{"id":36374,"date":"2024-09-23T14:00:43","date_gmt":"2024-09-23T21:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=36374"},"modified":"2024-09-23T14:00:44","modified_gmt":"2024-09-23T21:00:44","slug":"analysis-what-weve-learned-from-the-sf-mayoral-debates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/09\/23\/analysis-what-weve-learned-from-the-sf-mayoral-debates\/","title":{"rendered":"Analysis: What we\u2019ve learned from the SF mayoral debates"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfexaminer.com\/users\/profile\/Adam%20Shanks\">By Adam Shanks | Examiner staff writer<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Sep 20, 2024\u00a0Updated\u00a0Sep 21, 2024 (SFExaminer.com)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com\/sfexaminer.com\/content\/tncms\/assets\/v3\/editorial\/1\/8d\/18d73aa4-2d22-11ef-9549-0b84e1874b05\/6670fda2119d2.image.jpg?resize=400%2C267\" alt=\"Mayoral debate at UC Law San Francisco on Monday, June 17, 2024\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Left-right: Mark Farrell, Ahsha Safa\u00ed, Daniel Lurie, Mayor London Breed and Aaron Peskin on stage for the mayoral debate at UC Law San Francisco on Monday, June 17, 2024.\u00a0Craig Lee\/The Examiner<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>As San Francisco\u2019s election season began to heat up in June, I wrote a column in this fine newspaper urging readers to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfexaminer.com\/news\/politics\/why-voters-should-watch-2024-san-francisco-mayoral-debates\/article_6cb6a6d4-275d-11ef-8c0b-5bf9e214cab6.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">tune into at least one debate.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My reasoning was that while mayoral debates should not be the only factor weighed by voters, they do offer a great way to see the differences between candidates at least in terms of comportment, if not in the finer details of policy proposals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The five prominent candidates for San Francisco mayor shared the stage for a debate hosted by KQED and The San Francisco Chronicle on Thursday. So three months after I wrote that column and a handful of debates later, was I right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019ll let the reader decide. But I do think there were some trends that&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfexaminer.com\/news\/politics\/san-francisco-mayoral-candidates-spar-in-first-2024-debate\/article_507cec70-283f-11ef-a964-7321d77fa14e.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">emerged in the debates<\/a>&nbsp;that are worth highlighting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Nov. 5 election features Mayor London Breed, who is attempting to secure a second full term in office, fending off challenges from Supervisor Ahsha Safai, anti-poverty nonprofit founder and Levi Strauss heir Daniel Lurie, former interim Mayor Mark Farrell, and Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>London Breed\u2019s presence is her present<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Thursday\u2019s debate was not actually the last one before Election Day, but it is set to be the final one to feature all five of the candidates, as of this writing. Breed has declined to participate in a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/sfstandard.com\/2024\/09\/11\/san-francisco-mayor-skip-debates-london-breed\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Sept. 25 debate hosted by The San Francisco Standard and KGO-TV.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Her reluctance to take the debate stage has become a pattern called out by her opponents. Breed also didn\u2019t attend a Sept. 11 debate hosted by The Examiner and its media partners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The back-to-back debates, one with Breed and one without her, offered an interesting contrast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Breed\u2019s defense has been that she\u2019s too busy running The City to participate in debate after debate, and that they\u2019ve offered diminishing returns to voters. But in her absence, opponents still readily attacked her record and fitness to be mayor. In the Sept. 11 debate, such attacks were met with silence. On Thursday, she was there to offer a rebuttal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With Breed there, for example, she answered Farrell\u2019s repeated allegations that she has failed to adequately address public safety and things were better when he was in office in 2018<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know why we\u2019re still listening to Mark Farrell talk about what he\u2019s done, the same thing over and over again. The fact is, crime is at its lowest level that it\u2019s been in 10 years,\u201d Breed said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Breed going positive<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Breed has never been hesitant to decry The City\u2019s problems, famously lamenting the \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/missionlocal.org\/2021\/12\/san-francisco-tenderloin-matrix-declaration-of-emergency-london-breed\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">bulls&#8212; that has destroyed our city<\/a>\u201d in 2021. But with her opponents focused on everything in San Francisco that\u2019s going wrong \u2014 and why she\u2019s to blame for it \u2014 Breed has changed course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She has consistently tried to portray San Francisco as a city that, thanks to her battle-tested leadership, has weathered unprecedented challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic and is in the nascent stages of a profound rebound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On Thursday, she even tried to ride the wave of enthusiasm generated by&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfexaminer.com\/news\/politics\/kamala-harris-sf-volunteers-phone-bank-in-old-nordstrom-rack\/article_245bd1f6-742a-11ef-bc58-ebe4a191d7e0.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Democratic presidential nominee and Bay Area native Kamala Harris<\/a>&nbsp;by borrowing the catchphrase \u201cwe\u2019re not going back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Mayoral candidate Aaron Peskin hits different<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Peskin has spent much of his adult life behind a microphone talking politics. Normally able to abruptly pull a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ArmandDoma\/status\/1825546504930800121\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Mark Twain-like quote out of thin air<\/a>, he is relatively stifled and scripted on the debate stage. It was true in the first debate, and it was still true Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019m not sure if it was conscious change or just a man meeting the moment, but Peskin appeared a bit more reserved, more polished and carefully on-message during the mayoral debates than he is while talking on the fly about city policy during a supervisors\u2019 meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s unclear what impact the approach has had on his candidacy, if any, because most polls show him continually stuck in fourth place behind the three leading candidates (Breed, Farrell and Lurie), all of whom are part of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfexaminer.com\/news\/politics\/what-moderate-and-progressive-mean-in-san-francisco-politics\/article_6e9265d8-16ff-11ef-8750-f36e924a7805.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The City\u2019s moderate political contingent.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">EX \/\/ TOP STORIES<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfexaminer.com\/news\/business\/sf-gets-a-boost-as-dreamforce-extravaganza-draws-45000\/article_54752518-76cd-11ef-a5d6-374c2c58f2b5.html#tncms-source=top-stories-article\">SF economy boosted as Salesforce&#8217;s Dreamforce extravaganza draws 45K<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Though it was the largest convention scheduled in The City this year, Dreamforce 2024 was a far cry from the 170,000 registered to attend in 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfexaminer.com\/news\/health\/bay-area-faces-challenges-meeting-post-dobbs-abortion-demand\/article_7bfb0044-77a4-11ef-9d5d-f3e1b02c5868.html#tncms-source=top-stories-article\">Report: Post-Dobbs abortion demand strains SF providers<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning abortion rights, local abortion providers have seen a surge in demand and are feeling the strain<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfexaminer.com\/news\/technology\/ibm-cisco-to-cut-nearly-200-san-francisco-workers\/article_8b876d3a-76e7-11ef-b3dd-a3213010a71c.html#tncms-source=top-stories-article\">IBM, Cisco to cut nearly 200 San Francisco workers<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>The tech giants are only the latest to slash staff in The City in a wave of layoffs that began in late 2022<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As the only candidate in the race considered a true progressive by San Francisco\u2019s political definition, Peskin\u2019s main goal is to contrast himself with the other candidates \u2014 which he feels he has done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The attacker gets attacked<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Lurie\u2019s rise in the polls has drawn him more attention from his opponents as fog season has turned into ballot season. On some level, it\u2019s a blessing to be attacked, which shows he\u2019s perceived a legitimate threat. Candidates are now ready to pounce on Lurie, but barely offer Safai a mention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lurie\u2019s opponents have repeatedly pointed out his inexperience, with Breed doing so brutally Thursday and calling him \u201cone of the most dangerous people on this stage, so we definitely should be scared.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHe has absolutely zero experience,\u201d Breed said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lurie appeared to me to be a bit more flustered this round, which might be reflective of his clear status as a frontrunner. But when on message, he was obviously effective at articulating his platform. Lurie has tried to use their own attacks against them, by repeatedly noting that he\u2019s the only candidate who hasn\u2019t spent time in City Hall. It\u2019s a tactic he has stuck to since launching his campaign last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIf you\u2019re watching at home, you see what the City Hall insiders are doing, they\u2019re circling the wagons, they are so scared of somebody coming from outside this broken system,\u201d Lurie said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ahsha Safai tries to stand out<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Safai is really trying to stand out by offering balance of policy wins, personal story, future plans, and criticism of Breed, who he accused of &#8220;gaslighting&#8221; San Franciscans. It\u2019s a message that places him squarely in the middle of San Francisco\u2019s political spectrum without an obvious base of support he can rely on, aside from backing from organized labor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He\u2019s mostly stuck with the same message, and he&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfexaminer.com\/news\/politics\/sf-mayor-election-poll-has-daniel-lurie-close-to-leaders\/article_c380328c-6bb9-11ef-8609-8728ce0c7d78.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">appears stuck in the polls.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Farrell locks in on voter discontent<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Candidates were asked hard questions Thursday, so they mostly answered the ones they wished they had gotten. For example, when asked about his previous positions on housing policy, Peskin quickly veered into a scripted answer \u2014 he could be seen reading from his notes \u2014 that focused on his efforts to rein in corruption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The moderators pressed Farrell on his controversial campaign fundraising tactics, nearly \u2014 nearly \u2014 forcing him off his San-Francisco-is-broken message.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThere is no mayor that has overseen a steeper decline in our city\u2019s history than London Breed,\u201d Farrell said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There was talk in recent weeks of him potentially swinging to a more positive message as voters\u2019 views of The City have begun to improve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Instead, he claimed that crime is at \u201crecord\u201d highs in San Francisco, which Breed quickly refuted and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/crime\/article\/san-francisco-homicides-decline-19771624.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">police data of reported crimes does not support.<\/a>&nbsp;But Farrell is banking on voters trusting their gut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIf you believe those stats, I got a bridge to sell ya,\u201d Farrell said. \u201cThe reality is here in San Francisco, Mayor Breed has overseen an incredible decline in our city government.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>Editor&#8217;s note:<\/strong>&nbsp;This story was corrected Sept. 20 to reflect that it was Safai who accused Breed of gaslighting San Franciscans.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As San Francisco\u2019s election season began to heat up in June, I wrote a column in this fine newspaper urging readers to&nbsp;tune into at least one debate. My reasoning was that while mayoral debates should not be the only factor weighed by voters, they do offer a great way to&#8230; <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/09\/23\/analysis-what-weve-learned-from-the-sf-mayoral-debates\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/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\/36374"}],"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=36374"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36374\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36378,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36374\/revisions\/36378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}