Mission Local is publishing campaign dispatches for each of the major contenders in the mayorโs race, alternating among candidates weekly until November. This week: Daniel Lurie. Read earlier dispatches here.
With ballots being mailed out to San Francisco voters on Oct. 7, the 7.6 percent of them who registered as Republicans might be surprised to see whom their fellow Republicans are telling them to vote for.ย
A rising Republican political group called San Francisco Briones Society has named moderate-leaning Democratic candidate Daniel Lurie as its first choice for the November election, ranking Mark Farrell as second and the incumbent Mayor London Breed as third. All three candidates are registered Democrats.ย
This came at the expense of Farrell, whose conservative campaign rhetoric has won law-and-order voters over, and is backed by donors such as Thomas Coates โ a rent-control foe who gave $500,000 to a political action committee supporting Farrell and another $250,000 to Farrell’s ballot measure committee supporting Proposition D to reform city commissions and give more power to the mayor.
“I’d say it was pretty evenly split between people who wanted Mark Farrell first and Daniel Lurie first,” Jay Donde, co-founder of the San Francisco Briones Society, said about the decision made by a nine-person committee. “The one thing that Daniel has over all of the other candidates is that he can say that he was not in office and did not take part in the politics that led us to the current mess the city is in.”
Donde acknowledged that Farrell has experience in government, but called it a “double-edged sword.” “Sometimes it’s better to have new blood, new perspectives, fresh eyes in City Hall,” he added, while emphasizing the two are both “good candidates” that would be “a significant improvement over the status quo.”
“I’m a proud lifelong Democrat so itโs not an endorsement Iโm seeking,” Lurie said in a statement. “But my campaign has always been about bringing people into the fold, not pushing them away.”
“I welcome the support of every San Franciscan who is committed to restoring safety, ending homelessness and shutting down open-air drug markets,” Lurie said. “Thatโs not partisan. Itโs common sense.โย
This is not the first time Lurie has received support from the Republican party or a Republican political group. In fact, Lurie and Farrell are the two top picks for the San Francisco GOP โ with Lurie’s name placed ahead of Farrellโs on a chart.
Ellen Lee Zhou, the only Republican candidate in the mayoral race, who wears a red MAGA-like hat while campaigning, has failed to make the cut for either the cityโs official Republican Party or the upstart Briones Society. Across all the Republican groups in the city, Zhou is only able to make it as a second choice endorsed by the San Francisco Young Republicans, which placed Farrell as first and Aaron Peskin as third.
“Ellen Lee Zhou, the only Republican candidate in the mayoral race, who wears a red MAGA-like hat while campaigning, has failed to make the cut for either the cityโs official Republican Party or the upstart Briones Society.”
Yes, because Zhou cannot win and so is a wasted vote. The GOP imperative is to avoid Peskin. So they support any of Breed, Farrell and Lurie in any order. That 7.5% of SF voters who are registered Republicans could swing the mayoral race given how close it is.
No idea why the Young Republicans have Peskin as third choice. But they are young and so given to follies.