- By Adam Shanks | Examiner staff writer
- Sep 22, 2023 Updated 1 hr ago (SFExaminer.com)
Nonprofit founder and Levi Strauss heir Daniel Lurie appears to be the latest major challenger to Mayor London Breed.
As has long been expected, Lurie filed paperwork on Thursday with The City’s Ethics Commission to enable a run against Breed in her 2024 reelection campaign, the San Francisco Standard first reported.
Lurie joins a race increasingly crowded with political moderates, but thus far absent of formidable and prominent progressives.
Though he has not yet publicly declared his intentions to run, Lurie has been conspicuously testing the mayoral waters in recent months and was rumored to be imminently jumping into the contest.
Lurie, a San Francisco native, is a founder of Tipping Point Community, a nonprofit that has aimed to address poverty in the Bay Area since 2005. He served as its CEO until 2019, when he stepped down and transitioned to board chair — a position he vacated in August of this year, according to the nonprofit’s website.
Lurie’s mother, Mimi Haas, married Peter Haas, the great-grandnephew of Levi Strauss. His father, Rabbi Brian Lurie, formerly served as the executive director of the Jewish Community Federation.
In May, Lurie joined Manny’s owner Manny Yekutiel to launch the $2 million Civic Joy Fund, a project intended to reinvigorate neighborhoods with public art installations, concerts and more.
He’s the most prominent figure to join the race who does not have deep experience in city government, which, given voters’ well-documented dismay with the state of The City, he could try to promote as an asset.
Breed is eyeing a second full term after more than five years on the Board of Supervisors. She is sure to highlight her recent efforts to more aggressively curtail open-air drug markets in the Tenderloin and Mid-Market neighborhoods, as well as her expansion of community ambassador programs and funding for police.
She’s fielding a challenge from current Supervisor Ahsha Safai, who has represented District 11 in the southeast quadrant of The City for two terms. Safai has been sharply critical of Breed’s leadership, including the opening — and then abrupt closure — of the Tenderloin Center, which served as a de facto safe consumption site for drug users in 2022.
