{"id":31514,"date":"2024-02-05T12:58:19","date_gmt":"2024-02-05T20:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=31514"},"modified":"2024-02-05T12:58:20","modified_gmt":"2024-02-05T20:58:20","slug":"mark-farrell-will-run-to-be-san-franciscos-mayor-again-sources-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/02\/05\/mark-farrell-will-run-to-be-san-franciscos-mayor-again-sources-say\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Farrell Will Run To Be San Francisco\u2019s Mayor Again, Sources Say"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Written by\u00a0Josh Koehn<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Han Li<\/a>Published\u00a0Feb. 02, 2024 \u2022 SFStandard.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Mark<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark Farrell served as mayor of San Francisco for six months back in 2018. Now he wants his old job back and plans to announce his campaign in the next two weeks. | Source:Jeff Chiu\/AP Photo<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a brief window of time, Mark Farrell<\/a> was mayor of San Francisco. Apparently, that six months running City Hall wasn\u2019t enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Multiple sources have confirmed to The Standard that Farrell\u2014a San Francisco native who also served seven years as a supervisor for the Marina District\u2014will challenge Mayor London Breed<\/a> in November\u2019s election. Farrell is expected to make a formal announcement in the next two weeks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Farrell, 49, has been recruiting people to appear in his campaign ads, according to sources. Among those contacted was a business owner from the city\u2019s Asian American community, which accounts for one-third of San Francisco residents. Farrell also has been receiving help from Margaux Kelly\u2014a top exec for the nonprofit TogetherSF<\/a> and one of his former supervisor staffers\u2014to arrange meetings and coordinate his schedule, according to a City Hall source. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Mark
Former San Francisco Mayor Mark Farrell is expected to join the race to get his old job in mid-February. | Source:Justin Sullivan\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Farrell has some catching up to do in the mayor\u2019s race, as the field of serious contenders has now grown to four. Breed, Supervisor Ahsha Safa\u00ed<\/a> and nonprofit founder Daniel Lurie have all been running campaigns since last year. These three candidates, in addition to the independent committees supporting Breed and Lurie, have already combined to raise more than $4.8 million, according to campaign records.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Farrell currently works as the managing director of Thayer Ventures, an early-stage technology investment firm that he co-founded before his election to the Board of Supervisors in 2011. In early 2018, he became San Francisco\u2019s 44th mayor following the sudden death of Ed Lee. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Breed, who was the president of the Board of Supervisors at the time, was briefly elevated to acting mayor before a contentious Board of Supervisors vote<\/a> installed Farrell as the city\u2019s top official. He served in this capacity until Breed won a special election and was sworn in as mayor in July 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rumors of a Farrell candidacy have been percolating since September. His name appeared as a possible candidate in at least one poll the following month. A group of supporters also launched a \u201cDraft Mayor Mark\u201d<\/a> website urging him to run as a moderate alternative to Breed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Farrell will need to carve out a lane distinct from Lurie, as multiple political insiders noted that the two have similar moderate policy platforms and overlapping supporters. Like Lurie, Farrell has considerable wealth and connections<\/a>, which should allow him to quickly assemble a competitive campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Farrell and Kelly did not respond to The Standard\u2019s requests for comment on Friday. However, in a text message back in November, Farrell said that he was \u201cdeeply concerned about the state and future of our city.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSan Francisco cannot afford to continue down the path we have been on, and we all deserve better from City Hall,\u201d he said. \u201cAny decision I make about the future will not be taken lightly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Mark
Mark Farrell took an aggressive approach to clearing homeless encampments during his time as mayor of San Francisco in the first half of 2018. | Source:Ben Margot\/AP Photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Farrell was first elected to the Board of Supervisors in 2011, succeeding Michela Alioto-Pier and representing the Marina and other northern neighborhoods. Serving in that office until January 2018, when the board voted to appoint him as mayor, he was succeeded as supervisor by his legislative aide, Catherine Stefani. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a San Francisco native and political moderate with a background in venture capital, Farrell sparred with progressives during his tenure as mayor, pushing policies that included hiring 250 more police officers and an \u201caggressive crackdown\u201d on street encampments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a crowded field of moderate candidates, many political observers have wondered who will emerge as the leading progressive candidate for mayor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Safa\u00ed has been courting the support of labor unions, while many continue to believe Supervisor Aaron Peskin, who currently serves as president of the Board of Supervisors, will jump into the race after the March primary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peskin, however, recently indicated to the Standard that he was not interested in jumping into the race<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m not afraid of losing,\u201d Peskin said. \u201cI\u2019m afraid of winning.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It appears Farrell shares no such fears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Josh Koehn can be reached at josh@sfstandard.com<\/a>
Han Li can be reached at han@sfstandard.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by\u00a0Josh Koehn\u00a0and\u00a0Han LiPublished\u00a0Feb. 02, 2024 \u2022 SFStandard.com Mark Farrell served as mayor of San Francisco for six months back in 2018. Now he wants his old job back and plans to announce his campaign in the next two weeks. | Source:Jeff Chiu\/AP Photo For a brief window of time, Mark Farrell was… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31514"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31514"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31514\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31515,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31514\/revisions\/31515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}