SF Board Of Supes Pres. Aaron Peskin Expected to Announce Run For Mayor

During the weekend, several sources said that San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin will soon be joining the San Francisco Mayoral race. If so, he joins an already crowded field which includes current Mayor London Breed, former Mayor Mark Farrell, Levi Strauss heir and non-profit CEO David Lurie, and Supervisor Ahsha Safai.

Peskin, a UC Santa Cruz graduate, began his political career after graduating college in the 1980s as an environmental activist and water-rights negotiator. In addition, Peskin also gained fame during this time as a neighborhood and building preservationist, helping stop several building conversions and projects from taking hold in the city. In 2000, Peskin was first elected to the Board of Supervisors, starting his first term in 2001 under the Mayorship of Willie Brown. Peskin followed this up with reelection in 2005, and becoming the Board President under new Mayor Gavin Newsom.

Peskin’s reputation as a neighborhood preservationist permeated his Supervisor career, even helping implement eminent domain on land parcels to keep areas from being developed and repurposed for city usage, such as for parks and public buildings. He also became notorious for stopping condominium projects at a time when San Francisco needed housing, halting conversion of hotel rooms and stopping other projects. Despite being a huge progressive, he also wavered against affordable housing, offending both liberals and conservatives in the city. This included stopping an effort to build hundreds of affordable housing units in the Tenderloin. In addition, Peskin became infamous for calling city and government officials late at night with harassing phone calls. Then-Mayor Newsom even told reporters that everyone in City Hall was fed up with him by the time he left.

By the time he was first term-limited out in 2009, Peskin had received several derogatory nicknames, including “the Napoleon of North Beach” and “the Ayatollah of North Beach.” Between terms, Peskin stayed active, becoming Chair of the San Francisco Democratic Central Committee for several years and nearly becoming Mayor in 2011 following Newsom’s resignation to become Lt. Governor.

Peskin was reelected in 2015, and continued to introduce measures against citizen approval. While popular with tenants unions and associations, Peskin blocked homeless shelters, tried to stop needed airport expansion, cancelled popular events for petty reasons, and drunkenly shouted at firefighters during St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. After winning reelection, Peskin managed to become Board President yet again in January 2023 despite not even being an initial candidate for the job, managing to put himself forward as a compromise candidate at the last minute. Since then he has only continued leading the charge in controversial areas, such as not backing public safety issues during a time in the city when most residents want that, and unusual stances on housing measures. Recently he also backed Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA) for the U.S. Senate election this year over two more progressive candidates.

I’ve known Congressman @AdamSchiff for many years + am delighted to support his vision for US Senate. He will invest heavily in affordable housing as US infrastructure and work to combat climate change. And he’s a genuinely lovely human being.#SFforAdamSchiff pic.twitter.com/xhbVYgbteR

— Aaron Peskin (@AaronPeskin) March 4, 2024

Peskin likely to announce soon on way or the other on being Mayor

With the Mayoral race now heating up, and only his abortive 2011 attempt at being selected as Mayor as his only foray into the office before, Peskin has continued to hint in the past week that he wants to run for Mayor this year. While some outlets have already said that he will definitely be running this year because no progressive candidate is running for the office, statements made by Peskin during the weekend indicate that no official word on the matter has been given.

“It is no secret that I’ve been checking people’s level of interest, and I’ve been warming up to the idea,” said Peskin during the weekend. “None of that is a secret or new news. I’m not trying to play hard to get. I’m still grappling with it.”

Sources noted however, than an official announcement could happen as early as this week. With Breed proving unpopular, Farrell actually beating the incumbent Mayor in polls, and many progressive groups in the city saying that they feel left out, a decent opening for another strong candidate has been seen as feasible. However, the city’s ranked-choice voting system could throw a wrench into the race, as many cities have seen close races and controversies take place because of the system, including Oakland’s controversial 2022 Mayoral race.

Experts also told the Globe on Monday that Peskin could prove to be easy fodder for the candidates in the race because of his progressive bend and the recent backlash against progressive policies in the city.

“Peskin does have his supporters, is very well known for tenant protection, and is a very liberal Supervisor,” said political advisor Sharon Lee to the Globe. “But he has made so many enemies in the past several decades. And a lot of issues in the city, such as drug usage, crime, and homelessness, he is not strong on. The man has blocked homeless shelters in the city. This is a man so progressive that Gavin Newsom doesn’t like him. There’s a reason why he didn’t become Mayor 13 years ago.”

“Peskin in the race would galvanize some more left voters, but the whole race is ranked choice. It would siphon some support from Breed especially. Peskin would get a strong showing, but in reality would only help out Farrell. Farrell is a Democrat too, but a lot of his stances are far from the progressive stances of Peskin.”

“Also, Peskin has a severe public image problem. If he runs, there are going to be so many ads on his drunken antics, on his public safety stances, and his badgering style of serving the public by bombarding people he doesn’t like with calls late at night bothering them. Maybe he could have won 10 years ago, when the city was doing much better financially and crime wasn’t bad. 10 years ago, San Francisco was at peak progressiveness. Now residents are demanding more police and are kicking out any elected official who refuse to do things like prosecute criminals. It will be far from easy.”

Peskin is expected to announce his candidacy for Mayor soon.