process should be a thoughtful and measured review of all candidates.
Mark Farrell, who is running against Breed and campaigning on public safety issues, is also seeking the police union’s support.
“I am proud to have been endorsed by the POA in all my campaigns for elected office,” Farrell said in a statement. “We have been building significant support among the rank and file and are actively working to earn the POA’s endorsement.”
However, Farrell has had a tumultuous relationship with the union. It supported him for supervisor in 2014 but blasted him during contract negotiations when he was interim mayor in 2018.
Daniel Lurie, another moderate candidate for mayor, has no apparent ties with the SFPOA but is believed to be working on getting a ranked-choice endorsement.
“Daniel looks forward to working with the POA to turn around the morale and staffing crisis created by Mayors Breed and Farrell,” his campaign said in a statement.
Board President Aaron Peskin, a progressive mayoral candidate who is unlikely to receive the SFPOA’s support, expressed a surprisingly friendly attitude toward the union.
Peskin said he supports culturally and linguistically sensitive community policing and believes that holding police accountable is good for public safety and for officers themselves.
“If my work on public safety resonates with the members of the POA,” Peskin said, “we would welcome their endorsement.”
Back with money
In 2019, after spending almost $700,000 against the progressive Chesa Boudin, who went on to be elected as San Francisco district attorney, the police union went quiet and stayed out of local political races. But in the past 10 months, its political spending has ramped up.
According to state filings, the SFPOA’s political campaign committee donated $50,000 to support Proposition E, a March ballot measure intended to empower the police, which was passed by voters. It also spent $45,000 to support two tough-on-crime San Francisco Superior Court candidates, who both lost to incumbent judges.
Other donations included $10,000 for Marjan Philhour’s Democratic County Central Committee campaign and $500 for her Board of Supervisors race.
Philhour, who’s running to unseat Supervisor Connie Chan in the Richmond, has noticed the change in the political tide as the SFPOA gains popularity but argued that it’s because the progressive agenda on policing is failing.
“What we are seeing is a collective realization that getting back to core city services is more important than the out-of-touch virtue signaling,” Philhour said in a statement.
However, Chan, a progressive, is largely dismissive of the police union’s endorsement.
“Connie Chan is focused on doing what’s best for [her district], including pushing the Breed administration for more public safety and prevention resources,” her campaign said in a statement. “She’ll keep doing that regardless of any political endorsements because it’s the right thing to do.”