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

SAN FRANCISCO – Voters are deciding whether to re-elect San Francisco Mayor London Breed – the first black woman in the role – or choose one of her four challengers in an expensive and competitive race that’s heated by homelessness and public safety.

All the challengers are fellow Democrats who say Breed has wasted his six years in office while homeless tent camps, outdoor drug use and retail theft have proliferated.

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

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

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

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

“This administration has inherited a lot of challenges. However, we met them head-on, applied the solutions, and the data shows we are on the right track,” Thao said in a statement issued in October by her supporters.

The contests come in a presidential election year amid a national debate over public safety and a nationwide vote on a tough-on-crime proposal that, if passed, would reclassify some theft and drug offenses as crimes.

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

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

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

Breed’s main challengers include Daniel Lurie, a wealthy philanthropist and non-profit founder who has poured nearly $9 million of his own money into the race.

Lurie is leading 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 bunch, has raised about $5 million.

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

Also on the ballot are more liberal Democrats Aaron Peskin and Ahsha Safaí, who sit on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

San Francisco elects its mayor using a first-choice voting system that allows voters to list up to 10 candidates in order of preference. It could bring in a winner who didn’t get the most votes in the first place, and it may 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 number 2. choose.

Breed won election as mayor in June 2018 to serve out the remainder of Lee’s term. She was re-elected in 2019 to a full five-year term instead of the usual four after voters changed the election calendar to align with the presidential race.