Farrell’s moves hint at political ambitions
San Francisco Mayor Mark Farrell has insisted in interviews that his current stint in the city’s top job will mark the end of his political career.
But behind the scenes, he appears to be positioning himself for the possibility of a run in 2019. Some people even say he’s taken steps to boost his preferred opponent.
Farrell holds regular meetings outside City Hall with his top staff and political operatives and keeps a fundraising consultant on retainer. He is courting donors for three legacy projects — citywide fiber Internet, the parcel tax to raise teachers’ wages and the San Francisco Shared Schoolyard Project to open more school playgrounds citywide to the community outside school hours — all of which would bolster his image.
He is also considering a November ballot measure to generate funds for the citywide fiber network to provide high-speed Internet to
all residents, which could be used to attract money and publicity to a mayoral campaign. The mayor has sought fundraising meetings with Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff to round up money for the project, according to adviser Nathan Ballard.
These are the apparent maneuverings of someone contemplating a run for office. Gavin Newsom held similar meetings with his kitchen Cabinet between 2004 and 2010, assembling a mix of staff members and campaign strategists every Wednesday at a sushi restaurant in Opera Plaza.
Farrell has brought that practice back. His team frequently convenes in a conference room at the San Francisco Realtors Association building on Grove Street or, occasionally, at Ballard’s office in Cow Hollow.
Jason McDaniel, an associate professor of political science at San Francisco State University, said Farrell is probably treating his temporary job as a trial run and a chance to build name recognition among voters.
“It seems pretty clear that his major reason for taking the job in the first place was to get a chance to perform well in the role that he no doubt wants to run for in 2019,” McDaniel said.
Farrell’s actions have stirred chatter in City Hall and throughout San Francisco’s political world, causing consultants, gadflies and wary officials to brace for what could be another ferocious election year in 2019. Some are openly wondering if Farrell would swoop back in as the moderate savior, should a progressive win in June.
Yet as the rumors make the City Hall rounds, some insiders have praised Farrell for being smart and strategic in laying the groundwork for a citywide campaign next year.
“He’s in a very fortunate spot,” said public affairs consultant Larry Kamer, who worked with Farrell to make new beds available for mentally ill people at St. Mary’s Medical Center — beds that aren’t ready yet.
“Why squander the benefits of being able to fundraise and move an agenda, even if he has very little time to do it?” Kamer asked. Farrell’s term will end in July, after a special election on June 5 to replace Ed Lee, who died of a heart attack in December.
Late last week, Farrell vehemently denied that he has any future political ambitions.
As for the fundraising, the potential ballot measure and the meetings outside City Hall, he said: “From day one, I said I was going to be an active mayor during my six months in office. I believe the residents of San Francisco deserve nothing less than a mayor who is fighting for the policies they believe in.”
David McCuan, a professor of political science at Sonoma State University, said Farrell clearly has no intention of leaving the public eye.
“He’s portrayed himself publicly as the reluctant draftee, but he’s someone who has always kept his options open and on the table,” McCuan said.
Others suspect the mayor is making a more shrewd play. Some believe he is quietly elevating progressive Supervisor Jane Kim, who is neck and neck in the June 5 mayor’s race with Farrell’s longtime rival, London Breed. Farrell’s supporters have said privately that if he were to run in 2019, Kim is the candidate he would have the best chance of beating.
With 10 weeks left until election day, Farrell has featured Kim in a string of public events, giving her a larger platform than other supervisors.
They co-introduced the Central SoMa Plan, drafted by the Planning Department, which they said would create 40,000 jobs and add 7,000 units to a struggling area south of Market Street that Kim represents. They stood together at a ceremony to break ground on a 100 percent affordable housing development in Mission Bay — another neighborhood in Kim’s district — and co-wrote legislation to create 50 supportive housing units for formerly homeless residents in SoMa.
Earlier this month Farrell also held a signing ceremony for the San Francisco Giants’ Mission Rock development, a project that Kim helped negotiate. She boasts about its 40 percent share of affordable housing in campaign speeches. And on Thursday Kim spoke alongside the mayor at a groundbreaking ceremony for the Marriott SoMa Mission Bay Hotel.
Farrell has also said he will make street cleaning a priority in the budget he introduces in May, which could be interpreted as another gift to Kim. She highlights clean streets in her mayoral platform.
A statistical analysis of news release headlines, quotations and public speaking appearances, provided by the mayor’s office, showed that Kim got three headlines to Breed’s zero, and three quotes compared with one from Breed. The two were tied for speaking, with nine events each.
Farrell said that allegations of political favoritism are “simply not true,” adding that of all the supervisors, Breed, who is board president, attended the most press events.
Asked about Kim’s recent surge of attention from the mayor’s office, Breed smiled. “You get the press releases, so you know he’s doing it,” she said.
Supervisor Malia Cohen, a friend of Breed’s, noted that the mayor chooses whether to share the stage with a district supervisor. There were instances when he could have given Breed the spotlight — such as the announcement of new beds at St. Mary’s Medical Center, a project she supports.
Breed was not featured at the March 5 event, but showed up anyway.
Farrell and Kim have never been allies in the past. They sat on opposite ideological sides of the Board of Supervisors, and it showed in their voting records. They clashed on key issues, such as homeless policy — Kim opposed Farrell’s 2016 ballot measure to ban tents from public sidewalks. Farrell endorsed Kim’s more centrist opponent, Scott Wiener, in the 2016 state Senate race.
McCuan, the Sonoma State professor, views Farrell’s uncharacteristic promotion of Kim as a marriage of convenience.
“It’s easiest for him to catapult back on the scene against her as an incumbent, rather than Leno or Breed,” he said, noting that Kim presents a much starker contrast to Farrell than the other two leading candidates for mayor.
And it’s not a full embrace, McCuan cautioned. If Farrell doesn’t go so far as to endorse Kim or fundraise for her campaign, then he hasn’t betrayed the moderates.
A spokeswoman for Kim’s campaign rejected the idea that Farrell is doing anything to help.
“I would hope that no one is suggesting that an accomplished woman like Jane Kim would need any man to lift her up,” said spokeswoman Julie Edwards.
In the meantime, Farrell’s allies have openly criticized Breed, the moderate pick for mayor. Breed and Farrell have a corrosive relationship dating back to last year, when Breed swept up the votes for reelection as president of the Board of Supervisors, a position Farrell also wanted. It worsened when Breed took over as acting mayor after Lee died.
In January, Farrell joined hands with the progressive wing of the board, whose members voted for him to replace Breed in the mayor’s office.
“Jane is probably looking for the opportunity, and Mark owes her,” Cohen said, pointing out that Kim was among the six supervisors who voted to appoint Farrell interim mayor.
“It’s a mutually beneficial relationship,” Cohen added.
Farrell’s recent alliance with the progressives has rattled city politics. It remains to be seen whether Farrell sacrificed his moderate base to get a temporary seat in Room 200, which he says is all he wanted.
Yet if Farrell were to reverse course and run, he wouldn’t be the first San Francisco politician to do so, said University of San Francisco political science Professor James Taylor.
Lee did the same thing in 2011, and voters forgave him, Taylor said. And, he added, there’s also a San Francisco precedent for helping an adversary in the short term in order to serve a long-term goal: Just look at the progressives’ vote to install Farrell, a moderate, on Jan. 23. Part of the idea was to get Breed out of office and deny her the power of an incumbent in June.
To Taylor, the unusual pairing of Farrell and Kim may be “a continuation” of that vote.
“He’s portrayed himself publicly as the reluctant draftee, but he’s someone who has always kept his options open and on the table.” David McCuan, Sonoma State University political science professor