I will stipulate at the top, I am a London Breed supporter. What follows, though, are hard numbers: numbers anyone can verify online, numbers that can’t be changed or explained away, numbers that lead to one unmistakable conclusion:
Mark Leno is a hypocrite.
Mark Leno announced his run for Mayor in May of 2017, more than two years before the scheduled November 2019 election. He and his political consultants, SCN Strategies, planned to run essentially an anti-Ed Lee/anti-incumbent campaign, to make Leno the change agent who would "shake up City Hall." This was a curious approach, given that Leno has been in political office for almost 20 years: he got his start when he was appointed District 8 Supervisor by Mayor Willie Brown, and shares the same campaign consultants as both former Mayor Gavin Newsom and the late Mayor Ed Lee—the very man Leno and Company were preparing to vilify.
When Mayor Lee tragically passed away in December, President London Breed led the City with grace, dignity, and strength in difficult times. The Leno team no doubt noticed and identified her as a threat to their well-laid plans. So, in a scene eerily reminiscent of the “Game of Thrones” Red Wedding, Leno's allies on the Board of Supervisors orchestrated a deal to remove Breed from the Mayor's office.
Leno's team also began a concerted effort to attack Breed's character. They whispered—and in some cases shouted—about her ties to “wealthy white men.” (If you think there isn’t a dog whistle “Welfare Queen” element to that charge, well, I have a tower to sell you in Manhattan.)
And Leno began touting a “fair campaign pledge” promising to renounce Independent Expenditures (IE) and Political Action Committees (PAC). Campaign reform is a very worthy cause; President Breed has a pledge of her own, which Leno is welcome to sign anytime. Here’s the problem though: Mark Leno is a terrible messenger for “clean campaigning.” Here’s why:
1. He started running for Mayor almost a year before his opponents and amassed a $400,000 head start. It’s awfully convenient to yell, “stop the flow” after you’ve filled your bucket.
2. In his last four elections, Leno has taken over $850,000 in direct contributions from 200 different PACs, including: the Real Estate PAC, the prison guards’ PAC, the Mortgage Association PAC, Wells Fargo PAC, Building Industry Association PAC, State Building & Construction Trades PAC, Wells Fargo again…and again, the Real Estate PAC eleven more times, and the Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers Association PAC. That last one is literally “Big Pharma,” which means while London Breed was fighting Pharma to provide safe drug disposal for our seniors, Mark Leno was cashing their checks.
3. Leno’s campaign pledge says he will “denounce and reject” all PACs. But guess what: the Firefighters are a PAC. The Alice Toklas LGBT Democratic Club is a PAC. The Unite 2 hotel workers are a PAC, as are the Plumbers, Nurses, and yes, the entire Labor Council. Is Leno renouncing all these people? Is he saying firefighters and nurses should stay silent during the Mayor’s race?
4. Those Independent Expenditures Leno’s renouncing, the shadowy ones he says are impossible to track? Well, you can track them enough to know that in his previous races, Leno benefitted from $111,000 in IEs supporting him and $518,000 in IEs attacking his opponent. Perhaps Leno’s had a change of heart since then.
5. Lastly, Leno is sitting on about $12,000 that he raised from San Francisco lobbyists—money that would not even be legal to accept today. Voters passed Proposition T in 2016, banning lobbyists from donating to or collecting money for local candidates. It went into effect on January 1, but Leno gladly took the lobbyists’ money up until that date. And because of public financing, we the taxpayers will actually be paying him about $20,000 in matching funds for this lobbyist money. When asked recently if he would return the lobbyist money, Leno replied: “I abided by the law.”
It is legal to keep old lobbyist money. It’s legal to cash $850,000 in PAC checks. It’s legal to benefit from Independent Expenditures. But don't turn around and pretend like you're Mark the Meager, Patron Saint of Political Purity. That's rank hypocrisy, and the people of San Francisco are smart enough to see it.
Mark Leno is against PACs, when it suits him. He’s against IEs, when it suits him. He’s a “progressive,” when it suits him. The overriding factor in all this is not “what’s best for San Francisco?” but “what’s best for Mark Leno?”
We face big challenges in San Francisco, but Leno is running a very small campaign. He’s a candidate more interested in attacking his opponents than attacking the problems we face. This city deserves better.
Conor Johnston is a cannabis consultant and former Chief of Staff to Board of Supervisors President London Breed.
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