Sydney Johnson [00:01:34] And that’s compared to Breed, who had 43% of votes by the end of the tally. You know, votes are still being counted. So this wasn’t like the total of all the cumulative votes put together. But, you know, a lot of political scientists that I spoke to and people who are watching this race did say that, you know, just the math of it was going to be really difficult for her to pull through at that point and get a lead.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:01:59] And I mean, how big of a shakeup is this in San Francisco politics, Sidney?
Sydney Johnson [00:02:07] It’s a huge shakeup. Lurie has not had a job in government before. So this is going to be really a true test of of what his experience can look like. And it’s also the first time that the city has had a mayor that hasn’t been working in City hall in almost a century. You know, London Breed and some of her predecessors all worked on either the Board of Supervisors or other, you know, roles in City Hall. And Daniel Lurie has campaigned on being an outsider and really positioning himself as a fresh face who can come in and, you know, try to root out some of these issues of corruption that have come up not only in this election cycle, but over the past few years.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:03:01] And I guess that him being an outsider, seemed to have appealed to a lot of people. What were voters most concerned about and how did Daniel Lurie distinguish himself in this field?
Sydney Johnson [00:03:15] A lot of polls showed that for voters in this election cycle, the top issues were homelessness, housing, public safety.
Daniel Lurie [00:03:23] We need clean and safe streets. That’s why I’ve said my top priority is public safety.
Sydney Johnson [00:03:28] When it came to public safety, he talked about how he wanted to fully fund the police department, increase, you know, foot patrols.
Daniel Lurie [00:03:36] Nothing else matters if we don’t keep people safe. We don’t keep downtown safe.
Sydney Johnson [00:03:41] And then when it came to homelessness, he says that he does want to enforce sit lie laws in order to clear encampments and remove people who are homeless from sidewalks.
Daniel Lurie [00:03:51] I want trained clinicians going out first, bringing people into a 24 seven crisis center and then deploying them to beds.
Sydney Johnson [00:04:00] But he said he wants to do so by opening up more shelter beds and really rapidly building more housing. You know, of course, that’s going to be a lot harder to do in practice.
Daniel Lurie [00:04:12] I’m the only person in this race that’s gotten housing built. I know how to get big things done. And the key component of all of it is holding people accountable.
Sydney Johnson [00:04:22] One of the big issues that Laurie campaigned on was bringing more accountability to city hall. You know, he told me that he’s going to have weekly meetings with department heads and that he’s going to make a lot of city hall staff, quote, re-interview for their job.
Daniel Lurie [00:04:38] If you want more of the same, you got four other people to choose from.
Sydney Johnson [00:04:47] Being the only candidate without experience directly in city hall, you know, Lurie faced attacks around that from his opponents. Breed even said one time that it would be dangerous to elect someone like Lurie who, you know, hasn’t had that experience. You know, managing public budgets and overseeing enormous staffs of thousands of people. But Lurie really leaned into that and he, you know, told voters often the people who are in city hall right now are the people who created a lot of the problems that the city is struggling to repair.
Daniel Lurie [00:05:25] We don’t have a crisis of resources in our city. We have a crisis of leadership. If you want something different, if you want change in this city, I’m all, I’m here for it.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:05:38] And he was also the wealthiest person running great. Lots of his own money spent on his campaign. What role do you think that played in his ultimate success?
Sydney Johnson [00:05:54] So, I mean, Lurie’s message was powerful. It definitely seemed to resonate with a lot of people. But his campaign financing and his wealth was what allowed that message to reach so far. Lurie raised more than any candidate for mayor in the city’s history. You know, he’s an heir to the Levi Strauss fortune. Obviously, that name probably had a little bit of an extra boost of credibility here in San Francisco. But he raised close to $16 million across his whole campaign. And that was more than any other candidate. And more than $8 million of that came from Daniel Lurie himself. And so, you know, there was a lot of money in this race in general. We saw a lot of VC, you know, tech and crypto investors donating millions of dollars to propositions and other candidates. But Lurie definitely soared above the pack in terms of financing this race.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:06:50] Yeah, and that helps.
Sydney Johnson [00:06:52] Sure did.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:06:54] I want to turn to the other candidates who, as we’ve been talking about, have a lot of experience in local politics. Interim mayor, Supervisor Mark Farrell, Supervisor Aaron Peskin and Mayor London Breed. Why ultimately do you think these three weren’t able to rise to the top? I almost feel like it’s sort of easier to run as the outsider candidate than it is to be on the defensive.
Sydney Johnson [00:07:19] Yeah. You know, it’s it’s hard to say because running as an outsider is also difficult. You know, being an incumbent is a huge advantage. You have a record. You have name recognition. I’d say for, you know, Breed, Farrell and Peskin, it’s a little bit of a different story for each candidate.
Peskin, he was the only candidate running on a progressive platform in this race, which was all Democrats. In terms of the leading candidates, we should point out. And in the beginning, it was kind of unclear where he would be coalescing support among progressives in the city. It seemed a little bit scattered what his base was going to look like. That certainly changed as the election got closer. We saw him rising in the polls, but it just never seemed to, you know, really rise above kind of the the threshold that Breed and Breed had sort of established in terms of their base.
Breed campaigned as the cheerleader for the city. You know, if you remember just a couple of years ago, she was really leaning into that doom loop narrative about the city. And, you know, on the campaign trail, she was trying to convince voters that actually things have improved and that’s on the right track. And, you know, she’s got more work to do. And, you know, a lot of voters didn’t buy that.
And then Mark Farrell, you know, his run has really been hallmarked by some pretty serious ethics scandals even before his current mayoral bid. Mark Farrell had one of the largest campaign ethics violation fines in the city’s history back from his run for supervisor just on Monday, the day before the election, Mark Farrell was hit with another ethics. Fine. And this was the biggest fine in the city’s history for a campaign finance violation. He agreed and announced the settlement the day before the election. And, you know, I think all of these adding up just really did not support his campaign.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:09:28] I mean, what has the reaction to Daniel Lurie’s win looked like so far?
London Breed [00:09:34] Good evening, everyone. I’m San Francisco mayor London breed and being mayor of the city has been the absolute honor of my life. But this office.
Sydney Johnson [00:09:44] London Breed conceded the race. You know, frankly, I was almost a little bit surprised. It was early just considering votes are still being counted. Clearly, it was not the outcome that she had hoped for. But she was in good spirits.
London Breed [00:10:00] I am really grateful and excited about what is happening in this city, is starting to look good and feel good and the city is on the rise.
Sydney Johnson [00:10:09] But she said it was time to put the election behind us and, you know, get behind this next mayor. And, you know, she she seemed to be trying to be as positive as as she could, I think, in that situation.
London Breed [00:10:23] And I called Daniel Lurie earlier today to congratulate him and made it very clear that my team and I stand ready to support him during his transition.
Daniel Lurie [00:10:35] Good morning, everybody. It is a beautiful day in San Francisco. Yes.
Sydney Johnson [00:10:43] Lurie’s first press conference since he was elected. On Friday morning, he told reporters that he is ready to take on the job. He said that it’s time for change. He said that he is planning to bring accountability to city hall. And he really was just trying to continue that message, that change is coming to the city.
Daniel Lurie [00:11:06] Your voices and your call for accountable leadership, service and change have been heard. I stand before you humbled and inspired with the great honor and privilege of serving you, the people of San Francisco, as your next mayor.
Sydney Johnson [00:11:27] You know, there’s definitely a lot of buzz from people online and just you know that I’ve talked to you on the phone in the last 24 hours who are really curious, I’d say, about what Daniel’s administration is going to look like. I mean, not only was he campaigning as an outsider, but he was really campaigning against the people who are in city hall. And we maybe got a taste of that on the campaign trail. But in terms of what, you know, that’s actually going to look like in office and whether he’s going to be able to achieve some of the things that he’s been talking about. That’s all what we’re going to have to wait and see.
Daniel Lurie [00:12:11] We have a change coming on January 8th, 2025. This city will rise again. Thank you all.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:12:27] What challenges do you think Leary faces as he takes office?
Sydney Johnson [00:12:34] The biggest one is just that we are stepping into Trump’s second term. And when we look at the first time that that happened, you know, the city was on the defensive constantly. There were dozens of legal battles that the city was fighting against the Trump administration. You know, so it’s going to be difficult, I think, for Lurie to be focused on on all the things that he wants to be, because there’s going to be a lot of scrutiny and attention on San Francisco, not to mention the fact that, you know, the feds control important resources that the city relies on for things like housing. And on the note of budgets. The city is facing a massive budget deficit and he’s going to be tasked with trying to solve some of that. And that is not going to be an easy task.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:13:24] I mean, ultimately, Sidney, what do you think Lurie’s win says about where San Francisco is at right now?
Sydney Johnson [00:13:32] I think it shows that San Franciscans are really eager to see something different in our city. You know, I think that there was a lot of pride in the early days of the pandemic in a way of how Mayor London Breed responded. And there was this feeling of, you know, unity in some ways, even though that was such a hard time as things started waning. You know, people started coming out and the city really struggled to bounce back. There was some of the worst numbers for our overdose crisis. And, you know, homelessness really did get worse during the pandemic when a lot of people lost jobs and housing and they didn’t see a quick enough recovery that I think gave them faith that London breed would be able to continue doing that. And, you know, I think it shows that voters were willing to take a risk and say we need something different. And even if this guy hasn’t been in government before, you know, maybe that’s something that we’re willing to find out if if he can do the job.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:14:44] Well, Sydney, thank you so much for joining us. And also thank you so much for all your work this election season and I hope you get some rest real soon.
