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: Mark Farrell. Read earlier dispatches here.
Outside the cavernous Mission headquarters of the public radio giant KQED on Thursday night, a usually sleepy corner was overtaken with some 20 volunteers holding campaign signs. Inside 2601 Mariposa St., perhaps the most anticipated mayoral debate of the election season and likely the last to feature every major candidate was soon to kick off.
Campaign staffers for London Breed and Daniel Lurie stood on opposite corners, waving campaign signs while cars passed by and honked. Alongside them stood another 20 disgruntled journalists with KQED itself, rallying to protest what they allege is illegal outsourcing and centralizing of television engineering jobs. The some 170 attendants streamed between the two jostling crowds.
The temperature was similarly high indoors.
The five candidates — Breed, Lurie, Mark Farrell, Ahsha Safaí and Aaron Peskin — have been seeking to differentiate themselves from one another for months, but as the Nov. 5 election grows near, they are turning increasingly aggressive and they did not hesitate to point fingers at one another on Thursday.
The main point of contention at Thursday’s debate, jointly hosted by KQED and the San Francisco Chronicle? Corruption — and several candidates brought their own baggage.
Each of the candidates received tailored questions, and Breed was the first to come under fire. Moderator Marisa Lagos, a longtime KQED political correspondent, asked why it had taken media probes to reveal several corruption scandals during her time in office, including recent revelations around misspending in the Dreamkeeper Initiative.
Breed sought to distance herself from the scandals, which involved her longtime friend Sheryl Davis, and a program that Breed herself shepherded into existence. The Dreamkeeper Initiative was a post-George Floyd effort to invest tens of millions annually into San Francisco’s Black community created by Breed and District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton, and Davis has been a Breed ally for years.
Yet on Thursday, while accepting that the buck stops with her, Breed sought to make the corruption allegations seem an inevitable part of municipal management.
“San Francisco has 34,000 employees and from time to time we have had challenges with some of them,” said Breed. “And I want to be very clear, I have held myself accountable. I immediately asked for and received her resignation.”
Peskin, who spoke after Breed, used those allegations to promote his own policy: Proposition C, which would create an inspector general to root out corruption in San Francisco.
Despite the wide opening for criticism, Peskin was the only one to take advantage and directly attack Breed for the recent scandals. “Listen, Marissa. While these guys are busy playing the blame game and pointing fingers at each other, I am the only candidate on this stage that has consistently done the work around public corruption,” said Peskin.
Mark Farrell also faced a fair share of criticism for his own ethics dilemmas.
“You’ve been accused of playing fast and loose with campaign finance rules. It’s all related to raising money from your wealthy friends,” said Lagos, alluding to numerous allegations that have come forward during this election season: Farrell using funds from his ballot measure committee as a way to subsidize his mayoral campaign in an end-run around donation limits, Farrell’s history of soliciting donations to connected nonprofits from entities with business before City Hall, Farrell’s past ethics fines for campaign finance violations.
“Why should voters trust you to clean house?” Lagos asked.
Farrell defaulted to his usual response: “Because every single thing that I’ve ever done with my campaigns has been approved, vetted by, and signed off by my attorneys,” he said.
That “doesn’t mean it’s necessarily legal, though,” Lagos interrupted, laughing along with the audience. Legal advice is not the final word, she added.
Lagos brought up the $191,000 fine Farrell received in 2016 for misconduct during his 2010 supervisor campaign — at the time the largest fine the Ethics Commission had ever meted out.
Farrell countered that after years of investigation, he was exonerated at the state level, and his local fine was knocked down to $25,000. “To me it’s important to follow the rules,” said Farrell.
Instead of addressing the other allegations, Farrell shifted gears and started criticizing Breed. “It’s nice to see Mayor Breed finally at a debate after she’s been ducking them for the past two weeks,” he said, before listing a number of ills he attributes to the current administration, such as “record level crime” and rising homelessness.
The reality on homelessness is mixed: While homelessness overall did rise 7 percent since 2022, according to a point-in-time count released earlier this year, street homelessness was down 13 percent — the city’s lowest rate in a decade.
Farrell was dead wrong on crime: It decreased last year after a post-pandemic bump, and it is down another 32 percent since the beginning of 2024. In San Francisco like in most American cities, reported crime is far lower than in past decades.
In her rebuttal, Breed mentioned this and hit hard against the statistics during Farrell’s own brief tenure as mayor in 2018: “Property crime was 70 percent higher when Mark was temporary mayor. Car break-ins were 150 percent higher when he was temporary mayor, and violent crime was almost 40 percent higher. Tent encampments were over 60 percent higher,” she said.
“We are seeing our city bounce back and he is trying to take us backwards, and we are not going back,” Breed added, repeating a well-worn sense of recovery she has used time and again during this campaign, and employing a subtle reference to a tagline Vice President Kamala Harris repeated during the presidential contest against Donald Trump.
But two candidates took the position that statistics do not matter or are false — and even that citing them is an insult. Farrell said that “If you believe those stats, I got a bridge to sell you,” while Safaí told Breed that “to consistently tell people crime is down is gaslighting … We’ve got to stop gaslighting the hardworking people of San Francisco, Mayor Breed.”
Those attacks in the first round of responses set the pattern for the hour-long debate: Breed and Farrell repeatedly attacked one another, and sometimes took swipes at Daniel Lurie; Peskin and Safaí, who rank fourth and fifth in most polls, were second thoughts.
The rules also gave Farrell and Breed an advantage: When a candidate was targeted by name, they received 30 seconds to give a rebuttal, meaning those who targeted their rivals got more chances to speak. Contenders like Peskin and Safaí, who spoke more to their records and policy, received noticeably less air time.
As the debate went on, those attacks became more pointed.
Breed complained about Farrell saying “the same thing over and over again,” while Safaí criticized Breed for going to Las Vegas during the city’s flooding emergency in December 2022. Peskin called his opponents “tough talkers who don’t get the job done,” but mostly avoided the fray; he said that unlike his opponents, he has a plan for middle income and affordable housing.
When Lagos questioned Lurie, the Levi Strauss heir who has vastly outraised all his opponents largely by self-financing to the tune of $5 million, Breed took the opportunity to bitterly admonish him.
“You’ve said Mayor Breed has run San Francisco into the ground, but she also led the city through the Covid pandemic … how would you have handled the crisis differently?” said Lagos, addressing Lurie.
“We actually talked during Covid. I offered my support to this mayor. I thought she did a very good job in the early months of it. But we stayed shut down for far too long,” Lurie responded, referring to his outreach; Lurie is the founder of Tipping Point, an anti-poverty nonprofit.
“Daniel Lurie is probably one of the most dangerous people on this stage, so we definitely should be scared,” countered Breed. “He hasn’t even been employed for the past five years. What does he know?” she added. “Not to mention, I don’t even remember that phone call.”
Farrell, for his part, touted his record during the six months he served as interim mayor in 2018, as he often does during the campaign, saying his time in Room 200 gives him the requisite experience to run the city.
Lagos too, brought his tenure up, this time using it to put him on his back foot. When 49ers wide receiver Ricky Pearsall was shot last month at Union Square, Farrell was quick to put the blame on Breed; Lagos said that during his time as mayor, there were 18 homicides in San Francisco and 2,700 robberies and assaults. “Is it fair to blame you for those crimes since you were in charge at that time?” asked Lagos. “And if not, do you owe Mayor Breed an apology?”
“Absolutely not,” Farrell said, brooking no responsibility. “Mayor Breed owes the city of San Francisco an apology.”
About the author
Daniel Lurie leads after strange and terrible election night: Analysis
It’s a shame that San Francisco’s fascinating election results can’t be viewed in isolation from the strange and terrible returns that propelled Donald Trump once more to the presidency. But the luxury of ignoring the bigger picture is something San Francisco no longer gets to do. As of a shade before 1 a.m., every last in-person vote was tabulated — 37,345 of them (20,000 provisional votes are pending). In-person voting is a bit like shaving with a straight-edge razor or knitting your own pot-holders: You could do it if you wanted to, but hardly anybody does. At present, 234,453 votes have been counted; a shade under 45 percent. The Department of Elections expects around 157,000 more votes to trickle in (including those 20,000 provisional ballots). That would result in perhaps a 75 percent turnout; San Francisco voters show up at an average […]
Gov. Tim Walz will face new era of divided government in Minnesota
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Gov. Tim Walz faces a new era of divided government when he returns home from the presidential campaign trail, now that Republicans appear to have broken the Democratic trifecta that helped put him on Kamala Harris’ radar.While Democrats will keep their one-seat majority in the Senate, leaders on both sides agree that Republicans gained enough seats in the election to tie control of the House at 67-67.According to a tally by The Associated Press, the chamber stood at 65-65 Wednesday afternoon. It would end in a 67-67 tie if the leaders of the last four undeclared races remain ahead. Two of them are so razor-thin that automatic recounts have been triggered unless lawmakers waive them.The last time the House was tied was in 1979, and the history of that legislative session suggests that power-sharing will be contentious.In […]
Election 2024: See results across San Francisco
See below for full election results from across San Francisco, including precinct-level maps and ranked-choice votings results. A total of 44.9 percent of ballots have been counted as of Nov. […] Election 2024: See results across San Francisco Source: missionlocal.org
Kremlin aide says Germany car industry plight shows green transition risks
By Vladimir Soldatkin SOCHI, Russia (Reuters) - Russian industry may suffer the fate of car makers in Germany, which have shed tens of thousands of jobs, if it moves too fast to replace fossil fuels, a Kremlin adviser said on Wednesday. "The Russian Federation supports a gradual transition, a gradual transformation, so as to avoid shock scenarios on the energy markets, industrial markets," Kremlin climate envoy Ruslan Edelgeriyev told a conference in Sochi, southern Russia. "Miscalculated ambitions damaged Germany's auto industry," he said, speaking five days before the next U.N. climate change conference begins in Baku, Azerbaijan. Russia is the world's biggest exporter of natural gas and number two exporter of oil. It is one of the world's top carbon dioxide emitters along with China, the United States and India. Russia joined the Paris climate change pact in 2019, which […]
Live updates from San Francisco November races
Follow along for Mission Local’s live updates for Election Day from across San Francisco. For updates in the run-up to the election, click here, and to learn more about the candidates and measures on the ballot, go to our election dashboard. If you like our coverage, consider supporting Mission Local. It’s a heck of an effort, today and every day. Election analysisTuesday, Nov. 5: Today is Election Day in San Francisco. Here’s what to expect.Imagine a political campaign is like a ski ramp, with candidates gaining momentum before soaring off into the unknown. If so, that would render Mark Farrell the Vinko Bogataj of the 2024 San Francisco mayoral campaign. You probably don’t know this name, but you probably do know who this is: He’s the Yugoslavian skier whose horrifying ski-jump-gone-wrong for many years defined “the agony of defeat” in […]
China’s J-35A Stealth Fighter Officially Breaks Cover
China has publicly unveiled the Shenyang J-35A, a land-based stealth fighter that has been under development for some time but which had previously only been seen in unofficial and frequently poor-quality imagery. While we now have a good look at the aircraft, many questions remain, especially about the People’s Liberation Army Air Force’s (PLAAF) plans for it, since the base design was previously understood to be under development primarily for export and latterly also for carrier-based service with the PLA Navy.The first official photo of the J-35A was released today, ahead of its planned debut at the China International Aviation & Aerospace Exhibition, better known as Airshow China, held at Zhuhai Airport in Guangdong province, in southern China. The show opens on November 12.The front three-quarter view of the jet, seen taxiing, reveals several new details and sheds more light […]
Related
Daniel Lurie leads after strange and terrible election night: Analysis
It’s a shame that San Francisco’s fascinating election results can’t be viewed in isolation from the strange and terrible returns that propelled Donald Trump once more to the presidency. But the luxury of ignoring the bigger picture is something San Francisco no longer gets to do. As of a shade before 1 a.m., every last in-person vote was tabulated — 37,345 of them (20,000 provisional votes are pending). In-person voting is a bit like shaving with a straight-edge razor or knitting your own pot-holders: You could do it if you wanted to, but hardly anybody does. At present, 234,453 votes have been counted; a shade under 45 percent. The Department of Elections expects around 157,000 more votes to trickle in (including those 20,000 provisional ballots). That would result in perhaps a 75 percent turnout; San Francisco voters show up at an average […]
Election 2024: See results across San Francisco
See below for full election results from across San Francisco, including precinct-level maps and ranked-choice votings results. A total of 44.9 percent of ballots have been counted as of Nov. […] Election 2024: See results across San Francisco Source: missionlocal.org
Live updates from San Francisco November races
Follow along for Mission Local’s live updates for Election Day from across San Francisco. For updates in the run-up to the election, click here, and to learn more about the candidates and measures on the ballot, go to our election dashboard. If you like our coverage, consider supporting Mission Local. It’s a heck of an effort, today and every day. Election analysisTuesday, Nov. 5: Today is Election Day in San Francisco. Here’s what to expect.Imagine a political campaign is like a ski ramp, with candidates gaining momentum before soaring off into the unknown. If so, that would render Mark Farrell the Vinko Bogataj of the 2024 San Francisco mayoral campaign. You probably don’t know this name, but you probably do know who this is: He’s the Yugoslavian skier whose horrifying ski-jump-gone-wrong for many years defined “the agony of defeat” in […]
Jury shown video of Nima Momeni’s stabbing motions
In a win for the prosecution, jurors today were shown a video in which alleged killer Nima Momeni made distinct stabbing motions, which prosecutors say match those that killed Cash App founder Bob Lee. The video was shown over objections from Momeni’s defense team. The jury was also shown images of the exact locations of Lee’s stab wounds, during testimony from Assistant Medical Examiner Ellen Moffatt. The video was recorded by San Francisco police Sgt. David Goff, who was tracking Momeni’s movements in the days after the stabbing in April 2023. When he captured Momeni on video, the defendant was talking to Brian Hedley, a private investigator who worked for Momeni’s former defense attorney, Paula Canny. In the video, Hedley and Momeni are standing in the parking lot at Canny’s office and the video shows Momeni making three arm movements — two to […]
A mural defaced, restored and its evolution
This weekend, a sharp resident noticed on Saturday morning that Marta Ayala Minero’s mural on the northeast corner of 24th and Valencia streets had been vandalized. When I contacted Ayala on Saturday, she said she would be out the next day to restore it. And indeed she did just that. Restored by the artist Marta Ayala Minero on Sunday, November 2.2024. Courtesy of the artist. Marta Ayala Minero’s mural on 24th and Valencia Street. Restored on Sunday. Photo by a community contributor. When I mentioned that the mural had been somewhat different earlier, she gave me a lesson on its evolution. First painted in 1992, thanks to a grant from the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development, Roots and Frequencies Basic to Our Education “had a lady speaking the phrase for “nonviolence” in a few languages.”The mural was based on a dream […]
On Día de los Muertos the Mission ‘remembers with beauty’
Sign up below to get Mission Local’s free newsletter, a daily digest of news you won’t find elsewhere. Surrounded by altars, marigolds, and candlelight, Marco Ruiz stood out from the crowd. In lieu of an elaborate memorial, Ruiz simply hugged a large framed photo of his brother Martin, who had died two days after his 19th birthday.Ruiz was stoic, taking in the scene. When asked about his brother, however, he smiled. “He thought he was the best dancer,” Marco grinned. In reality, “he was so bad — but he didn’t care.” After Martin was killed in a car accident years ago, 1,000 people attended the funeral, Marco added. Now, only the oldest kids remember him. On Día de los Muertos on Saturday, the Mission, like the Ruizes, was focused on celebrating the past. Want the latest on the Mission and San Francisco? […]
