Daniel Lurie, who ran a campaign against “City Hall insiders,” is likely to be inside those halls very soon.
He’s leading with 56.34 percent of the returns thus far, and with the incumbent Mayor London Breed trailing by 24,342 votes, it is unlikely she will make up the difference, political analysts said.
So Lurie’s first City Hall job — overseeing 34,000 employees — comes with the backdrop of a looming Trump administration, and a once and future president who has often disparaged perceived chaos and lawlessness in San Francisco.
“It’s pretty clear that the city is in the bullseye for Trump,” said Bruce Cain, a political science professor at Stanford University.
“The Trump administration will be looking for things that they oppose in San Francisco,” he added, which could include gender identity, homelessness, and crime.
“They will make an example of the city,” Cain said, with threats to take fiscal measures and withhold federal grants if they find fault with the city’s policies.
San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, who is presently sitting at third in the mayor’s race, sees immense challenges for any mayor, but particularly for one without experience.
“He will both have to learn how to run the government — which is a massive undertaking in itself — while having to be a part of the blue city resistance,” Peskin said. “Which will be another monumental undertaking.”
With such challenges ahead, experts and officials also offered advice for Lurie.
“Talk to sympathetic people, especially those who were dealing with a similar situation back in 2016,” Cain said.
Cain also cautioned Lurie to anticipate things in advance and lessen the blow for the city. “Some of it may be inevitable,” he said. “Some of it might be avoidable.”
“No matter what,” Cain added. “You need to have back channels and seek out influential people.”
Sen. Scott Wiener, for his part, pointed out that San Francisco needs to be unified when the White House, the Senate, and potentially the House go Republican.
At this point, Wiener is not yet offering any advice to Lurie, but said he “will be happy to” if needed.
“We are all gonna be together in this,” Wiener said.
As for who to trust, Peskin, the most progressive major candidate in the mayoral race, offered his advice. “I would tell him not to listen to his billionaire friends, and listen to people who actually are experts in city government and have their feet planted in the community.”
“We will all be here to help should he win,” Peskin said.
The smartest thing Lurie could do would be to offer Peskin the job as Chief of Staff. I have no idea if Peskin would take the job, given their ideological differences, but if there’s one person in the city who could make it work for Lurie, Peskin’s the one.
that’s 100% on the money. I’ve been here a long time and, even though I’m not a big peskin fan, that guy is *brilliant* at working the system. He knows every single lever to pull to get anything done or to stop anything he doesn’t like.
It isn’t that Peskin won’t take the job. It’s that Lurie will never hire him. His entire platform is that everyone who ever did anything for the city is evil. He’s the liberal version of Trump, and he just bought SF.
The entire program he listed online (for a while!!) was to rip out every bit of power the board of supervisors and any controls on the mayoral office. Basically, Project 2025 light.
But…. as my mother in law says, “he’s too rich to be corrupt.”
sound familiar?
Dream on, losers! — talk about being clueless about what just transpired in the mayoral and supervisorial elections!
The electorate doesn’t want any of the reactionary “old guard” back in City Hall.
Peskin is, and has been, the poster child for failed approach, failed policies and fail leadership of the past 2+ decades.
He should be banished back to Berkeley from whence he came.
I am so tired of billionaires purchasing power and promoting ignorance as a skill.
It sounds to me like Peskin’s offer is genuine, and with a Trump presidency ahead, Lurie would do well to take him up on it. Note that the good government propositions that did pass (C and E) can be attributed to Peskin and fellow progressives. Peskin is very good at working the levers and in my experience is a generous mentor. One hopes that Lurie is not too arrogant to see the value in this, with hard times ahead–yes Mr. Lurie-Peskin is a better advisor than your billionaire friends and their lack of focus on the neighborhoods and the people in them that are not rich that contribute so much to this city.
When you hire people who are smarter than you, and Listen to people who have experienced challenging times (I doubt Lurie has had challenging times) you’re gonna have a better chance of success. But too often I have seen where the moment a politician sits in the main chair in City Hall, they immediately turn off their metaphorical hearing aid.
Scott Wiener speaks for Democracy like developers speak for the homeless.
Just save it.
“We will all be here to help should he win”
I assume Lurie will be gracious enough to take Peskin’s call and then smart enough to ignore Peskin’s advice.
I assume Trump will be gracious enough to take [literally any expert on the planet]’s call and smart enough to ignore [literally any expert]’s advice.
that’s what you’re saying.
Billionaire who didn’t make a dime of his own money and never worked this job should ignore the advice of everyone who has worked in the industry for decades and knows how everything works.
Ignorance is king. Welcome to the maga wing of the democrat party.
Lurie should try by himself to get whatever he believes he needs to do done just like a CEO and if he completely fails, seek advice from professional politicians on how to navigate the political system and what can be done to combat the attacks from Trump.
This article has it backwards: the people who lost need Lurie’s advice,
Like inherit money from your family so you can buy the Mayor’s office?
Is that somehow worse than getting it from unaccountable Billionaires and their 501c3-c4 collusions and PACs that avoid “little people” laws?
Breed is far more corrupt than a mere inheritance.
choose to be born into a wealthy family in your next reincarnation.