New candidate could take on S.F. Mayor Breed — her predecessor

A venture capitalist and former District Two supervisor, Farrell was appointed mayor in early 2018 by his then-colleagues on the Board of Supervisors after Mayor Ed Lee’s death. His term lasted less than six months because he didn’t run in the subsequent special June 2018 election — which Breed won — to finish Lee’s term. Farrell’s appointment was controversial at the time because supervisors passed over Breed, who as board president had immediately become acting mayor when Lee died.

While Farrell’s time in the mayor’s office was short, a group of residents are urging him to run next year because they see him as a better candidate than Breed to improve San Francisco’s stubborn challenges with public drug scenes, homelessness and a sluggish economic recovery from COVID-19. Breed is already facing two prominent challengers: Supervisor Ahsha Safaí and philanthropist Daniel Lurie. 

If Farrell decides to join Safai and Lurie, he would make the mayor’s path to re-election even more crowded — and competitive, since he’s already held the position of mayor. He would likely try to appeal to the same moderate voters as Breed. She could also face a challenge from the left in Board of Supervisors Aaron Peskin, who has told the Chronicle he has no current plans to run for mayor next year, although some observers have speculated that he might decide to enter the race anyway.

Three of the pro-Farrell organizers told the Chronicle on Tuesday that they’ve watched San Francisco’s well-publicized problems persist or worsen in recent years, and they don’t have confidence that Breed will turn the city around if she’s re-elected.

“We’ve had five years of this, and I just don’t know if the city can take another five years,” said Brian Mullin, a Noe Valley resident and local business owner who knows some of Farrell’s close friends and family and is one of six co-chairs of the campaign to convince Farrell to run. “The time is right for change.”

Mullin’s fellow co-chairs in the campaign to recruit Farrell are fellow San Francisco business owners Nancy Liu Chin and Jennifer Chandler, along with former city police officer Eric Chiang, public school teacher Kevin Terjesen and Julia Cesnik, a tech worker and volunteer youth sports coach. They have started a website, draftmayormark.com, where they are beginning to collect signatures using an online form that they hope will help persuade Farrell to jump in the race. 

In his Tuesday statement to the Chronicle, Farrell said it had been “humbling” for him to hear from friends and local residents who want him to run for mayor, though he stressed  “it has not been something on my radar” because his sights have been set on his family and career.

“However, like many San Franciscans, I am deeply concerned about the state and future of our City,” Farrell said. “San Francisco cannot afford to continue down the path we have been on and we all deserve better from City Hall. Any decision I make about the future will not be taken lightly.”

Farrell could be a formidable candidate if he decides to run. 

A recent poll of 628 San Francisco voters obtained by the Chronicle found that 40% of them already planned to vote for one of Breed’s opponents in the mayor’s race next year and another 38% would consider a candidate other than the incumbent. Just 13% of those surveyed said they intended to vote for Breed, who was viewed unfavorably by two-thirds of poll respondents.

In the poll, Breed initially led a hypothetical five-way matchup against Farrell, Safaí, Lurie and Peskin. After the poll presented voters with positive messaging about the major hypothetical candidates, Farrell and Lurie each pulled even with Breed, getting support from about 20% of voters. After the poll also provided negative messaging, Farrell led with 21% compared to 18% for Breed, 17% for Lurie, 10% for Peskin and 8% for Safaí. More than a quarter of voters remained undecided.

Liu Chin said she was motivated to join the campaign to recruit Farrell because street conditions in her South of Market neighborhood have deteriorated since Breed took office. She sees more homeless encampments, as well as what she said is a related proliferation of trash, drug paraphernalia and human waste on the ground. 

“My street is like their toilet,” Liu Chin said, a comparison she said was “heartbreaking” for her to make.

Breed has made reducing homelessness one of her top priorities. She supports efforts to move more unhoused people into shelter beds and off of public sidewalks, and she has publicly opposed a nearly year-old federal injunction that limits the city’s ability to clear encampments. To reduce open-air drug scenes, she has embraced an aggressive role for law enforcement, even going as far as directing police to arrest users in certain circumstances. 

But Breed’s efforts haven’t created enough change on the ground, in Liu Chin’s view. Major businesses such as Whole Foods and Cole Hardware have closed locations near where Liu Chin lives. Small businesses where she used to walk and have coffee or breakfast no longer exist. Vacant storefronts abound, as do encampments and public drug dealing.

“I can only tell you what I’m living through now. When (Farrell) was mayor, I wasn’t scared to go and walk to my local grocery store. I would do that often. I wasn’t scared to walk to yoga at night, ” Liu Chin said. “While Mark was there, it was a very short time period, but he has always appeared to be a person of action, and that is what I’m looking for.”

Reach J.D. Morris: jd.morris@sfchronicle.com; Twitter: @thejdmorris