Didn’t Catch the Hella Awkward Mayoral Debate? Here’s a Recap.

Background created using Midjourney. Terrible cutting and pasting of photos by Broke-Ass Stuart.

Mayor London Breed doesn’t preen. The current face of San Francisco looks sharp in her red suit, second to the right on an awkwardly lit stage at UC Hastings in San Francisco’s Tenderloin, a long-suffering smile fixed on her face as the gentlemen running to unseat her conduct themselves in a largely respectful manner. The solstice debate stays largely clean, if uncomfortable.

And then the lights flicker off mid sentence on Daniel Lurie, who petulantly jokes that “they” really don’t want him here. The moderator laughs and suggests it’s merely mood lighting as the crew fiddles with their equipment. For a moment, only four of the candidates are lit, clement Aaron Peskin left in the shadows. He moves, not to flag his lack of spotlight but seemingly to stand and help fix things. The lights return.

Screenshot of when the lights went out during the San Francisco Mayoral Debate

From left to right sit froward, lumbering Mark Farrell; doughty Ahsha Safaí; thrawn-legged and coltish Daniel Lurie; our prepossessing Mayor London Breed; and august Aaron Peskin. 

The Kron4 telecast is employing anti-booing technology, so when the moderator chides the audience for clapping it only raises a sense of dread. Popularity is an albatross, interrupting candidates and throwing the less-seasoned ones off track. When Farrell hounds the elected mayor and Lurie sneers at the “insiders” next to him on stage, they seem to forget they are not just dogging first place, but courting voters for the ranked-choice Mayoral election. 

The topic of housing looms, taking more than its fair share of the nearly two-hour debate. Mayor Breed candidly shares how racist redevelopment pushed African Americans out of San Francisco and vows to not repeat the mistakes of the past. Peskin points to his experience working on the Embarcadero parcels and professes that, “We know how to do this without bulldozing the things that we love.” Lurie wants to redevelop Candlestick Point. Safaí is the first candidate to describe the benefits gap that keeps working class people like nurses and teachers out of home ownership because they make just a hair too much. And Farrell says that focusing on expensive market-rate housing instead of the affordable will work because, “the more we build, the lower the cost for everyone.” He also promises to streamline DBI. 

When Mayor Breed asks the moderator to repeat a question, it feels savvy. She refocuses the conversation, helping the audience forget whatever the preceding candidates were saying. Safaí borrows her trick, but he seems to genuinely need it. The District 11 supervisor loses his train of thought a few times, oscillating between unripe answers and middling ones. 

Each candidate is allowed to ask one of their elbow partners a question, and Farrell attempts to woo Safaí voters’ second-choice slot by asking about student loan forgiveness for first responders. At last Safaí perks up. Peskin poses to Lurie a question about which propositions he’s supported and the philanthropist eludes the question like it’s dodgeball. 

Safaí, who has been polling last, gets his chance to ask another candidate on stage a question. His eyes twinkle as he proudly states his mother gave his campaign $150. “Daniel,” he swivels, the second to pose a question to the bluejeans heir. “Your mother gave a million dollars to your campaign.” On the telecast, the silencing technology briefly mutes Lurie’s response. We can only guess whether the audience is cheering or booing the billionaire lineage of the political “outsider.”

Screenshot of the San Francisco Mayoral Debate

The Mayor pokes gentle fun at Mark Farrell’s awkward inability to name a drag queen at the last debate. She invites him to name some queer supporters of his campaign. One can almost imagine him flipping through a rolodex and saying one, no, two of his staffers are queer before deciding that he “won’t dignify” the question. The word “queer” seems to fit funny in his mouth, like he’s uncomfortable saying it. 

Lurie provokes the Mayor, asking her to name three nonprofits she’s cut because of poor performance. She is pensive and caught off guard, looking down at the floor as she explains that she feels bad about it. And then the mood veers toward somber as she bares her heavy heart. A foil to Farrell’s refusal to name three queer people who support his campaign, Breed also declines to get into specifics. “I don’t want to do that to these organizations.” 

The debate is substantial, if agony. After all, the mayor pointed out that she regularly fields calls from other mayors around the country asking how she’s doing it. San Francisco is a beacon to other cities, even if the lights have been flickering. And there are several not-insignificant events approaching on the horizon that will keep the spotlight firmly fixed on the mayor. Whoever the voters crave and ultimately cull, the last one standing had better be ready.