cawacko
Well-known member
Most of you probably live in places where your Mayor's race (even if non-partisan) is usally between a Democrat and Republican. Not in SF. Such an interesting political dilemma. On one hand you want as many votes as possible. On the other hand getting a Republican endorsement isn't always a good thing here. (Usually our race is between a 'moderate' (I put in quotes because nationally they would be considered progressive) Democrat and a progressive Democrat. There is no choice a Republican would like but for those who vote like myself we will vote for the more moderate candidate.
Only 7% of San Francisco’s registered voters are Republicans, but the city’s top GOP leaders say the party is poised to play an outsize role in deciding who the city’s next mayor will be by doing something that may appear mind-blowing: endorse a Democrat.
Even if a smattering of the city’s 38,069 registered Republicans follow the party’s endorsement, that could make a difference in what’s expected to be a tight race between five leading Democrats in an election where turnout is expected to be over 80%.
The question for all of them: Is the endorsement worth it?
In other words, if a Democrat were to receive a GOP nod, would the potential votes be worth the blowback they would receive from members of their own party? Yet there’s something to be gained from such a nod for both Republicans and Democrats.
“That’s the dirty little secret in this town,” said political consultant Jim Stearns, who is advising Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin’s campaign. “The ace-in-the-hole for moderate Democrats are usually Republicans. They can provide the margin of victory.”
And for Republicans, backing a Democrat can mean electing the lesser of five evils in a town where a Los Angeles Dodger would have a better shot at winning. George Christopher was San Francisco’s last Republican mayor, and he left office in 1964.
It’s a dilemma that other county-level Republican Party organizations and business groups across the state face in every election in California, which is full of Democrat-on-Democrat races: Do they stay away from Democratic candidates on principle, or hold their nose and decide it’s more important to have some semblance of a say in who’s running things?
In deep blue San Francisco, those decisions are particularly fraught. However, it wouldn’t be the first time that San Francisco Republicans endorsed a Democrat.
In 1999, the San Francisco Republican Party got blasted by statewide conservatives for endorsing Mayor Willie Brown for reelection over Board of Supervisors President Tom Ammiano in a runoff election in the days before ranked choice voting was implemented. The conservative California Republican Assembly fumed that Brown “represents a threat to the conservative principles of the Republican Party.”
Countered the San Francisco GOP: not as much of a threat as Ammiano.
It is in that spirit that both the San Francisco Republican Party and the more moderate Republicans in the ascendant Briones Society group expect to endorse a Democrat for mayor as part of a ranked-choice ballot.
“It’s a non-partisan race,” said John Dennis, chair of the San Francisco Republican Party. “We’re not bound to endorse a Republican.”
Same goes for the Briones Society, which backed a more moderate slate of Republicans that secured 17 of the 25 seats on the San Francisco Republican County Central Committee. They will not take office until after the election, however.
Briones Society co-founder Jay Donde said he anticipates the group will back one of the Democratic candidates, and that it will announce its endorsements sometime in July.
“It’s really, really important that the candidates appreciate how competitive this race is going to be, and how important each and every single vote will be,” Donde said.
Even from Republicans.
There are Republicans running for mayor, most notably Ellen Lee Zhao, an outspoken supporter of Donald Trump who attended the Jan. 6, 2021, Trump rally in Washington before the attack on the Capitol. Republican leaders believe they will have more influence in shaping the mayor’s race, however, by backing someone with a more realistic chance to win. Zhao has run unsuccessfully for mayor before.
Neither Dennis nor Donde would speculate on which Democrats their fellow Republicans would support. But it is unlikely to be one one of the two more left-leaning candidates in the race, Peskin or San Francisco Supervisor Ahsha Safai.
“I think we can be honest with each other that Peskin and Safai will have an uphill battle to gain either the Briones Society’s or the Republican Party’s endorsement,” Donde said.
No offense taken from Peskin’s camp. He wouldn’t want it.
“Absolutely not,” Stearns said. “We will neither seek nor accept the endorsement.”
Safai’s response on whether he would accept either endorsement: “Unequivocally, no,” said campaign adviser Derek Jansen. Not from “any organization that endorses and enables Donald Trump.”
And that’s the challenge for Republicans. Whoever gets their endorsement will undoubtedly get blasted by the other campaigns.
Donde conceded that “there’s still a cost-benefit analysis (with a GOP endorsement). But I would say that that is true with a number of endorsements.”
Donde encouraged who he called “the more moderate candidates in the race,” Mayor London Breed, former interim Mayor Mark Farrell and nonprofit executive Daniel Lurie, to “demonstrate the moral courage necessary to reach out to Republicans and say, ‘Hey, we disagree on a lot of things. And some of those things are fundamental. And I think you guys are crazy. And you guys think I’m crazy, but we need to talk. And we need to see where we can find common ground or else we’re going to end up in a really bad situation with a candidate in the mayoral office that none of us want.’”
That could be a tough ask, even from the more moderate candidates. None would say they’re reaching out to Republicans.
“I’m a proud lifelong Democrat, so it’s not an endorsement I’m seeking,” Lurie said. “But my campaign has always been about bringing people into the fold, not pushing them away. I welcome the support of every San Franciscan who is committed to restoring safety, ending homelessness and shutting down open-air drug markets. That’s not partisan. It’s common sense.”
Breed spokesman Joe Arellano said Breed “vehemently disagrees with many aspects of the Republican Party’s platform. She has not sought the endorsement of the Republican Party, nor will she. But her job is to be a mayor for everyone and she will continue to work with all residents of San Francisco who care about this city, regardless of their political affiliation.”
Farrell, the most moderate of the top mayoral candidates, didn’t explicitly rule out seeking or accepting a Republican endorsement.
“Mark is a born-and-raised San Franciscan, a lifelong Democrat, and will be a mayor that represents all San Franciscans and our shared values that we hold dear as a city. Mark is running to drastically improve public safety and our street conditions while leading with compassion and dignity for those experiencing homelessness and suffering from addiction,” said Farrell campaign manager Jade Tu.
Farrell has been endorsed by Republicans before. Dennis told KQED last week that “people in San Francisco politically wouldn’t know Mark Farrell if it wasn’t for Republicans. We endorsed him in 2010” for supervisor over the more left-leaning Janet Reilly.
Farrell won by 258 votes. Did Republicans provide the difference?
‘The dirty little secret in this town’: GOP voters could decide S.F. mayor’s race
Only 7% of San Francisco’s registered voters are Republicans, but the city’s top GOP leaders say the party is poised to play an outsize role in deciding who the city’s next mayor will be by doing something that may appear mind-blowing: endorse a Democrat.
Even if a smattering of the city’s 38,069 registered Republicans follow the party’s endorsement, that could make a difference in what’s expected to be a tight race between five leading Democrats in an election where turnout is expected to be over 80%.
The question for all of them: Is the endorsement worth it?
In other words, if a Democrat were to receive a GOP nod, would the potential votes be worth the blowback they would receive from members of their own party? Yet there’s something to be gained from such a nod for both Republicans and Democrats.
“That’s the dirty little secret in this town,” said political consultant Jim Stearns, who is advising Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin’s campaign. “The ace-in-the-hole for moderate Democrats are usually Republicans. They can provide the margin of victory.”
And for Republicans, backing a Democrat can mean electing the lesser of five evils in a town where a Los Angeles Dodger would have a better shot at winning. George Christopher was San Francisco’s last Republican mayor, and he left office in 1964.
It’s a dilemma that other county-level Republican Party organizations and business groups across the state face in every election in California, which is full of Democrat-on-Democrat races: Do they stay away from Democratic candidates on principle, or hold their nose and decide it’s more important to have some semblance of a say in who’s running things?
In deep blue San Francisco, those decisions are particularly fraught. However, it wouldn’t be the first time that San Francisco Republicans endorsed a Democrat.
In 1999, the San Francisco Republican Party got blasted by statewide conservatives for endorsing Mayor Willie Brown for reelection over Board of Supervisors President Tom Ammiano in a runoff election in the days before ranked choice voting was implemented. The conservative California Republican Assembly fumed that Brown “represents a threat to the conservative principles of the Republican Party.”
Countered the San Francisco GOP: not as much of a threat as Ammiano.
It is in that spirit that both the San Francisco Republican Party and the more moderate Republicans in the ascendant Briones Society group expect to endorse a Democrat for mayor as part of a ranked-choice ballot.
“It’s a non-partisan race,” said John Dennis, chair of the San Francisco Republican Party. “We’re not bound to endorse a Republican.”
Same goes for the Briones Society, which backed a more moderate slate of Republicans that secured 17 of the 25 seats on the San Francisco Republican County Central Committee. They will not take office until after the election, however.
Briones Society co-founder Jay Donde said he anticipates the group will back one of the Democratic candidates, and that it will announce its endorsements sometime in July.
“It’s really, really important that the candidates appreciate how competitive this race is going to be, and how important each and every single vote will be,” Donde said.
Even from Republicans.
There are Republicans running for mayor, most notably Ellen Lee Zhao, an outspoken supporter of Donald Trump who attended the Jan. 6, 2021, Trump rally in Washington before the attack on the Capitol. Republican leaders believe they will have more influence in shaping the mayor’s race, however, by backing someone with a more realistic chance to win. Zhao has run unsuccessfully for mayor before.
Neither Dennis nor Donde would speculate on which Democrats their fellow Republicans would support. But it is unlikely to be one one of the two more left-leaning candidates in the race, Peskin or San Francisco Supervisor Ahsha Safai.
“I think we can be honest with each other that Peskin and Safai will have an uphill battle to gain either the Briones Society’s or the Republican Party’s endorsement,” Donde said.
No offense taken from Peskin’s camp. He wouldn’t want it.
“Absolutely not,” Stearns said. “We will neither seek nor accept the endorsement.”
Safai’s response on whether he would accept either endorsement: “Unequivocally, no,” said campaign adviser Derek Jansen. Not from “any organization that endorses and enables Donald Trump.”
And that’s the challenge for Republicans. Whoever gets their endorsement will undoubtedly get blasted by the other campaigns.
Donde conceded that “there’s still a cost-benefit analysis (with a GOP endorsement). But I would say that that is true with a number of endorsements.”
Donde encouraged who he called “the more moderate candidates in the race,” Mayor London Breed, former interim Mayor Mark Farrell and nonprofit executive Daniel Lurie, to “demonstrate the moral courage necessary to reach out to Republicans and say, ‘Hey, we disagree on a lot of things. And some of those things are fundamental. And I think you guys are crazy. And you guys think I’m crazy, but we need to talk. And we need to see where we can find common ground or else we’re going to end up in a really bad situation with a candidate in the mayoral office that none of us want.’”
That could be a tough ask, even from the more moderate candidates. None would say they’re reaching out to Republicans.
“I’m a proud lifelong Democrat, so it’s not an endorsement I’m seeking,” Lurie said. “But my campaign has always been about bringing people into the fold, not pushing them away. I welcome the support of every San Franciscan who is committed to restoring safety, ending homelessness and shutting down open-air drug markets. That’s not partisan. It’s common sense.”
Breed spokesman Joe Arellano said Breed “vehemently disagrees with many aspects of the Republican Party’s platform. She has not sought the endorsement of the Republican Party, nor will she. But her job is to be a mayor for everyone and she will continue to work with all residents of San Francisco who care about this city, regardless of their political affiliation.”
Farrell, the most moderate of the top mayoral candidates, didn’t explicitly rule out seeking or accepting a Republican endorsement.
“Mark is a born-and-raised San Franciscan, a lifelong Democrat, and will be a mayor that represents all San Franciscans and our shared values that we hold dear as a city. Mark is running to drastically improve public safety and our street conditions while leading with compassion and dignity for those experiencing homelessness and suffering from addiction,” said Farrell campaign manager Jade Tu.
Farrell has been endorsed by Republicans before. Dennis told KQED last week that “people in San Francisco politically wouldn’t know Mark Farrell if it wasn’t for Republicans. We endorsed him in 2010” for supervisor over the more left-leaning Janet Reilly.
Farrell won by 258 votes. Did Republicans provide the difference?