SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — Despite an unsuccessful bid for San Francisco mayor, longtime Supervisor Aaron Peskin plans to still be involved “outside the tent” of city government and politics.
Come Jan. 8, San Francisco will welcome a new mayor and four new members to the board of supervisors. Peskin, currently the board’s president, will be termed out of his northeastern district seat.
First elected to the board in 2000, Peskin has served five terms, making him the city’s longest-serving district supervisor. During his tenure, colleagues elected him as the board’s president on three separate occasions. City term limits restrict supervisors from serving more than two consecutive terms, but Peskin returned to the board multiple times, despite initially planning to close his public office chapter at one point in 2009.
“I have learned so much along the way. I mean, I was 35 years old when I first ran for office. I am 60 now. Sure, there are things that I would do differently. I’ve learned that it’s always better to start with honey than with vinegar,” Peskin told ABC7 News in a one-on-one interview. “I love the city, and I keep running for supervisor and I keep winning. And it’s been a pretty wonderful chapter of my life.”
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In a crowded race to unseat incumbent Mayor London Breed this year, Peskin stood out as the leading progressive. Peskin trailed Breed in third place, with political novice Daniel Lurie elected as mayor. In an interview with ABC7 News, Peskin said that he recently met with Lurie for coffee to offer the city hall outsider some insight.
“As somebody who has a lot of government knowledge and knows how the city works and has been very interested in making government function, I’ve let him know that I’m around for advice, free advice. I’m not looking for a job with the administration, but I’m here as a resource,” he said.
Even if Mayor-elect Lurie offered him a role in the administration, the term limit rules prohibit a supervisor from working in city hall for at least a year after leaving.
What’s next for Peskin and the city’s progressive base?
In his tenure, Peskin helped champion movements like pushing bikes and public transit over cars, drug treatment over incarceration, pushes to tax ‘Big Tech,’ and preserve SF’s iconic neighborhoods with less dense housing.
As for whether or not the progressive heartbeat of San Francisco still has a pulse, Peskin said he believes those ideals still define that city at its core.
“I think San Francisco voters are remarkably smart. They’re very well informed. They still embrace San Francisco traditional progressive values at their base. And they actually, by incredible numbers, rejected a lot of the very conservative pushes that were on the ballot,” he said. “There were wins and losses all across the ballot.”
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Despite his loss at the top of the ticket, Peskin points to other successful citywide ballot initiatives he backed. Like Proposition C, Peskin’s push to create and inspector general position in City Hall to crack down on corruption and increase accountability. Additionally, his Proposition E also won approval from voters, meaning the city will now evaluate its 100-plus commissions and decide whether to eliminate some going forward. It was an alternative pitch to the heavily-funded Proposition D, which would have slashed commissions down to 65 total and give the mayor more power.
“There are many individuals and organizations in San Francisco who want to make sure that these outsized political players don’t have their way with San Francisco, that the cultures that make San Francisco such a unique and envied place continue to survive and thrive in San Francisco,” he said.
Peskin said going forward he plans to coalesce existing progressive groups to make sure they are on the same page when it comes to fighting the billionaires who he said sought to “buy San Francisco.”
“San Francisco is kind of a national prize. And they have been outsized spending in San Francisco because they want to show the rest of the nation that they can take San Francisco. But the San Francisco voters aren’t having it,” he said.
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ABC7 News Insider Phil Matier said Peskin’s departure from the board leaves a “talent train” amongst the city’s progressives, who will need to regroup without a clear leader for their values in City Hall.
“It’s a pretty nuts and bolts economic survival feeling in the city and not one that has a lot of room for ideology. We’ll have to see how the progressives go with the Donald Trump in the White House,” Matier said. “The progressives will be raising their voices. The question is, are people listening now?”
Peskin says he is “not going anywhere.”
“My interest in every aspect of the city is undiminished,” he said.
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