Here’s San Francisco’s First Chance to Hear from Top Mayoral Candidates

The Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club announced Thursday that it will host a forum for the top five mayoral candidates, the first time they will share a stage to speak about their policy platforms.

It will take place at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the First Unitarian Universalist Church & Center on Franklin Street. There won’t be a debate. Instead, the format will allow each candidate to discuss their campaigns for half an hour.

It’s been a roller coaster week for San Franciscans wanting to hear candidates argue ideas to chart the city’s future. First, the candidates were set to debate on Monday hosted by the political advocacy group TogetherSF Action. But last week Mission Local reported that TogetherSF Action may be working with candidate and former supervisor Mark Farrell’s campaign.

The event subsequently crumbled as two candidates — Mayor London Breed and Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin — lost faith in the group’s independence. When journalist moderators then jumped ship, candidate Daniel Lurie, the Levi Strauss heir and former nonprofit CEO, threatened to also abandon the event. He has now fully backed out, his campaign confirmed on Thursday.

“Daniel remains eager to debate these insiders but with only 72 hours to go there remains too much uncertainty and things continue changing,” Lurie’s campaign said in a statement.

The Milk Club said it drew a contrast between itself and TogetherSF Action.

“Milk Club is clearly progressive and we clearly don’t have anything to hide in terms of our biases and views,” said club president Jeffrey Kwong. “So that’s how I sold it to them.”

Breed and Peskin were also set to hold an alternative debate together on the same night as the TogetherSF Action event at Manny’s, a venue in the Mission. That fell through on Thursday, too.

In a text message, the venue’s owner, Manny Yekutiel, said that it made sense to cancel the event since he’s hosting another candidate debate with City Arts & Lectures next month.

“We’re disappointed that the voters won’t have a chance to hear from Mayor Breed and Aaron Peskin at Manny’s,” Joe Arellano, a spokesperson for Breed’s campaign, said in a statement. “There will be plenty of debates over the next several months. We look forward to participating in those.”

Peskin’s campaign thinks there may be another reason Yekutiel canceled the event.

“I believe both campaigns are confused about why Manny would offer his space, sell tickets and then out of the blue cancel,” Jim Stearns, a campaign consultant for Peskin, told KQED. “Obviously, TogetherSF was embarrassed and they may have applied pressure. Not sure if it was financial or political.”

Jane Natoli, organizing director for San Francisco YIMBY, a housing advocacy group, characterized the whole situation as ridiculous, citing a locally famous line about how fierce San Francisco politics can be.

“I’m downgrading San Francisco politics from ‘knife fight in a phone booth’ to ‘slap fight in a phone booth’ after watching this debate debacle,” she said.