Aaron Peskin officially enters San Francisco mayoral race
San Francisco Supervisor Aaron Peskin made his visit to the registrar's office Friday, signing paperwork to run for mayor. One of the longest-serving politicians in city history now becomes the sole progressive candidate running against Mayor London Breed, and several moderate challengers.
But Peskin doesn't see the race that way.
"I don't think that this is about progressives or moderates," Peskin said after signing his paperwork. "This is about taking care of San Francisco, and being a mayor who knows how."
"I think people know my work on behalf of the neighborhoods of San Francisco," Peskin said. "I want to be a neighborhood mayor that honors every neighborhood in San Francisco."
Neighborhoods were a running theme as Supervisor Peskin made his run for mayor official. It's the same focus he kept a few months ago, when KPIX was asking whether or not he would join the race.
"You know I started out as a neighborhood guy," he said in March. "I started out as a neighborhood activist in North Beach."
On one level, while running for mayor, neighborhoods are one way to think of building a coalition. Peskin has a quarter century of history in North Beach. And if he's going to build out from there, he has a decent head start in neighboring Chinatown.
"And the reason I am launching this campaign in Portsmouth Square is because of my deep and abiding connections with the Chinese community of San Francisco," Peskin said Friday.
Chinatown is more than just a neighborhood in this respect. It's the core of the city's Asian voting population, which makes for a third of the vote in San Francisco.
Other candidates have already made major announcements in the neighborhood. Recent years have shown the power of this constituency, largely siding with moderate causes, but as political scientists will tell you, voters do not always vote by label.
"We tend to assume they will line up the progressives or line up the moderates and vote consistently," said Saint Mary's professor Corey Cook. "And they typically don't do that."
Peskin's roots in Chinatown could act as a buffer against one potential vulnerability as the progressive candidate. And then there is what it means to be progressive, specifically in relation to recent battles over housing and zoning.
"Building homes and adding treatment beds is progressive," London Breed said in her state of the city address.
Peskin would argue that the need for housing must also be balanced against the city's character and history.
"I think it's also about sticking up for the neighborhoods of San Francisco," Peskin said of the issue.
So the city's race for mayor begins to take shape, amid a lot of talk about shifting politics in San Francisco.