Another San Francisco Mayoral Debate Is Cancelled Due To Accusations Of Favoritism

The next San Francisco Mayoral debate, which was due to be sponsored by the Commonwealth Club World Affairs next Wednesday, was cancelled on Friday following three candidates dropping out over the hosting groups, ConnectedSF and Voice of S.F., having endorsing candidate and former San Francisco Mayor Mark Farrell, becoming the second such cancellation in the race so far.

Back in April, the first Mayoral debate, set to be hosted by the group Together SF Action on May 20th, had been widely anticipated. Polls showed the race was tight, with Farrell and Mayor London Breed being almost neck to neck. But, in late April, the San Francisco Chronicle unleashed a report about groups influencing the 2024 Mayoral election. Specifically, it found that Together SF founder Kanishka Cheng served as a staffer for Farrell during both his time as Supervisor and Mayor. Following that, she also then worked for Breed when she was Mayor, becoming her liaison to the Board of Supervisors. In addition, many Together SF workers were also on Farrell’s campaign team. For many, this was too many ties for the debate to be considered fair.

Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin left the debate the next day, saying that the close ties were partly why he would sit that one out. He also had a lot of problems with the debate rules, but the close ties with Farrell and Breed was the top one. For weeks, the debate was still on minus Peskin. In fact, going into last week, the debate was still happening. But then Breed dropped out, saying that the numerous connections between Farrell and Together SF was too troubling despite having many connections herself.

Levi’ heir Daniel Lurie also dropped out soon after, leaving only Farrell and Supervisor Ahsha Safai the only ones left. Devoid of the majority of candidates, including 3 of the top 4 in polling, Together SF cancelled the debate the weekend before it was to happen. Despite this, several Mayoral debates occurred during the summer, leaving behind few memories of the cancelled debate. At the same time, the race has remained extremely close, albeit with Breed now inching a few points ahead over Farrell now thanks to her recent announcements on homeless encampments cleanups and other changes on key issues.

However, candidates experienced deja vu this week. The next debate, due to be sponsored by the Commonwealth Club World Affairs next Wednesday, suddenly became controversial due to the hosts, ConnectedSF and Voice of S.F., having endorsed Farrell.

Another debate cancelled

In a statement earlier this weeks, Breed’s campaign reported, “Our campaign is not participating in the Commonwealth Club debate because each of the hosting organizations have already committed to Mark Farrell.”

Peskin also soon dropped out, although his campaign didn’t officially say that the reason was over the hosting situation.

Lurie went after Breed for dropping out on Thursday, saying, “She can’t defend her record. San Franciscans need answers, accountability and leadership. She can’t be bothered to show up.”

Breed’s team blasted that statement as “fake news” later on Thursday, and said that Breed’s next debate would be next month.

With two candidates out and their broadcast partner now gone, editor in chief at the Voice of San Francisco and a vice president at the Commonwealth Club John Zipperer said on Friday, “Due to the unavailability of two of the top 5 candidates and the subsequent loss of our broadcast partner, we have made the painful decision to cancel the August 14 mayoral debate at Commonwealth Club.”

Like her first decision in May, Breed was widely criticized on Thursday and Friday for dropping out of the race.

“Breed is proving herself over and over again extremely difficult,” explained political advisor Sharon Lee to the Globe on Friday. “Sure she can push forward more encampment sweeps and pressure other candidates, but as soon as a tough debate comes when she just got ahead, she’s gone. She does have a point about the groups having sponsored Farrell, but most candidates would have used that situation to their advantage in the debate and keep pointing it out. That way, they could keep the pressure up.”

“But on the same coin, she could have also demanded neutral moderators or other guarantees. But instead, she just picked up her ball and went home. We’re going to hear a lot about this, especially in the next debate. Breed should have contacted Farrell’s team and others to push for more neutral things in the debate if it bothered her so much, but nope.”

“Now, this is only going to help Lurie and Farrell, as it shows they weren’t willing to back down, just like how Farrell got a bump in May from the three candidate drop out.”

The next debate is scheduled for September 19th.