Mission Local is publishing a daily campaign dispatch for each of the major contenders in the mayor’s race, alternating among candidates weekly until November. This week: Daniel Lurie. Read earlier dispatches here.
One week into Asian American Pacific Islander heritage month, mayoral candidate Daniel Lurie’s campaign schedule is packed with events in Chinatown: He’s speaking with the Chinese Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday, going on a Chinatown merchants walk on Wednesday, and attending the BeChinatown Night Market on Friday, just to name a few.
Other than frequenting Chinatown to better engage with the voters, Lurie also upped his game on Tuesday by hiring Han Zou as his new campaign manager. Zou is the door-knocking genius who helped Assemblymember Matt Haney sway Asian voters in his winning assembly race in 2022 and, before that, his District 6 supervisor race in 2018. Both Lurie and campaign spokesperson Max Szabo confirmed the hiring. Zou will be starting his new role next week.
“We’re thrilled,” said Lurie, after stepping out of a 30-minute private meeting with the leaders of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce at 730 Sacramento St. in Chinatown, which this reporter and other members of the public were not allowed to attend. “He knows San Francisco really well. He loves this city like I love this city. And I still haven’t met somebody that has a bad word to say [about him] in politics. That’s pretty impressive.”
Zou knows his way around Asian voters, especially Chinese ones — a part of the electorate that mayoral candidates like Mayor London Breed and Mark Farrell know is key to the election. (It was no coincidence that Board President Aaron Peskin announced his mayoral bid in Chinatown.)
For Haney, Zou and his team knocked on 85,509 doors, made 178,000 phone calls, and spread the word about the candidate in group chats on WeChat — the most widely used Chinese social media and messaging app, according to an article by the San Francisco Examiner published after Haney triumphed in his assembly race.
Lurie said Trishala Vinnakota, his former campaign manager, “was amazing,” and “did a great job” getting the campaign to this point.
“We’re just looking to go a different direction,” Lurie added.
“What direction?” this reporter asked.
“Han is now our campaign manager, so I’ll leave it at that,” Lurie said.
Zou was not available to comment on his new role as of Tuesday night.
“Lurie is probably going to be really committed to the ground field program, compared to his emphasis on media,” said Jim Ross, a veteran Bay Area political consultant, listing tactics like neighborhood walks and recruiting volunteers. These, he said, are things that Zou specializes in.
“Lurie probably made a change and his campaign management is ready to shake things up,” Ross said.
When asked how he will distinguish himself among Asian voters, Lurie said he would emphasize accountability — and not being a City Hall insider.
Lurie does not see the Asian voting bloc as different from any other community. In his opinion, communities all want the same thing for San Francisco: Improved public safety, cleaner streets, a quicker police response, more housing, and boosted business vitality.
“I walked into that room, and felt like I knew just about everybody. Like, I feel very comfortable. I feel like I’m among friends now,” said Lurie following tonight’s closed-door Chinese Chamber of Commerce meeting, where he spoke after Farrell. Farrell shook hands with Lurie and left as Lurie entered the building.
Lurie said that, from what he has learned about the Chinese community, starting a dialogue between community groups, small business groups and City Hall is important. And that isn’t just the case in Chinatown, but also in the Richmond, the Sunset and the Excelsior, where large Asian populations reside.
At around 7 p.m., Lurie left with Kit Lam, a supporter of the school board recall in 2022 and now one of Lurie’s paid staffers. Tomorrow, he will be returning to Chinatown, walking through the business corridor and speaking with merchants.
Nick,
San Francisco can never be a “hallowed out city like Detroit”.
Our weather’s much better.
When I came here for the first time in 1966 SF was probably what you’re calling a “hallowed … ” city and it was sensational and a big part of what drew artists and musicians and poets … from around the World.
Half of the storefronts on Haight were vacant and thousands dined in the Panhandle and elsewhere from 55 gallon drums of Stone Soup.
h.
That this story has been up for two days and no one has commented kind of means that Mamas boy Daniel Lurie is a really snooze worthy candidate to be the mayor of San Francisco……one of the greatest cities in the United States of America. Maybe he is a genuinely nice guy, but I don’t think he is fit for elected office or to be a leader of a city that is really grappling with very difficult economic, social justice, and media problems. You cannot explain that away. You cannot sloganize or lemonade that in a campaign slogan. Legislating and policy making is granular…. very glacial, incremental and mostly a tedious and exhausting problem like brain surgery or cancer. We need a policy wonk. San Francisco needs aaron Peskin.
Greeny,
I have observed London’s career since she was a teen intern or something with Willie and never met her tho I’ve written about her.
I’ve met the other 3 Moderate Candidates and Lurie is head and shoulders above them in this old Commie’s opinion.
Of course I agree about Aaron being the Knight on the White Horse we’ve been waiting for since Agnos but he’s going to need some of the Second Place votes from the supporters of the ‘Four horsemen of the Apocolyps’ and Peskin’s more likely to peel off those votes from Lurie’s people many of whom support him simply because he is such a nice guy.
On the downside if a Moderate wins it is best that it’s Lurie.
He listens.
Generally makes the wrong calls but he’s relatively young and, hey … people can change.
Go Aaron !!
h.
Kit Lam is on Lurie’s staff. That man is a vindictive reactionary and that tells me everything about Lurie’s lack of political experience or leadership.
The city clearly needs a new direction to turn things around and it starts with the mayor. . It’s obvious from the number of candidates running that people know Breed is beyond vulnerable. I think the best criticism of her is she doesn’t focus long enough to get anything done. We can’t afford more of the same listlessness and indecision by her administration. I never thought S.F. could become the next hallowed out city like Detroit but somehow it’s at that precipice now and needs real leaders to step up and do what is in everyone’s best interest and not coddle those who could also do better themselves.