Mission Local is publishing campaign dispatches for each of the major contenders in the mayor’s race, alternating among candidates weekly until November. This week: London Breed. Read earlier dispatches here.
With Mark Farrell off the stage, it was Mayor London Breed and Daniel Lurie who most frequently traded barbs.
The event was a Latinx-focused forum, hosted by the San Francisco Latino Parity and Equity Coalition at Gray Area at 2665 Mission St. on Saturday morning.
The former Art Deco-style Grand Theater, built in the 1940s, hosted more than 100 audience members and nine of the 13 mayoral candidates, who listened to La Doña’s “Nada Me Pertenece” and other tunes before moderators invited up the contenders — the four major candidates in one block first, and the five underdogs an hour later.
As has often been true in San Francisco’s mayoral campaign, when Breed’s rivals on stage pointed to past accomplishments in the city, Breed piped up to counter them: Those accomplishments were done with her administration, under her tenure, and with her support.
The incumbent mayor sought to give no quarter, and seemed particularly incensed by claims from Lurie, the Levi Strauss heir and nonprofit founder.
“First of all, I keep hearing a lot of ‘What we’ve done’ from the candidates who are up here today. We ain’t doing nothing. Many of these people who they’re referring to are people who work with me and with my office,” Breed said, when Chris Iglesias, the CEO of the Oakland-based Unity Council, who moderated the forum, allowed her to rebut claims by her opponents.
Breed pointed to Lurie saying that he was the only one on the stage “that’s actually built affordable housing on time” at 833 Bryant St., 145 units of affordable housing in the SoMa, built with help from Lurie’s nonprofit Tipping Point. “Daniel Lurie wasn’t even working for Tipping Point at the time when that project was approved. My office, my team, working with nonprofit organizations, got that built,” Breed said.
Lurie, in turn, took his shot at the mayor.
“I appreciated the mayor thanking me at the ribbon cutting of 833 Bryant,” he said, to a round of laughter from the audience, Breed’s expression impassive. After a pause, Breed added: “Thanking Tipping Point.”
“Okay,” Lurie continued, “I’ll take it.”
At another point, in responding to a question about the city’s sanctuary policy, Breed briefly stated her support for the law, which prohibits the city from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement, before detouring to attack Lurie again.
During the pandemic, she said, when the city’s Latinxs were suffering record rates of infection and were doing worse than Latinos in other cities, with higher rates of overall infection, Lurie’s nonprofit was absent.
“Tipping Point gave out over $80 million [during Covid-19], and during the most challenging time of the Latino community during the height of the pandemic, not one went to Latino organizations that provided these kinds of services,” she said. “I find that quite interesting.”
“I guess I’m going to just get lots of rebuttals today,” Lurie responded, when it was his turn to retort, though he did not take the opportunity to rebut the mayor’s claim and instead simply expressed his support for the sanctuary city ordinance. (All of the candidates did the same.)
The forum was the first Latinx-focused one of the election season, and comes as the candidates start the end sprint. Polls are tight, with Breed and Farrell at the front, Lurie well-placed to pick up second-choice votes and emerge ahead, and Board of Supervisors President Peskin and District 11 Supervisor Ahsha Safaí with less clear paths.
Almost $23 million has been fundraised in the mayor’s race so far, the bulk of it going toward Lurie, who is self-financing his campaign to the tune of $6 million, and benefits from another $6 million in PAC spending. PACs have also formed for Breed and Farrell, backed by wealthy donors who have given $2.3 million and $1.3 million, respectively.
In their opening statements, Peskin and Safaí pointed out the lopsided money race.
Safaí said he would “fight for all San Franciscans, not just the billionaires or the billionaire heirs,” and named his union background and entry into the country as an Iranian refugee when he was six years old. He said economic inequality is “crushing” San Francisco. We can’t just be a tale of two cities.”
Added Peskin: “Most of my opponents are supported by billionaires, and presumably that’s who they will fight for.” He spoke particularly to different views on housing, saying he would expand rent control under state ballot measure Proposition 33, and that he would prioritize building affordable housing, rather than “luxury housing.”
Peskin, in a subsequent question about nonprofits, pointed to the work of the big-money group TogetherSF and sought to connect them to his rivals. The group, backed by venture-capitalist billionaire Michael Moritz, is behind a pricey charter-reform measure to expand mayoral power — which Farrell has used to raise $2.4 million in an independent expenditure campaign — and has a multi-year plan to remake City Hall.
“There’s an organization in this town supported by a bunch of far-right-wing billionaires called TogetherSF … That organization is perpetuating a narrative that nonprofit service providers are stealing the city’s money,” he said. “And, by the way, that organization is supporting three of the other candidates in this race.”
Breed pushed back. She said that while TogetherSF had endorsed her — the group ranked Farrell No. 1, and Breed and Lurie after, but has done little to support those two — it was “a token endorsement” and that the group has been “very detrimental” to San Francisco.
“They have attacked me time and time again,” she said. “They continue to push a lot of negativity and, more importantly, push against some of the good serving nonprofit organizations that we know exist.”
On a question on policing, in which Iglesias asked about “a history of strained relationships between the Latinx community and law enforcement,” it was clear the city has shifted since the days of George Floyd: All of the candidates emphasized increased policing, though reform and “community policing” was a throughline.
“I’ve done three or four merchant walks here in the Mission, and I hear, every single time, that they want more presence of officers walking the beat,” said Lurie, adding that the Mission deserves to have more long-lasting police captains; Mission Station has had five captains in the last four years.
Breed, for her part, said that “as someone who grew up in the city, in public housing, and had strained relationships with law enforcement,” she is proud of the 272 reforms mandated by the U.S. Department of Justice and implemented by the San Francisco Police Department. She spoke to police alternative programs, and “building trust” by hiring officers from within the community.
Safaí pointed to his legislation for “every single police district in the city to create a community policing plan,” and said he wants officers “out of their cars, back out on foot beats and interacting with the community.” Peskin did much the same, noting the “culturally and linguistically competent officers” the city had hired in Chinatown so that officers “know the names of their shopkeepers — and the shopkeepers know their names.”
At 11 a.m., the first part of the forum ended and the four candidates left the stage, shaking hands and snapping photos with supporters. The crowd thinned out; about half left before the five underdog candidates were brought onstage.
Breed ambled away to her city-issued Chevy Tahoe, thronged by staff and others, and was heckled by the libertarian activist Starchild.
What you going to give me in exchange for my vote? That’s what these dog and pony shows are all about. Patronage.
There were two debates at this event. The first featured the five well-known candidates, largely funded by billionaire donors, while the second focused on the lesser-known seven candidates who are also qualified and on the ballot. It seems like after the first debate, you made the choice to stop covering the other seven. It’s really unfortunate that you’ve decided not to report on any of them. It feels like ML has lost its sharpness in covering the stories that others may overlook. But hey, it’s your choice in the end.
Hi Andy.
Please see our separate story about the lesser-known candidates today.
Yours,
JE
I cannot, in good conscience, vote for Lurie. I wouldn’t be particularly enthusiastic about Farrell but I would be ok. I’d also be fine with any of the other front runners but ABSOLUTELY NOT for Lurie.
Breed is about as Latin-X focused as she was Covid-rules focused when Toni Tony Tone came into town.
Criminal! LOCK HER UP.
Breed having the nerve to show up to this after criticizing Newsom for hiring a latino Alex Padilla into senate position, doing nothing to stop the sweeps of latino street vendors, and labeling drug dealers as Honduran.