Leno officially joins the race for S.F. mayor
Former state Sen. Mark Leno officially entered the San Francisco mayor’s race on Monday by filing his candidacy papers with the city’s Department of Elections. He had effectively kicked off the mayoral race after becoming the first candidate to pull papers to run back in May.
Leno, who is also a former member of the Assembly and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, has billed himself as an agent of change and speaks broadly about his ambition to “shake things up.”
“Our crises of affordability and homelessness are out of control. We need significant change,” he said Monday, to the applause of a few dozen supporters gathered around him, including Supervisors Aaron Peskin and Sandra Lee Fewer and District Eight supervisorial candidate Rafael Mandelman.
Leno was termed out of the state Senate in 2016 after serving a total of 14 years in that chamber and the Assembly. He was appointed to the city’s Board of Supervisors by then-May-
or Willie Brown in 1998 and stayed on the board until 2002.
He has been a political trailblazer in California for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community. He and John Laird of Santa Cruz were the first openly gay men elected to the Assembly, and Leno was the first openly gay man in the state Senate. If he wins election in June, Leno would also become the city’s first gay mayor.
Leno also issued what his campaign called a “challenge” to the other mayoral candidates to “publicly denounce, renounce and reject” all independent expenditures made by third parties. The so-called Fair Campaign Promise also calls on super PACs to keep their money out of the mayor’s race. Leno signed the pledge and beckoned the race’s other entrants to do the same.
To date, Leno said his mayoral campaign has raised more than $415,000.
Tuesday at 5 p.m. is the deadline for mayoral candidates to file their paperwork. So far, only two other candidates — Angela Alioto and Ellen Lee Zhou — have become qualified candidates, though more are expected to file before the cutoff, including acting Mayor London Breed and Supervisor Jane Kim.
— Dominic Fracassa Out of the race: Two rumored San Francisco mayoral candidates said Monday that they don’t plan to run, narrowing the field to four likely major contenders.
In separate statements to their supporters, Assemblyman David Chiu and city Assessor-Recorder Carmen Chu both bowed out of the race, saying they prefer to keep their current jobs.
Both politicians began by memorializing Mayor Ed Lee, who died of a heart attack on Dec. 12 — jolting the city and setting in motion a fevered sprint to the June 5 election.
“We will greatly miss his civility, humor and decency, and salute his legacy of leadership for San Francisco,” Chiu wrote. He said he wants to prioritize his family and introduce more state legislation on housing, transportation and immigration.
Chu said her office is busy securing a $2.6 billion property tax system, and that last year she increased citywide revenue by more than $200 million.
“After much reflection with my family and loved ones, I have decided that I best serve the city, my staff, and the San Franciscans who have elected me to see my work through as assessor at this time,” she wrote on Facebook.
Entering the mayor’s race presented bigger risks for Chiu and Chu than for some of the other candidates. Both had planned to run for re-election in their current offices, and would have had to abandon those bids to enter the mayor’s race. State law bars anyone from appearing on the same ballot twice.
Despite their quandary, many City Hall insiders say they had good odds, particularly with Chinese voters who supported Lee.