A new mayor. A new Board of Supervisors. A new city.
All are possible after San Franciscans make their voice heard in Tuesday’s election.
The outcome may reveal the true depths of the electorate’s fear and animosity toward crime, homelessness, fentanyl, the state of downtown, and City Hall corruption. In many ways, this election is a seminal moment.
Will San Franciscans reject incumbents in the mayor’s office and on the Board of Supervisors? Or will they believe Mayor London Breed’s message that the city is on the rise?
As of Tuesday evening, challenger Daniel Lurie was leading in first-place votes, followed by Breed and Board President Aaron Peskin.
The mayor often tells voters about her self-made rise from impoverished Western Addition projects to lead from City Hall’s glittering dome. In remarks to supporters on Tuesday night, Breed touted her accomplishments in office and railed against Lurie’s personal spending in the mayor’s race. Lurie, a nonprofit founder and heir to the Levi Strauss fortune, contributed more than $8 million to his own campaign.
“It’s been one of the most sad and horrible things that someone could take their personal wealth and buy this office. It’s disgusting,” Breed said.
Should she lose office, it will be the third time in recent city history that an incumbent mayor has been ousted in the wake of voter dissatisfaction. In 1991 Mayor Art Agnos suffered voters’ frustrations over homeless encampments, with one in front of City Hall dubbed “camp Agnos.” His replacement, Mayor Frank Jordan, himself lost to Willie Brown in 1995 as the electorate bemoaned a police department in disarray.
Board of Supervisors
Board of Supervisors races across the city could also reshape the city’s direction on key issues. Many of those new city lawmakers may be new faces, too.
Incumbents like progressive Supervisors Dean Preston in District 5 (the Tenderloin, Haight Ashbury, and the Western Addition), Myrna Melgar (Lake Merced, Parkmerced), and Connie Chan (the Richmond District and Sea Cliff) are facing tough challenges from their political right.
In District 1, Chan is facing a well-funded challenge from Marjan Philhour, who has run twice for the seat and narrowly lost to Chan in 2020.
Philhour, who earned the endorsement of the Police Officers Association, has run on a pro-law enforcement platform. The race has attracted a wave of outside spending, much of it from labor groups backing Chan’s reelection.
Philhour, who was locked in a very tight race with Chan on Tuesday night, asked supporters to be patient and wait for more results. “Richmond people want change, we will just need to wait for a couple more days,” she said.
District 5 was the most expensive Board of Supervisors race, with more than $1.5 million in total fundraising, some of it from the tech-backed moderate group GrowSF, which opposes Preston. Preston faced challengers from entrepreneur Bilal Mahmood, business strategist Scotty Jacobs, and education activist Autumn Looijen.
Tuesday returns showed Preston and Mahmood in a tight contest.
“This is a pattern of every race I run that the early vote doesn’t tend to favor the progressive candidate,” Preston told The Standard at an election party at Mad Dog in the Fog. “I’m optimistic.”
The race for District 3, which encompasses North Beach, Chinatown, and Russian, Hill, attracted multiple candidates that include attorney Moe Jamil, neighborhood activist Danny Sauter, former transit commissioner Sharon Lai, businessman Matthew Susk, and entrepreneur Eduard Navarro.
Whomever wins the District 3 race will replace Board President Aaron Peskin, who is set to term out. As he was leading in early returns, Sauter addressed supporters at Lillie Coits in North Beach.
“I’m feeling very grateful that we’re in a strong position after these first few batches of results,” Sauter said.
In District 7, which encompasses West Portal and a swath of west side neighborhoods, Supervisor Myrna Melgar’s main opponent was Matt Boschetto, a businessman who’s run on a pro-public safety platform. He’s against Prop. K, the polarizing ballot measure to permanently close the Upper Great Highway to cars, and created a ballot measure committee opposing it.
As early returns showed Melgar with a healthy lead, she and her supporters sighed with relief. “It’s better than we thought it might be,” Melgar said. “Now I’m most worried about what’s happening up there,” she said, gesturing at the national election coverage on the television above the bar.
In District 9, encompassing the Mission District, several candidates are vying to replace termed-out Hillary Ronen. Leading candidates include activist Jackie Fielder, public affairs professional Trevor Chandler, and organizer Roberto Hernandez. Fielder held a strong lead in early returns Tuesday.
In District 11, former City Hall aide Ernest “EJ” Jones, entrepreneur Michael Lai, union organizer Chyanne Chen, and Adlah Christi are among the candidates competing to replace Supervisor Ahsha Safai, who is set to term out. As of Tuesday, Lai was leading in first-choice votes.
When a majority of the Board of Supervisors swings toward the progressive Democrat camp, they’ve oft-served as a check on the power of the mayor’s office, which for years has been occupied by more moderate Democrats.
Whether the Board of Supervisors tips moderate or progressive, however, is up in the air this election. And it just may determine who reins in the power of the mayor — if anyone.