Farrell joins race to unseat Breed
Former interim mayor becomes third major challenger, warns against ‘failed leadership’
Mark Farrell, the former San Francisco supervisor who briefly served as the city’s appointed mayor in 2018, is officially running against Mayor London Breed in November, increasing the competition Breed faces from other moderates who think she has failed to lead the city well enough to earn another term.
Farrell, who ended months of speculation about whether he would jump into the race, unveiled policy proposals Tuesday to try to set himself apart from Breed and two other high-profile candidates. The 49-year-old venture capitalist wants to replace the police chief, create a new 24/7 intake center to connect homeless people with shelter and services, and reopen all of Market Street to cars to make it easier for people to visit the city’s struggling downtown, among other plans.
He also called for a zero-tolerance policy for crime — which he acknowledged in an interview would be largely a messaging strategy — and promised to clear all large homeless encampments during his first year in office. Other proposals touch on how to help those struggling with addiction, deal with garbage on the streets and hire more police officers amid a staffing shortage.
Farrell, who was twice elected to the city’s Board of Supervisors, declared his candidacy for mayor with the city on Monday and publicly announced his decision on Tuesday morning. He told the Chronicle late last year that he was considering mounting a mayoral bid after being encouraged to do so by some of his supporters. He becomes Breed’s
third high-profile challenger, following Supervisor Ahsha Safaí and nonprofit founder Daniel Lurie. Farrell, Safaí and Lurie — amid a field of more than 30 lesser-known candidates — are so far the only challengers expected to amass the financial and political support necessary to have a shot at unseating Breed this fall.
Like Safaí and Lurie, Farrell agrees with many of Breed’s moderate views — including her desire to increase support for law enforcement in response to rising public safety concerns over open-air drug dealing and property crime. So Farrell sought to distinguish his candidacy by announcing a long list of proposals on the first official day of his mayoral campaign.
“Over the past five years, I have watched our city crumble, along with the rest of San Francisco’s residents,” Farrell told the Chronicle. “People don’t feel safe. The conditions of our streets have never been worse. Downtown and our local economy has collapsed, and we have literally become the butt of jokes across the country. … I simply believe that we cannot afford another four years of Mayor Breed’s failed leadership.”
Farrell said part of his motivation for running was personal, citing an incident last year where a thief broke into his home through his dining room window, “stole a bunch of things and walked out the front door” while he, his wife and their children were sleeping upstairs.
His half-year turn as mayor came six years ago, when his colleagues on the Board of Supervisors appointed him to serve in the role until a special election was held to finish the term of the late Mayor Ed Lee. In installing Farrell, supervisors passed over Breed, who as board president had immediately become acting mayor when Lee died.
Speaking about his campaign Tuesday morning from inside a batting cage at the San Francisco Baseball Academy, Farrell touted his years of experience as a former supervisor and his stint as mayor, as well as his business experience — all while repeatedly taking aim at Breed.“I will be the leader that San Francisco needs to change direction,” he said. “And before I leave office, I promise San Francisco will be a place that once again we are all proud to call home.”
‘Tough decisions’
Breed’s reelection campaign defended her record after Farrell’s announcement.
“It’s easy to run, but it’s hard to lead,” Maggie Muir, a political consultant for the Breed campaign, said in a statement. “Mayor Breed is the one who’s had to make the tough decisions, leading the city through the pandemic and its aftermath, while the others were nowhere to be found. She continues to boldly lead the city’s recovery, with a laser focus on economic revitalization and public safety.”
Safaí and Lurie, meanwhile, have sought to project confidence about his entry into the race. Safaí, who is trying to make his candidacy appealing to progressive voters, previously told the Chronicle that Farrell’s apparent preparations for a mayoral bid were a sign of “how many people are zeroed in on the fact that (Breed has) failed San Francisco.” A campaign representative for Lurie, who is styling himself as an outsider who can bring more effective leadership to City Hall, said Lurie is still the only candidate coming “from outside of the broken system that has allowed crime, homelessness and corruption to fester.”
Farrell will have some catching up to do, since his opponents have been raising funds and campaigning for months — or years, in Breed’s case. As of the end of last year, Breed had raised about $657,000 to support her reelection, including funds she raised in previous years. Lurie, an heir to the Levi Strauss fortune, was close behind, having raised nearly $519,000 in just three months — more money than Breed raised in all of 2023. Lurie’s candidacy has also generated far more political action committee donations than Breed’s, including a $1 million contribution from his billionaire mother. Safaí’s campaign raised about $333,200 last year.
All of Breed’s challengers are hoping to unseat her by tapping into widespread public dissatisfaction about the state of San Francisco as polls show voters think the city is on the wrong track and Breed’s approval ratings are low. The city saw record overdose deaths last year as public drug markets continued to flourish. Downtown’s economy has suffered from diminished foot traffic caused by a glut of empty offices due to remote work among large employers. The city has also been enduring an exodus of major retail stores around Union Square, and the huge San Francisco Centre mall now sits about half empty.
To counter the trends downtown, Farrell thinks the city should steer sales tax generated in the Tenderloin and Mid-Market areas into public safety services in the same neighborhoods. And he’d like to let private cars once again drive on Market Street downtown, which would reverse a ban put in place four years ago.
“We need people to be able to get into Ubers and get into Lyfts and get into taxicabs on Market Street. We need people to be able to move downtown,” Farrell said in an interview with the Chronicle. “The MTA should be there to serve the residents of San Francisco, not make our lives more difficult. I believe in a transit-first policy. I’ve always supported the goals of transit first inside of City Hall, but the SFMTA has literally gone off the rails.”
Farrell was critical of Breed’s handling of downtown. “I simply reject the idea that San Francisco cannot recover economically post-COVID,” he said. “I’ve traveled across the U.S. and I’ve traveled abroad over the past few years post-pandemic for work. Other cities are thriving. They were proactive, they (had) plans in place, they worked together with their business community and they are thriving. San Francisco is not.”
Breed has embarked on various initiatives to boost downtown. She proposed and secured tax incentives in the hopes of attracting new companies downtown and preventing more businesses from closing or relocating. More recently, officials in Breed’s administration recommended a sweeping overhaul of the city’s tax structure that may form the basis of a November ballot measure. The proposals include a consolidation of some taxes, cutting the office tax rate and shifting business taxes so they’re based more on sales instead of the number of employees based in San Francisco.
Breed has also worked to fill some empty downtown storefronts with popup businesses, and she’s tried to promote the conversion of offices into new housing projects.
Policing concerns
But the mayor’s race has so far been dominated by candidates’ proposals around public safety. Farrell said Bill Scott, the current police chief, is “a good man,” but Farrell would still make hiring a new Police Department head a top priority. Under San Francisco law, the mayor can fire the police chief but has to pick a new one from a group of candidates chosen by the city’s Police Commission.
“We need a new face of our Police Department — someone who will lead the charge to revamp SFPD, someone who will fight with me to increase police budgets and articulate very clearly a zero-tolerance policy for crime,” Farrell said.
Breed has in recent years increased SFPD’s budget and sought to hire more police officers, but Farrell said her efforts have fallen short. Breed has also put a police measure before voters in next month’s election. Her Proposition E would broaden the circumstances in which police can conduct car chases, give officers easier access to surveillance cameras and drones and try to reduce the amount of time officers spend on paperwork while placing new restrictions on the Police Commission.
Farrell said he supports Prop. E but said it’s “not a panacea” and would have only a “small effect” on public safety until police staffing levels greatly improve.