District 8 supe race: The plot thickens

The District 8 supervisor plot continues to thicken.

Just days after Manny Yekutiel dropped out of the race in the wake of another set of sexual assault allegations, GrowSF, the billionaire-backed right-wing PAC, launched a poll asking people if they would vote for Yekutiel if he got back in the race.

He is, of course, still on the ballot.

Some tech leaders are saying they still want to vote for him.

All of his endorsers (except the San Francisco Police Officers Association) have withdrawn their support. The Democratic County Central Committee will meet Sunday/11 and consider withdrawing the party’s support.

What’s going on here? I think it’s pretty clear.

The billionaire tech lords who want Yekutiel on the board aren’t going to let a little sexual assault stand in their way. They don’t care; he’s on their side and will be loyal to them. The mayor’s folks don’t want Gary McCoy because he’s someone who supports harm reduction, and a history with the criminal justice system; he can’t be counted on to side with locking up addicts.

Yekutiel was well ahead in the polls, and it’s conceivable that enough voters in D8 either haven’t followed the news and don’t know about the allegations or know and don’t care will still rank him number one, allowing him to emerge victorious.

Then what happens? Two scenarios:

Yekutiel announces that the voters have spoken, that he humbly accepts the job, and will try to be better in the future. That would put the mayor in a worse position than he’s already in: Welcome to the board someone he said shouldn’t be in office, or support a recall, which can’t happen for two years anyway?

Or maybe this is all a carefully thought out plan. The folks at GrowSF are no fools. If Yekutiel wins, then resigns in January, the mayor will get to appoint his replacement—who will not be Gary McCoy. We will see another close mayoral ally, another person who will follow Lurie’s agenda without hesitation, another person acceptable to the Tech Lords who fund GrowSF.

It’s no surprise that the billionaire PAC let it leak that it’s doing the poll. GrowSF wants to let voters in D8 know that maybe it’s okay to vote for Yekutiel anyway. Gee, others are doing it.

Meanwhile: the DCCC meeting is not in person; it’s by Zoom. From the party’s website:

The San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee will hold a special meeting on Sunday, October 11, 2026 at 6:30 pm via Zoom webinar. If you want to join the meeting via Zoom, click here.

Members of the public can live stream the meeting on the Party’s YouTube page. Note that you will only be able to view the meeting; to participate you must attend the Zoom webinar directly or provide written public comment. If we are unable to live stream the meeting a video recording will be uploaded following the meeting.

That’s a big confusing, but it suggests that public comment will be limited and difficult.

There’s a reason this meeting is Zoom only. The party generally meets in the auditorium under the state building, but if that happened, I suspect we’d see a large protest action on the sidewalk, demanding the resignation of Chair Nancy Tung. That protest might even work its way into the auditorium. The TV cameras would be on hand, and the party would look even worse than it already does.

Zoom is safe; no protests, no cameras. I suspect that means Tung has no plans to step down.

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