Democratic mayors in San Francisco and Oakland fight to keep their jobs on Election Day

SAN FRANCISCO — Voters are deciding whether to reelect San Francisco Mayor London Breed — the first Black woman in the role — or to pick one of her four challengers in a pricey and competitive race that's heated up over homelessness and public safety.

All of the challengers are fellow Democrats, who say Breed has squandered her six years in office while homeless tent encampments, open-air drug use and brazen retail theft have proliferated.

Crime and homelessness also drove frustrated residents of nearby Oakland to collect enough signatures to place the recall of Mayor Sheng Thao on Tuesday's ballot. They blame Thao, who won office just two years ago, for a long list of city woes. California Gov. Gavin Newsom has sent state highway patrol officers, state prosecutors, and surveillance cameras to help Oakland battle crime.

Thao became the first Hmong American mayor of a major U.S. city after she was elected in November 2022. Oakland has about 400,000 residents and is, at times, more politically liberal than San Francisco. Democrat Kamala Harris, a former district attorney of San Francisco, claims Oakland as her hometown.

Recall proponents say the mayor “created a public safety crisis” in part by firing popular Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong. Her recall is being bankrolled largely by investor Philip Dreyfuss, who did not respond to requests seeking comment. The local NAACP supports the recall.

Thao also heads into Tuesday with an FBI investigation hanging over her head after authorities in June raided her home and other properties owned by a politically influential family that controls the city's recycling contract. Thao has maintained her innocence and authorities have not said what they are investigating.

“This administration inherited a lot of challenges. However, we’ve met them head on, applied the solutions, and the data shows that we are on the right path," said Thao in a statement issued in October by her supporters.

The contests are happening in a presidential election year amid a national debate on public safety and a statewide vote on a tough-on-crime proposition that would, if approved, reclassify some misdemeanor theft and drug crimes as felonies.

San Francisco’s streets have been cleaner and homeless tents much harder to find, but a daytime shooting in September of San Francisco 49ers rookie Ricky Pearsall in a popular central shopping district reignited the issue of safety in the city.

Breed, who was raised by her grandmother in San Francisco public housing, says the pandemic challenged the city but her administration laid the groundwork for recovery. In the March primary, she championed a pair of successful public safety ballot measures to expand police powers and compel some people into drug treatment.

“We have the tools, we have the technology, we have the support,” she said. “So we are not going back. It’s only going to get better.”

Breed’s chief competitors include Daniel Lurie, a wealthy philanthropist and nonprofit founder who has sunk nearly $9 million of his own money into the race.

Lurie leads in fundraising with more than $16 million raised — including $1 million from his mother, businesswoman Miriam Haas to an outside committee supporting his candidacy.

Mark Farrell, a former interim mayor and venture capitalist who is the most conservative of the group, has raised about $5 million.

Breed has collected more than $5 million, including $1.4 million from former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

More liberal Democrats Aaron Peskin and Ahsha Safaí, who are both on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, are also on the ballot.

San Francisco elects its mayor using a ranked choice voting system that allows voters to list up to 10 candidates in order of preference. It could yield a winner who did not get the most first-place votes and it can also encourage unusual alliances between rival candidates, such as the one between Farrell and Safaí, who have agreed to ask their supporters to make the other their No. 2 pick.

Breed won election as mayor in June 2018 to serve out the remainder of Lee’s term. She was reelected in 2019 to a full term that has lasted five years instead of the typical four, after voters changed the election calendar to line up with presidential contests.