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   From: democrat-insurrection@mail.house.gov   
      
   https://sfstandard.com/2024/11/15/why-london-breed-lost-san-francisco-   
   mayor/   
      
   You would be forgiven for thinking billionaires Bill Oberndorf, the   
   national Republican benefactor, and Michael Moritz, the venture   
   capitalist and chairman of The Standard, are always at odds with Mayor   
   London Breed.   
      
   After all, Oberndorf and Moritz were among the four biggest individual   
   spenders in the November election, and that money went squarely against   
   Breed’s candidacy. As recently as last year, however, the trio were   
   allied, considering policy they thought would move the city forward.   
      
   It was during an early 2023 meeting at Oberndorf’s office on Front   
   Street, overlooking grassy, dog-friendly Sydney G. Walton Square, that   
   Breed began to lose them.   
      
   The men were hot to reform San Francisco’s charter to give the mayor’s   
   office more executive authority, particularly over commissions that were   
   “driving her nuts,” one attendee recalled. They would spend big to back   
   such a measure at the ballot.   
      
   Breed wasn’t so sure. She suggested a smaller change, asking Oberndorf   
   and Moritz to fund a tweak to city rules that would allow her to more   
   easily declare a state of emergency. This would enable her to bypass   
   byzantine rules to quickly address matters such as the fentanyl crisis.   
      
   The billionaires didn’t think this would be enough to effect significant   
   change in the mayor’s authority, one insider recalled. Breed said she’d   
   stew on alternatives. It took weeks of cajoling to get her to follow up.   
   It became a turning point.   
      
   “I do like her. I don’t bear her animosity,” Moritz told The Standard.   
   But, he said, “we expected her to come with more concrete ideas.”   
      
   Oberndorf and Moritz began to drift from her, an insider said. His own   
   shift was “gradual,” Moritz recalled — but Breed’s lack of follow-   
   through from the meeting played a role.   
      
   To explain Breed’s reelection loss last week to Levi Strauss heir Daniel   
   Lurie, a man with no governmental experience, observers are pointing to   
   one of the mayor’s foundational mistakes: She mismanaged political   
   relationships, to her detriment.   
      
   Political relationships are ineffable, unmeasurable things that can have   
   effable, measurable consequences. Breed’s failure to cultivate Oberndorf   
   and Moritz led them to spend a collective $4.3 million to back candidate   
   Mark Farrell and Proposition D, a government reform initiative that had   
   roots in last year’s discussions between the three.   
      
   Farrell and Prop. D both failed. But the groups spending that money,   
   TogetherSF and Neighbors for a Better San Francisco, initially had their   
   proverbial cannons loaded to help Breed. As one insider told it, it was   
   easy to imagine a scenario in which Breed redirected those power players   
   toward large-scale changes that would benefit her.   
      
   “I truly believe if she had played it differently, that she could’ve   
   kept them inside the tent,” one source said.   
      
   And it’s not just the billionaires who fled the circus.   
      
   Entities who backed Breed in her inaugural mayoral run, in 2018, either   
   changed allegiances or were conspicuously absent this election: key   
   unions like SF Fire Fighters Local 798, the building trades, and the   
   Deputy Sheriffs’ Association; campaign experts; influential Chinese   
   community groups; wealthy and grassroots donors; and major endorsers.   
      
   This is the backbone of the moderate coalition, a loose collection of   
   power players in public safety, housing construction, and transportation   
   improvement. Throughout this election season, insiders talked of a   
   moderate Democrat “divorce” as they split allegiance among Breed,   
   Farrell, and Lurie.   
      
   The mayor is the de facto leader of this coalition, and much of its   
   cohesion — the glue — is found in the relationships cultivated by   
   leadership. The coalition’s fracture may spell trouble for Lurie, too,   
   as these allies have the ability to help San Francisco defend itself   
   against dual threats: President-elect Donald Trump and the city’s   
   anticipated $800 million budget deficit.   
      
   Insiders told The Standard that Breed had accepted their donations years   
   ago, then froze them out and opened up lines of communication again this   
   year only to solicit donations for her reelection. By contrast, some   
   local politicians host policy summits for financial backers to weigh in   
   on key issues, from fentanyl to downtown’s economic recovery — so the   
   donor “feels like they aren’t just a blank checkbook,” one insider said.   
      
   “That’s fucking smart politics,” the source added. “They become your   
   army. She didn’t have an army.”   
      
   Maintaining relationships can be far simpler. Mayors will have lunch   
   with key supporters or text them on special occasions. When advised to   
   do more “little things” to keep allies happy, Breed would often say she   
   was too busy.   
      
   Political consultant Dave Ho, who said he enjoys a positive relationship   
   with Breed, recalled the late Mayor Ed Lee frequently touching base with   
   members of his coalition.   
      
   “If you do something for the mayor, anything for the city as a civic   
   responsibility, Ed Lee would have breakfast, lunch, and dinner with you,   
   and you’d never get a call from London Breed,” Ho said. “It’s a   
   governing style, right?”   
      
   The stories from insiders are numerous.   
      
   One longtime union ally who was instrumental in Breed’s 2018 election   
   told The Standard he was stunned to rarely hear from her after she won   
   office.   
      
   “Six months into [Breed’s] administration, I got more texts from Gavin   
   [Newsom] and Kamala [Harris] than from her,” the union ally said.   
      
   An ally from a different part of Breed’s coalition once learned of a   
   ballot measure affecting the group “in the newspaper,” instead of being   
   allowed to weigh in early.   
      
   Another insider who has worked on previous San Francisco mayoral   
   campaigns remembered prepping in-depth information that would prove   
   vital in Breed’s 2018 election. When Breed was set to review the copious   
   findings in a meeting, she instead focused on something trivial: whether   
   the three-hole punches in the research papers were aligned. She wouldn’t   
   move on with the meeting, and refused to review the information that   
   took hours to prepare.   
      
   It felt degrading, said the insider, who made sure to bring a three-hole   
   punch to subsequent meetings and said the experience was one among many   
   that left a bad taste in the mouth. This insider did not come back to   
   help on Breed’s 2024 campaign.   
      
   “When you blow through relationships the way she did, you don’t attract   
   the best for the city and county,” the insider said.   
      
   Jane Natoli, SF organizing director for YIMBY Action, counts her group   
   as among the last few standing in Breed’s coalition as she ran for   
   reelection. YIMBY Action was well served by the mayor, Natoli said, and   
      
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