San Francisco Mayor London Breed and her leading challengers — former Interim Mayor Mark Farrell, philanthropist Daniel Lurie, Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, and Supervisor Ahsha Safaí — got their first opportunity to square off in a forum held at the First Unitarian Universalist Church in Cathedral Hill on Tuesday.
The event, organized by the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club, opened a window into how the leading mayoral contenders will present themselves to voters who identify as or lean progressive — a significant number.
Club president Jeffrey Kwong interviewed the candidates and fielded questions from other senior club members. The reactions of around 150 attendees offered both predictable and surprising insights.
Lurie owns his background
Starting with Lurie, Kwong questioned him about Lurie’s wealth and lack of experience as an elected official. Kwong highlighted both those points in his questioning. Lurie owned it.
“I get it,” Lurie responded. You are all going to have to judge me on that. […] It was how I grew up by chance, and I won’t run from it. I’m proud of my stepfather’s legacy.”
“I grew up at a company that provided rights to its LGBTQ community long before it was required,” he added. “Levi’s jumped in during the AIDS crisis and funded medical care at S.F. General before anybody else. I grew up in the eighties watching family, friends, and employees suffer through that crisis. So if someone comes at me on Levi’s, I’m all in.”
Reiterating his focus on public safety, the drug crisis, and the economy, Lurie told the crowd, “My wife and I are raising two young children here […] I want them to be as proud to be from San Francisco as I’ve always been, and the direction that our city is heading in leaves me worried that they won’t have that same sense of pride.”
Lurie was also asked about his support for reorganizing the city’s commissions, and he noted how many of the city’s 100-plus oversight bodies were not fully staffed up or duplicative.
“One of my opponents voted on 25 commissions over the last 16 years,” he told Kwong. It allows our elected leaders to point fingers and to say, ‘oh, that’s not on my watch.’” Club member Gwenn Craig, a former Elections and Police Commissioner, took issue with his position, attributing it to “a misunderstanding of how city process works that I think comes with someone who perhaps hasn’t had government experience before.”
Breed talks ‘building bridges’
Next on stage was current Mayor Breed, who received a surprising amount of applause and had supportive members laying the groundwork for her appearance, including by distributing flyers boosting the mayor’s grassroots bonafides, including that she is the only tenant in the race and achievements for the LGBTQ community.
Kwong took the mayor to task on her housing development policy, a significant pain point for progressives, but the mayor gamely defended it.
“I have been very aggressive with my housing policies mostly because of my experience of growing up in the Fillmore, [where] many decisions were made that were very problematic,” Breed told the crowd. “The problem I have with some of our policies [is] they are by design created to make housing more difficult to build, more expensive to build. I have consistently tried to deconstruct our housing policies to make them easier to access so that we can build housing and not make the mistakes of the past that make it impossible for friends we grew up with to afford to live here. We can’t keep saying we want to build affordable housing, especially when it costs sometimes up to $1.5 million a unit.”
Breed was also questioned on her dedication to police reform. “We don’t want to see another case of George Floyd happening in San Francisco,” said Kwong. “And we don’t see leadership from the mayor in calling for that to be even-handed.”
Breed responded by reiterating her work to continue efforts started by former Supervisor and Police Commission President Malia Cohen to have the federal and state justice departments oversee a reform process at SFPD. Ironically, the Board of Supervisors had a hearing about the process on the agenda earlier in the day, but members decided to postpone it until July.
“I’ll just say, some people holler ‘defund the police,’ and don’t support the police department but let something happen to you. And the first thing you’re doing is calling 911 and wondering why the police didn’t get there,” Breed said to some applause from the audience. “I get that people have concerns, and it’s not perfect, but I worked really hard to build those bridges.”
The forum recalled more issues aired at that day’s supervisors’ meeting as the two members challenging Breed for her job, Safaí and Peskin, went onstage to speak to members.
Safaí: ‘kids, not pandas’
Safaí, who had the shortest time on stage, spent much of his talk time attacking Breed on funding priorities.
“The mayor and her administration cut $25 million from youth programming in our city. And then a couple of days later, she wanted to go out and raise $25 million for pandas,” Safaí told the audience. We put forward a resolution that said kids, not pandas, we can do both, but I think kids are more important.”
Last week, Safaí led a successful call to postpone a plan to raise money for the pandas, pending amendments. His resolution to restore cuts to youth programs was sent back to committee Tuesday at his request.
Safaí also harshly criticized Breed’s Measure E, passed by voters last election to reform police oversight.
“That was a really regressive measure,” Safaí said. “I was the loudest voice against that, and we campaigned hard. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the resources; it ended up passing 54 percent in a primary election; I think if you put that on the November ballot, the result would flip.”
Peskin’s populism
San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Peskin’s turn on stage had all the atmosphere of a triumphant homecoming. He noted that if he received the club’s endorsement for mayor, it would be the 10th time the organization had given him their stamp of approval. Kwong said that he was the first intern in Peskin’s supervisorial office.
Asked why he was running for mayor, Peskin said he wanted to return progressive values to Room 200, which he argued had been absent for decades.
“I want to bring some of that back,” he said. He also clapped back at criticisms that he was a NIMBY obstructionist.
“Millions and millions of dollars have been spent by AstroTurf organizations and a handful of plutocrats trying to spin that narrative. In the 24 years I’ve been in office, [we authorized] 100,000 housing units. While other people are talking, I’m actually doing things, and I’m doing them in conjunction with the community.”
Peskin also noted several charter amendments he introduced at the Board of Supervisors earlier that day, including one to set up a fund to help pay rent for seniors and low-income families, one to institute an inspector general to watch for corruption in city agencies, and others aimed at blunting the commission reform ballot measure promulgated by TogetherSF.
“Let’s be clear, the right-wing oligarchs who are trying to run this town have a measure on the ballot that not only gets rid of the Public Health Commission, the Immigrant Rights Commission, the Human Rights Commission, the Library Commission but takes away civilian oversight which is commonplace in municipalities all over America. We need to fight back,” Peskin told the audience, ending his pitch on raw populism.
“I think all of my major opponents in this race are supported by at least one billionaire, if not more. We talked about the heroic efforts of Tom Ammiano 25 years ago, of Matt Gonzalez four years after that, of Mark Leno and Jane Kim, who got very close a bunch of years ago; we can win this thing. I need you to get involved so we can win the heart and soul of our city back.”
Farrell: unapologetic, unappreciated ally?
The last contender to take the stage was Farrell, arguably the most conservative candidate. Ironically, he was given the longest time, though not without pointed questions. The former, who served as District 2 Supervisor from 2010–18, emphasized his “native son” background and how growing up in the city inculcated a respect for diversity.
“What means to me more than anything is that I grew up in the city, where all of my friends were of different races, ethnicities, religions, ultimately, sexual orientations as well,” Farrell told the audience. “I sit here today very much as a straight white cisgender male, but also an unapologetic supporter of the queer community in San Francisco, with a record to back that up.”
Farrell went on to note his work for tax equity for same-sex couples and unisex restrooms; in return, Kwong asked him for examples of members of the LGBTQ community in his inner circle of advisors. Farrell either could not or would not name any.
Eventually, the conversation moved on to education, where the former Interim Mayor promised to get City Hall more involved with public schools, such as having the Department of Early Childhood work with the school district to improve third-grade reading proficiency and “aggressive, proactive engagement” between the city’s transit agency and the district to ensure city buses can get kids to school on time.
Pressed by Kwong on economic justice issues, Farrell upheld his housing policies as one answer. “I am unapologetically pro-housing,” he said, noting his work supporting projects such as in Presidio Heights and Laurel Heights, which are still in progress.
Finally, Farrell was grilled on his support from third-party political groups, such as TogetherSF, which, it’s been alleged, has connections too close to his campaign.
Farrell said he was “unaware of any independent expenditures that have been formed or are being formed. These are all organizations that every single candidate is courting, and they have independent boards, and I hope to earn their support.”
That wasn’t a satisfactory answer for veteran board member Craig:
“You plead ignorance about these things, but we read the newspapers, and we know that you’re aware of the disclosures about the personnel crossovers between your campaign and TogetherSF,” Craig stated, asserting that the group was “intent on changing the political landscape of San Francisco and moving us from the progressive vision that Harvey Milk and so many others fought for.”
In the end, the baleful treatment Farrell received, in contrast to the muted applause for Breed, had some observers wondering who may end up where on the ranked-choice voting totem pole once ballots are counted in November.
