About 30 minutes before Wednesday night’s first mayoral debate of the election season, volunteers and campaign staffers packed the narrow sidewalk in front of the Sydney Goldstein Theater, competing to raise signs higher than one another and occasionally shouting out their candidates’ names.
Inside, none of the candidates shouted, but things were not entirely convivial.
The first barb came from underdog District 11 Supervisor Ahsha Safaí in his thinly veiled dig at contenders Daniel Lurie, a nonprofit executive and heir to Levi Strauss fortune, and venture capitalist and former supervisor Mark Farrell, who also wants to be known as a small business owner on November’s ballot.
“Who has the experience and track record to fight for all San Franciscans to live in this city?” Safaí asked the crowd. “Not the billionaires or billionaire heirs, but working, middle-class families and those struggling to get by.”
Rebuttals and follow-up questions sparked the most reactions from the audience at the inaugural mayoral candidate debate, co-hosted by the New York Times San Francisco bureau chief Heather Knight and Manny Yekutiel of Manny’s. The debate, which sold out the 1,700-seat theater (and charged $12 for streaming, a common complaint on the online streaming chat) covered San Franciscao’s key issues: Downtown recovery, drug overdoses, homelessness, public safety, housing, city construction projects, public transit and public education.
It was attended by all five major candidates: Mayor London Breed, former mayor and supervisor Mark Farrell, Supervisor Aaron Peskin, Lurie and Safaí.
Lurie — the only candidate who is not a career politician and marks himself as an “outsider” — criticized Farrell in his capacity as Board of Supervisors budget chair for opposing then-Mayor Ed Lee’s request for more police funding.
“Daniel, this is where your inexperience shows,” Farrell said in his rebuttal to Lurie. “You have not been part of the budget committee in City Hall.” The crowd laughed and clapped.
Farrell, in his defense, said that there are “competing priorities every single day” — which, incidentally, is how he explained his present-day attempts to tap a childcare funding source he worked to defeat as a supervisor.
Later, after Safaí again mentioned Lurie’s inexperience, Lurie fought back. “Listen, they’re going to talk about experience all night long, and they have over 70 years of combined experience on this stage,” Lurie said, pausing for effect. “Look at where it’s gotten us.” The crowd gave him the biggest cheer of the night.
But Lurie’s track record was also questioned when Knight brought up his anti-poverty nonprofit Tipping Point. Knight pointed out that while the nonprofit has spent over $100 million addressing homelessness in the city, the number of unhoused people keeps creeping up.
“What do you have to show for your spending?” Knight asked.
“I take responsibility for that,” Lurie said. “And I hold myself accountable.” But the candidate also reminded the audience how Tipping Point helped people get back on their feet.
One other highlight of the night came when co-moderator Knight gave Peskin a quick follow-up question. Knight pointed out that critics call Peskin a NIMBY because his own neighborhood, North Beach and Telegraph Hill, has a preserved-in-amber feel.
“Are you a NIMBY?” Knight asked straight-forwardly.
Peskin was quick to respond, listing out a couple of examples of advocating to get housing built: The three parcels of the Embarcadero highway when he first came to office that are now “dense, affordable housing,” and a push to convert the Kirkland bus yard at Fisherman’s Wharf to housing for Muni drivers.
Farrell, on the other hand, “actually opposed the affordable housing at Booker T. Washington, opposed converting the Bridge Motel at Lombard to affordable housing, and opposed placing a navigation center in his own district,” Peskin said. “When I welcomed one in mine with open arms.”
Without being specific in his rebuttal, Farrell said he would defend his pro-housing record against anyone’s. “I believe Supervisor Peskin hasn’t seen a revenue bond or a revenue measure that he hasn’t liked on the ballot in San Francisco in 20 years. I believe we need to be disciplined with our housing. We need to upzone in multiple different neighborhoods.”
The four candidates laid off on Safaí, not directly calling out his name on any issues on the table for the night. But the current District 11 supervisor trails the pack in multiple polls made public this year — including one commissioned by the San Francisco Chronicle in February and another commissioned by Farrell’s campaign this month. Even Farrell, who came as the first choice in his own poll, said he would vote for Safaí in one of the lightning-round questions.
Breed, who is the only major female candidate, tried to remind the audience that “these guys on stage” are trying to make voters feel bad about San Francisco. A couple of years ago, when it was DA Chesa Boudin in the hot seat, and not her, Breed growled about “the bullshit that is destroying our city.”
But not now: Breed credited her own performance as mayor because indicators on crimes, homelessness and overdoses have decreased.
Knight confronted the incumbent with the topic of corruption in her departments; she questioned what Breed has done to assure voters to trust that City Hall is getting cleaned up after multiple city officials were popped by the feds — including former public works boss Mohammed Nuru, former PUC general manager Harlan Kelly and many others.
Breed, who paid a $23,000 ethics fine in 2021, in part for improperly accepting a gift from Nuru, didn’t flinch, and said she worked with the controller’s office, the city attorney, the U.S. Attorney’s Office and other federal agencies to deal with problems caused by “certain individuals.”
The five candidates last night stuck to the pitches they’ve made to voters as they’ve campaigned throughout the city: Farrell touted “common sense.” Safaí leaned into his immigrant, working family and labor roots while taking pride in the legislation he brought out to help with public schools. Lurie, who rehearsed the debate in Noe Valley the night before, repeated his mantra of “accountability” and used the example of Manhattan’s comeback after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to say public safety is at the root of the city’s many troubles.
Peskin, who touted himself as the most experienced choice for mayor, mentioned twice what he plans to put on the November ballot, including a measure pushing business-tax reform and another to cut red tape. Peskin also didn’t miss out on the opportunity to publicly chastise political pressure groups like TogetherSF, which he described as “conservative billionaires who want to get rid of public oversight and accountability so they can control the government themselves.”
Breed tried to distinguish herself from the “guys” on stage, and repeatedly reminded the audience of leading the city through the crisis of the pandemic. She argued often that there is now reason for optimism. It is unclear if that message landed with the audience on Wednesday night, however, as the four others on stage hammered on the crisis in housing, homelessness and drugs.
I thought the debate was boring and too scripted. I didn’t learn anything new.
Really surprised that Peskin was reading off a script vs answering off the cuff.
Meezle,
As Board prez Aaron’s not used to being restricted to 60 seconds but used his scripted replies to stay within time limits.
Farrell and Breed on the other hand violated limits several times rudely until Knight started snapping her ‘Time!’ calls and they’ve both been Mayor so there’s that.
I’m into Police Reform and somehow Peskin has managed to work with SFPD over the years to shape a Chinatown Police Force that matches the residents and in some cases is literally homegrown.
Y’all recall when Heather Fong was only one on Force who spoke any Chinese ?
Did all the interviews in the Golden Dragon shoot-out as I recollect.
And, Aaron’s suit was crisp and conservative as could be w/out being a tux.
And, Marcos, this is San Francisco and Pride month and if you can’t fly your personal flame flag here and now I don’t know where else you can do it and as a straight viewer I’ve always enjoyed his flirtatious and levitacious (new word) MC style.
Bottom line is that gold ring is Safai’s second place votes.
h.
This event should have been free – at least the streaming video portion. There is another mayoral debate hosted by the Democratic Party (DCCC) and you can watch that for free on their Facebook channel: https://www.facebook.com/SFDemocrats/videos
So I can only watch if I have facebook? NOt cool
Any time Manny Yekutiel gets involved in the democratic process, you have to pay him money or patronize his business. Unless, of course, you panhandle a free ticket via email.
Speaks volumes to San Francisco’s current political predicament that the opening salvo in the mayor’s race was pay to attend debate hosted by political partisan hit jobbers like Knight and the walking ego trip that is Manny.
Has SF ever had a pay to attend debate for any political office before?
Farrell did the worst: restoring Market Street to Champ Elysee and how he’d wave a magic want to bring the 49ers back to town sounded elitist and suburban. He doesn’t know any drag queens and his answers were vague, Lurie and London did way better than him.