Supervisor Matt Haney Declares Victory In San Francisco Assembly Seat Special Election
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San Francisco Supervisor Matt Haney declared victory Tuesday night in a special election for the state Assembly but he will have to run again in June and November to keep the seat.
Haney received nearly 64% of the vote and former Supervisor David Campos had about 36%, according to mail-in ballot returns for the 17th Assembly District special election.
Campos conceded Tuesday evening, telling supporters that "big money has figured out how to win elections …and that's what happened here."
Haney significantly outraised Campos, who had pledged to avoid corporate contributions.
Both candidates are on the progressive end of the Democratic Party but Mayor London Breed endorsed Haney and will get to pick his replacement on the Board of Supervisors.
Assembly District 17 covers the eastern half of San Francisco and includes tourist-heavy neighborhoods such as Chinatown, Haight-Ashbury, downtown and the Mission. It also includes the Tenderloin, which is a hot spot for homelessness and illicit drug use.
The special election was held because neither Haney nor Campos received more than 50% of the vote in February's special election.
Haney will have to run again in the statewide June primary and November general elections to keep the seat for another two-year term, meaning residents of the district could vote on the race up to four separate times this year.
The seat became vacant last year after David Chiu resigned to become San Francisco's city attorney, a job that became available when Breed appointed then-city attorney Dennis Herrera to head the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission after Harlan Kelly resigned in 2020.
Kelly left after federal prosecutors charged him with fraud for allegedly accepting bribes from a permit expediter in exchange for insider information. Kelly is fighting the charge and is just one of several city officials and contractors ensnared in a public corruption scandal involving former public works director Mohammed Nuru.