Mark Farrell defends Democratic cred after website claims he’s gone full MAGA

He wants to deploy the National Guard in a Democratic city to tackle crime. He stood shoulder-to-shoulder with an anti-liberal skeptic who decried “wokeism.” And his campaign has faced scrutiny for alleged ethical lapses.

Just whom are we talking about?

You may say it’s a dead-on description of former President Donald Trump. But the creator of a new website alleges that — if you squint hard enough — it could be a portrait of San Francisco mayoral candidate Mark Farrell.

“Stop MAGA Mark” is the brainchild of political consultant Jim Ross. For now, it’s just an unfunded independent expenditure committee and a single web page that asks voters to “keep the conservatives out of City Hall” and serves up alleged examples of Farrell’s rightward leanings. Social media advertisements might emerge later, Ross said.

To be clear: Farrell is a registered Democrat. Nevertheless, Ross argues that Farrell echoes Republicans in wanting the National Guard to patrol the city’s streets (a throwback to Trump’s call to deploy National Guard troops to fight crime), suggesting tax breaks for businesses, and inflating his own private-sector success (for Trump, it’s in real estate; for Farrell, it’s venture capital).

Not to mention the gaffe caught in a recording, published by Politico, in which an ally seemingly spouts Republican talking points during a Farrell campaign party in the Marina. In the recording, the host of the event, Larry Buck, decries San Francisco’s notoriety as a haven of “lawlessness and wokeism,” to which Farrell replies, “Larry laid it out pretty compellingly.”

“If you take the rhetoric he’s saying, absent [being pro-choice] and LGBTQ issues, a Republican candidate for mayor could say them as easily as he says them,” Ross said.

Farrell has taken the accusation personally, rebutting Ross in a video posted to X.

“They want to pick on me because I have a different background than everyone else?” he said, referencing his private-sector experience. “I think more Democrats should have business backgrounds. In my career outside of City Hall, I’ve been a lawyer, been in finance, and started an investment firm, growing small businesses. That’s what I know.”

The San Francisco mayor’s race is set to enter its most intense months, and observers agree that most of the major candidates still have viability. Incumbent Mayor London Breed, nonprofit founder and Levi Strauss heir Daniel Lurie, and progressive stalwart Supervisor Aaron Peskin have all shown strength in recent polls.

While it’s still anyone’s race, Breed and Farrell, in particular, have been neck-and-neck. A small percentage of voters swayed by attack messaging could make all the difference come November. Although Ross’ effort is small so far, he’s hopeful deep-pocketed donors will swoop in to spread the word.

“It could be a one-day wonder, and people get mad at me, or it could grow from here,” Ross said.

In San Francisco, where Republican registration has shrunk to roughly 7%, identification with Trump and Republicans is a regular canard — shorthand for painting an opponent as out of touch. University of San Francisco politics professor James Lance Taylor said the “stop MAGA Mark” slogan may catch fire.

“​​I think it’s devastating even without money,” Taylor said. “It neatly packages Mark Farrell in two words: one reflecting his name, the other reflecting an ideology that’s completely out of step with San Francisco voters.”

Farrell worked on the 1996 Bill Clinton/Al Gore presidential campaign in one of his first jobs out of college, he said, and ran for the Board of Supervisors as an “out-and-out Democrat.” He has been elected to the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee. On X, Farrell proudly proclaimed himself one of the “white dudes for Harris,” adding to his bio the coconut emoji embraced by supporters of the vice president.

Still, Farrell is considered conservative by San Francisco standards, Taylor said. Farrell has embraced law-and-order positions and rejected harm-reduction drug treatment — a policy endorsed by the Biden-Harris administration — as “a failure.”

That reputation may help the idea of “MAGA Mark” stick, Taylor said.

Moderate Republicans previously interviewed by The Standard agree that they’ll likely vote for either Farrell, Lurie, or both under the ranked-choice system. For moderate Republicans, Farrell may be a promising compromise due to his tough-on-crime messaging and promise to reopen Market Street to cars.

Does that make Farrell out of step with San Francisco Democrats? Not all of them, said former Mayor Art Agnos.

Though Agnos has endorsed Peskin, he thinks San Francisco has always had a conservative strain in its electorate. In 1986, former Supervisor Quentin Kopp successfully ran for state Senate as an independent with conservative leanings; the next year, former Republican John Molinari ran for mayor against Agnos and lost. Even former mayors Willie Brown and the late Ed Lee, as well as Breed, are considered moderate Democrats by local standards.

“So basically, he’s a conservative candidate for mayor in San Francisco,” Agnos said. “It’s not the first time we’ve had that.”