Editor’s note — These endorsements are the views of Susan Dyer Reynolds, not necessarily the views of the Marina Times.
In March of 2002, San Franciscans voted to pass ranked choice voting (RCV) as an amendment to the City Charter, and it has been confusing voters in every city election since 2004. Not only that, RCV often leads to the least popular and least qualified candidate slipping into office, as evidenced by the mess City Hall is in today. In order not to make those same mistakes, here is a simple rule of thumb to follow: rank the good, blank the worst, and vote for at least two candidates whenever possible. Absolutely leave the candidate you can’t live with off the ballot, and do NOT vote for the same candidate more than once because it won’t count.
You can practice marking a ranked-choice ballot with the San Francisco Department of Elections Ranked-Choice Voting Practice Tool. Ballot packets will be mailed about a month before Election Day, which is Tuesday, Nov. 5.
This month we will share the Marina Times recommendations for candidates, and look for our proposition endorsements next month. You may notice some familiar names missing from our endorsements — names you’ve seen on myriad mailers with the official stamp of approval from the San Francisco Democratic Party and political advocacy groups like GrowSF. Last March, a slate called “Democrats for Change” ushered in what even we thought would be a fresh start for a stale, out-of-touch city leadership. Alas, their official picks turned out to be the same old incumbents, earning them a new nickname — “Democrats for No Change.”
The Marina Times has never been one to play follow the leader, and often because of that, we have been the leader on important issues, from recommending the resignation of San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr, to investigating the corruption that sent members of the “City Family” to prison, to endorsing the recall of District Attorney Chesa Boudin when no other media outlets did. So, if some of the names below aren’t familiar to you because they didn’t get the official party endorsement or the stamp of approval from a new-kid-on-the-block political group, take the time to read up and get to know them. The only motivation we have is seeing San Francisco return to the once vibrant city where this newspaper has been a fixture for nearly four decades, and we don’t think shoving the same old names down voters’ ballots is the way to make that happen.
Here are our candidate endorsements and recommendations on how to rank them. Remember, you can always switch the order, but vote for at least two choices whenever possible — and leave the candidates you can’t live with off the ballot.
MAYOR
1: Mark Farrell
Farrell has both private and public sector experience and spent time as both a supervisor and interim mayor. He wants to fully staff the police department, remove homeless encampments, close the open drug bazaars that now plague the Tenderloin and South of Market neighborhoods, and take power and money away from the homeless industrial complex — in particular, the Coalition on Homelessness, which has controlled the narrative for over two decades. Unlike many candidates, Farrell’s platform hasn’t changed with the political winds. As the most sensible member of the Board of Supervisors, Farrell was often criticized or ignored by even his moderate colleagues (we’re looking at you, Scott Wiener). In a 2016 column for the Marina Times, he called for a federal investigation by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development into the Tenants Owners and Development Corporation (TODCO) and Yerba Buena Neighborhood Consortium (YBNC), both owned and operated by John Elberling. As mayor in 2018, Farrell cleared all large tent encampments in six months, much to the chagrin of left-leaning supervisors and that infamous homeless industrial complex. I was one of the only newspaper editors to urge a strong “no” on Proposition C, meant to raise millions for homeless services by increasing taxes on large businesses — and Farrell also opposed it. Back when “moderate” was a dirty word in San Francisco, critics sometimes referred to Farrell as “the law-and-order guy.” As supervisor, he was head of the Budget Committee for four years, where he was sometimes a lone voice on prioritizing public safety. A native San Franciscan, Farrell has been out of politics for the past five years, raising his kids with his wife Liz (who writes the MomSense column for this newspaper). He said he was compelled to get into the race after watching the city crumble as a private citizen.
2: Daniel Lurie
Lurie’s biggest asset is also his greatest weakness — he’s never worked in either the private or the public sector. The asset is clear — he has no ties to the infamous City Family that has run Room 200 for decades. The negative is that he has no idea how difficult it is in a weak mayor system to get things done, especially without relationships at City Hall. The heir to the Levi Strauss fortune has $8.45 million on hand, including $5.45 million in an independent political action committee (PAC). Last month, Lurie made contributions to his campaign totaling $1,585,000. His family has also put $1.1 million into the PAC, so you’ll be seeing a lot of TV ads touting Lurie between now and November. In May 2017, Lurie’s nonprofit Tipping Point announced a $100 million initiative to halve chronic homelessness in San Francisco within five years. Clearly, that didn’t happen, though the organization did some good work: between 2017 to 2022, Tipping Point and its nonprofit partners placed 7,767 people who were experiencing chronic homelessness into housing. Our biggest reservation about Lurie is the dirty campaign his strategists have run against his perceived biggest rival, Farrell. Strategist Max Szabo (who was the campaign manager for George Gascon’s winning Los Angeles district attorney run) and campaign manager Han Zou have purchased Google ads changing newspaper headlines into negative slams that come up first in a search for “Mark Farrell.” Either Lurie is approving these or he’s unaware — for someone wanting to run an entire city, either answer is bad.
3: London Breed
London Breed has had nearly six years as the incumbent mayor — we simply ask voters whether the City of San Francisco is better or worse under her leadership. Breed is charismatic and talks a big game, but she hasn’t produced. The United States Supreme Court decided Johnson v. Grants Pass, a case about regulating camping in public, with the sole question, “Does the enforcement of generally applicable laws regulating camping on public property constitute ‘cruel and unusual punishment’ prohibited by the Eighth Amendment?” In a 6-3 opinion, the Court held that it did not. Breed and her appointed city attorney David Chiu spent months blaming the Coalition on Homelessness for bringing a lawsuit against San Francisco under the old ruling — and they deserve plenty of blame — but in reality, San Francisco was never prohibited from removing encampments or building temporary shelter beds (San Jose did that quite effectively, hence why Mayor Matt Mahan ran unopposed and Breed at one point had more than 50 potential competitors). Breed also represents the City Family — her mentor, Willie Brown, has handpicked every mayor since he left office, including Gavin Newsom, Ed Lee, and yes, London Breed. Under Brown and his cronies, corruption ran rampant. As the reporter who broke the stories of Mohammed Nuru, Harlan Kelly and Dwayne Jones, I found it odd that Breed never once spoke about their arrests. Nuru and Kelly are currently in prison and Jones has been charged with 59 counts of fraud. Neither Farrell nor Lurie are beholden to Willie Brown, and that’s why we think it’s time to do what Breed never did with Nuru and kick the City Family to the curb. Still, a vote for Breed, even in the number three slot, is a vote for someone who at least believes in arresting fentanyl dealers, closing down open drug bazaars, working closely with District Attorney Brooke Jenkins (whom we enthusiastically endorse), and making good on a promise to re-fund the police after she defunded them in the wake of 2020 with the Dream Keeper Initiative — $120 million “redirected” from law enforcement to nonprofits, many run by her friends, for the Black community.
LEAVE OFF THE BALLOT — Aaron Peskin
After two decades in public office, Peskin runs his own fiefdom with unobstructed outlooks atop Telegraph Hill, where he claims to care about renters but makes thousands of dollars each month as a landlord (in fact, he is the richest member of the Board of Supervisors). Since 2015, only two residential developments have gone up in his backyard, preserving his views to kingdom come. Incidentally, he’s voted against most housing over the past eight years, whether because it might cast a shadow or because TODCO’s John Elberling, who donates big to progressive causes and candidates, said so. What housing Peskin has supported is always far away from his district, making him not only a NIMBY but a YIYBY — as in “Yes, in your backyard.” Peskin was also on the wrong side of history when he spoke out against the recalls of District Attorney Chesa Boudin and the three school board members overwhelmingly recalled by voters. Peskin once said he wasn’t afraid of losing the race for mayor, he was afraid of winning. I believe that, and so should you.
SUPERVISOR
District 1
We endorsed Philhour four years ago over Connie Chan, a puppet for her former boss Aaron Peskin (for whom she answered phones) and his cohort, District 5 Supervisor Dean Preston. Because of the many flaws in the RCV system, Chan beat Philhour by just over 100 votes. Philhour is for mandated treatment of substance abusers, arresting fentanyl dealers, enforcing the removal of homeless encampments, and a fully staffed police force. Chan, who once infamously referred to stealing catalytic converters as “not a serious crime,” is for defunding the police and sticks with her handlers Peskin and Preston on seeing drug tourists as victims. In this year’s race, there is no second choice for District 1, so vote for Marjan Philhour and leave Connie Chan off the ballot.
District 3
1: Matt Susk
Another common sense candidate, third-generation San Franciscan and District 3 native Matt Susk is by far the most moderate of the candidates running for the seat. He’s also a City Hall outsider and underdog, and everyone knows the Marina Times loves both of those things. Susk wants to fully staff the police department, arrest fentanyl dealers, and compel all hospitals to treat those suffering from drug addiction and mental health issues. He’s not in it to climb the political ladder — he just wants to see his city get better. Susk is following a Mark Farrell-like path to politics, spending a decade in the private sector and realizing getting involved in public service was the only way to create real change. He has an MBA from Georgetown University, advised government pension plans, founded a successful laundry business in town, and helped thousands of families achieve their dream of homeownership.
2: Moe Jamil
Another underdog, Jamil is more moderate than his occasional public admiration of Aaron Peskin would make you believe. He works for the City Attorney’s Office and says he’s most committed to transparency and responsiveness to his constituents, as well as to the “clean and safe neighborhoods” mantra of most candidates.
LEAVE OFF THE BALLOT — Sharon Lai
Lai is endorsed by a who’s who of “no thank you,” including Shamann Walton, Jane Kim, Phil Ting, Janice Li, Sandra Lee Fewer, Connie Chan, and Myrna Melgar, as well as by socialist groups like SF Berniecrats and Working Families Party. Most telling is that termed-out incumbent Aaron Peskin has endorsed her as his replacement, which is how, if he doesn’t become mayor, he will continue to run District 3 just like he did when his endorsed candidate David Chiu sat in his seat (before Chiu went to Sacramento, and Peskin won the seat back for another eight years).
District 5
In any other political world, Looijen would be the frontrunner in District 5. Instead, she found herself being asked by certain political groups not to run. Why? Because they want to toe the party line with Bilal Mahmood, a progressive in a moderate’s clothing who has become the darling of Democrats trying to dump Dean. It’s ironic, since these groups had no problem jumping on Looijen’s bandwagon in the past. Best known as the co-founder of the school board recall, which won every neighborhood in the City, she also ran the campaign to bring algebra back to 8th graders (which happens this fall). Her Fenta-NIL plan is a practical solution focused on shutting down the drug markets, enforcing laws against public drug use, and compelling users into medication-assisted treatment. Looijen is running for all the right reasons, she’s gotten things done for San Francisco before, and she’s the best choice for District 5.
Another one of my underdog picks, Jacobs is a fourth-generation resident — his grandfather immigrated with less than $10 to his name and built a flourishing business in what is now District 5’s most troubled neighborhood, the Tenderloin. Jacobs is a proud member of the LGBTQ+ community, a renter, and the youngest candidate for supervisor. And he brings real-world experience, having worked in both the nonprofit and corporate world. He also brings a youthful outsider energy that we find refreshing.
LEAVE OFF THE BALLOT — Dean Preston
Perhaps no supervisor has done more to destroy a district than self-proclaimed socialist Dean Preston — and that says something considering his predecessors were Ross Mirkarimi and London Breed. Not only is Preston a longtime ally of the Coalition on Homelessness, but he also helped purchase and hand out tents to drug tourists which landed in front of the homes and businesses of his constituents. Preston campaigned against the recalls of the school board members and his close friend Chesa Boudin and has a hate-hate relationship with law enforcement — he once called not only for defunding the police but for abolishing prisons. Rather than worry about the nearly 1,000 people who died of drug overdoses last year, mostly in his district, Preston is vehemently against arresting drug dealers, instead blaming “capitalism” for the suffering on his district’s streets (never mind the fact his personal wealth was inherited from his capitalist father’s business in his home state of New York). Preston has long touted his support for tenants, but his wife, and later their children, will inherit part of a multimillion-dollar rental property portfolio bringing in thousands of dollars per month. The Prestons also sold hundreds of acres in a Mendocino nature preserve that once belonged to the Pomo Indian Tribe. The reigning king of Hypocrite Hill, a report by housing advocates titled “Dean Preston’s Housing Graveyard” found that, since his election in December 2019, Preston opposed plans at the city and state level that could have housed more than 30,000 people. It’s time to send Preston packing.
District 7
Another common sense candidate, Boschetto is an entrepreneur and founder of the small business “Matilda’s Bloom Box,” giving him strong insight into the challenges small business owners face every day. He supports increasing police staffing to recommended levels but also wants to make sure officers are actually present in neighborhoods (think beat cops). He also supports mandatory treatment for drug addiction. Music to my ears is Boschetto’s desire to bring “rigorous financial accountability and transparency to City Hall” by conducting comprehensive audits of each city department and recipients of government contracts and grants to ensure they are delivering on their mandates.
2: Stephen Martin-Pinto
A firefighter and member of the U.S. Marine Corps reserves, Martin-Pinto has seen all of San Francisco’s ills upfront and personal. As a first responder, he knows the truth about the drug epidemic — mislabeled by activists as a homelessness crisis — and he’s been active in the community for years. Born and raised in San Francisco, Martin-Pinto also served as a Veterans Affairs commissioner, and his stances on major issues are unequivocal: he’s for a complete shutdown of open-air drug markets, fully funded and staffed law enforcement agencies, and fighting the pervasive corruption at City Hall — including holding grifting nonprofits accountable.
LEAVE OFF THE BALLOT — Myrna Melgar
Incumbent Melgar has voted down the line almost unanimously with her far-left colleagues. She once said the Sanctuary City Law “also protects workers, for example day laborers, who may work for two weeks for a boss who then says they aren’t going to get paid — and if they complain, the boss threatens to call the cops and allege that they are drug dealers.” Melgar, of course, cited no evidence to back up her claims, and I disproved the theory of drug dealers as victims in a June 2023 column that showed there had been just one human trafficking case prosecuted in San Francisco since 2020, and it was against the employers of a nanny from the Philippines. Melgar is also standing alongside colleagues Peskin and Joel Engardio on the permanent closure of the Upper Great Highway (Prop. K — more on that next month) and spewing the myth that it will create a park by the ocean when in reality all it does is close the road to cars. Melgar is out of touch with her constituents, has accomplished nothing measurable during her four years in office, and needs to go.
District 9
Like District 1, District 9 is a one-person-choice race, and my pick is Trevor Chandler. A public school teacher, Chandler is for mandated treatment for drug addicts, building homes at all income levels, arresting drug dealers, fully staffing the police, community policing (like bringing back beat cops), and enforcing the removal of homeless encampments. Chandler says his number one priority is “an accountable, responsive, and fully staffed police department.” Chandler has also been active in the community: when he learned Pacific Heights had 20% more crosswalks than the Mission, he took action to identify key intersections, bring together city departments, and secure funding to get them painted. Most of all, Chandler is an outsider to the District 9 machine, run first by David Campos and then by his former aide Hillary Ronen, who were beholden to the grifting, bullying community groups that have made outsiders (particularly business owners) feel unwelcome.
LEAVE OFF THE BALLOT — Jackie Fielder
Speaking of the District 9 machine, both Campos and Ronen, along with fellow socialist Dean Preston and other so-called “progressives” have all endorsed Jackie Fielder, co-founder, with Preston, of the pipedream San Francisco Public Bank Coalition. Fielder is a staunch defund the police activist (in 2020, she even sold “Defund the Police” face masks). She organized the Daybreak Political Action Committee in 2021 to support candidates like her. In 2021, Steven Buss, head of the moderate political group GrowSF, alleged in a complaint to the state Fair Political Practices Commission that Fielder ran the Daybreak PAC “as her controlled committee and a vehicle for her as she contemplates another run for office,” violating state rules by acting as the committee’s principal officer without required disclosure. But perhaps the biggest reason to leave Fielder off the ballot is the fact she represents more of the same in a district desperate for change.
District 11
1: Jose Morales
Born in District 11 in 1995, Morales is a small-business owner who has lived there ever since. Yes, he’s young and inexperienced, but a quick read of his social media posts and interviews with media outlets shows a maturity beyond his years and a platform built on common sense. In other words, he wants what the other residents in his district want. Again, I’m a fan of underdogs and City Hall outsiders, and Morales is both of those things. If you want to shake things up in District 11, vote Morales as your number one or number two pick.
STATE SENATOR DISTRICT 11
We rarely weigh in on state office races, but in the case of District 11’s Senate seat, we felt obligated to say the quiet part out loud: current senator Scott Wiener has gone off the rails. The once pragmatic housing advocate has become an activist for the far-left fringe, and in the process, he has lost the middle. Parents were upset with laws like AB 1955, which made California the first U.S. state to bar school districts from requiring staff to notify parents of their child’s gender identification change, and AB 957, which would have required judges to equate “affirmation of child gender transition” directly with a child’s “health, safety, and welfare” when determining custody or visitation rights. Consequently, parents who would not affirm the chosen gender identity of their child (of any age) would risk having their child taken from them (Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed that bill).
Once a moderate when it came to criminal justice, Wiener, along with Aisha Wahab and termed-out senator Nancy Skinner, make up the “Public Safety Committee,” which has consistently voted against bills to increase penalties for certain crimes while loosening laws for those who commit them. For example, SB 316, which would have increased penalties for shoplifters who had committed prior crimes, failed to pass thanks to their Nay votes. But perhaps most outrageous is Wiener’s co-authoring of SB 94, which would allow those sentenced to life in prison without parole to be released “as long as they haven’t killed a cop or more than three people.”
Fortunately, you have an alternative in Yvette Corkrean, a registered nurse and mother of two teenagers, who disagrees with Wiener on nearly everything. She is an advocate for parents’ rights over state intervention, crime victims over criminals, and, as a victim herself, will listen to victims of domestic violence. Smart, tenacious, and brimming with common sense, Corkrean is another underdog in a race against a seemingly intractable incumbent. But if you want real change, you have to take a chance on real changemakers, not just go with the status quo. That’s how the City of San Francisco and the State of California got where they are today.
Follow Susan and the Marina Times on X: @SusanDReynolds and @TheMarinaTimes.
