Manny Yekutiel dropped out of the District 8 supervisor race on Thursday, hours after new sexual assault allegations were published by the San Francisco Standard.
“I am not admitting to having assaulted anyone, and some of the things that are being said about me are fundamentally untrue. But I am deeply sorry for any boundaries that I crossed. I’m going to take this time to work on myself,” Yekutiel said.
Yekutiel’s candidacy became untenable. Within hours of the allegations, which Yekutiel said he had “no memory” of, most of his endorsers pulled their support, including Mayor Daniel Lurie and six city supervisors.
“My endorsement is a statement of my confidence in someone’s character and leadership, and in light of the additional accounts reported today, I am withdrawing it,” Lurie said. Other backers, including labor unions and advocacy groups like GrowSF, also withdrew their support.
Gary McCoy, a former Rep. Nancy Pelosi aide, is now the presumed frontrunner in District 8. He has formed an alliance with rival Darshini Patel and is also facing Michael Nguyen as an opponent. All three had called on Yekutiel to withdraw.
Though Yekutiel is suspending his campaign, his name will still appear on the ballot; the deadline to withdraw passed in June.
Yekutiel was first accused of sexual assault in June by progressive political organizer Brad Chapin, who alleged that in 2020 Yekutiel stuck his hands down his pants and painfully grabbed his testicles at a house party.
Thursday’s allegations matched Chapin’s closely: Ryan Clark and his partner told the Standard that Yekutiel had grabbed their testicles, both inside and outside their pants, at a Pride club party in 2023.
Clark said he was motivated to come forward after seeing Yekutiel’s supporters stick with him after Chapin’s allegation, and particularly by Lurie’s decision to do so: In August and September, Yekutiel became the official pick of Mayor Lurie and the San Francisco Democratic Party.
The new allegations were too much for most of Yekutiel’s endorsers.
The local party chapter has now scheduled an Oct. 11 vote to reconsider its endorsement, which is all but certain to be withdrawn.
Even District 8 supervisor Rafael Mandelman, who stood by Yekutiel the morning of the new allegations, had pulled his endorsement by the afternoon.
“Manny is an extraordinary person who has made extraordinary contributions to San Francisco,” Mandelman said. “Unfortunately, it has become painfully clear to me that he has work to do on himself and is not ready to serve as a public official. I have therefore asked him to remove my name from his endorsers.”
Additional reporting by Kelly Waldron.
Now can local politicos please STOP hosting events at Manny’s Cafe?!? Furthermore, Manny’s Cafe is located in a commercial space at 16th and Valencia that’s part of a Mission Housing Development Corporation development– MHDC a heavily subsidized housing non profit that receives big SF City taxpayer contributions. Manny’s should be evicted from this facility, it is not appropriate for a business owned and named for a disgraced sexual predator to be located in a subsidized commercial space. The idea was for this space to be occupied by some kind of business that serves the community, not the ego of an accused assaulter. CLOSE MANNYS
It’s always been really phony that Manny’s charges for public events in a “community” space.
What a sad commentary on our “moderate” political establishment. Money will apparently make them do anything.
Next sunday’s DCCC meeting should be fun. Show up early if you want to give them a piece of your mind.
The DCCC’s decision was correct based on the facts available at that time.When the facts change, then so do decisions.
Henceforth to be referred to as “Handsy Manny” — let the cancellations commence.
In reading that Mayor Lurie withdrew his endorsement of Manny Yekutiel, and now that the D8 candidate has withdrew from the race, I’m shaking my head.
Then I concluded that it is possible to be well-intentioned and tone-deaf at the same time.
But that is no way to run a city.
Last year, Mayor Lurie picked someone to replace a Supervisor in District 4. It blew up in his face as a rookie mistake. Equally embarrassing, was the tone-deaf appointments to the Youth Commission where all 6 attended “private schools.”
My personal favorite: November 2026 Prop. D. It is President Donald Trumpesque meddling with our democracy. The reasoning for Prop. D to have future smaller ballots by raising the threshold from 2% to 8% signatures needed to qualify a measure for a future local ballot should be juxtaposed with our most recent state primary ballot. We all gasped at the 60 candidates for California Governor alone, including one named Barack Obama… no, not that Barack Obama. In essence, a Governor Lurie would suggest raising the filing fee.
Back to the un-endorsement of District 8 Supervisor candidate Manny Yekutiel. Simply put, Mayor Lurie should have fired the person in charge of doing his homework before he rescinded his endorsement of Yekutiel.
I can’t believe what I’m hearing, sexual harassment. We used to call it fun. I’m 81 and I don’t believe that for one minute. For some reason the guys were not satisfied with the groping. To bad they’re not at the Eagle or the Powerhouse, but maybe they have been.