A major moderate-leaning political group has given Mayor London Breed’s reelection bid its seal of approval — but signaled even more enthusiastic support for her more conservative challenger Mark Farrell.
Releasing its endorsements Tuesday, GrowSF recommended that voters consider Breed, former interim mayor Farrell, and nonprofit founder Daniel Lurie as their top three choices in any order under the city’s ranked-choice voting system. Founded by former tech workers in 2020, Grow SF has built a massive fundraising and campaigning network.
“The differences between them are relatively small, which means that a one-size-fits-all recommendation is more difficult to do than normal,” the group said in its endorsement.
Still, GrowSF gave the edge to Farrell in three of the six issues it identified as foremost in the minds of voters.
On public safety and the drug crisis — identified by 34% of potential voters as their top issues of concern, according to a recent San Francisco Chronicle poll — GrowSF judged Farrell to have the strongest policy solutions — a major blow to Breed. Farrell has called for deploying armed National Guard troops to crack down on drug dealing in the city and firing the police chief.
GrowSF also said Farrell is the best candidate for small-business development.
Respondents in the poll named housing as the second-most-important issue and homelessness third.
Lurie, an heir to the Levi Strauss fortune with no government experience, stands out on the homelessness issue because of his “first-hand experience assisting the homeless (via his Tipping Point foundation) as well as building over 140 subsidized low-income homes,” according to GrowSF.
Breed, an outspoken proponent of dismantling barriers to new housing construction and a reliable political ally for public transit advocates, is considered the best candidate on housing and transportation issues, GrowSF said.
This is not the first time moderate political groups have favored Farrell over Breed. Neighbors for a Better San Francisco and Together SF Action also gave him the nod. But Breed received the coveted sole endorsement from the local Democratic Party, which is controlled by moderate board members.
Farrell said in a statement that he’s honored to receive the endorsement and will provide “real action on public safety, shutting down open-air drug markets, tackling the overdose crisis and revitalizing small businesses.” Lurie said he’s excited about his campaign’s continued momentum and criticized Farrell and Breed as the insiders “making more empty promises.” Breed’s campaign couldn’t be reached for comment.
Steven Buss Bacio and Sachin Agarwal, the founders of GrowSF, said their main message is to inform voters to rank the three moderate candidates on the ballot, a move to block the progressive candidate Aaron Peskin. According to the latest financial filing, the group’s political committee has about $200,000 in campaign funds, and Buss Bacio said it continues to fundraise and will have a multiplatform campaign strategy involving mailings and online ads.
The group also endorsed the moderate frontrunners in each supervisor race: Marjan Philhour, Danny Sauter, Bilal Mahmood, Matt Boschetto, Trevor Chandler, and Michael Lai.