Incumbent Supervisor Eric Mar cruised to victory Tuesday despite almost $1 million spent to defeat him in one of three hard-fought contests for seats on San Francisco's Board of Supervisors.
"Richmond District voters have sent a strong message that our neighborhood is not for sale," said Mar, a progressive, who defeated challenger David Lee, a moderate who heads the Chinese American Voters Education Committee. Lee had what may have been unprecedented funds spent by business and real estate interests on his behalf.
That race in District One involved one of six seats on the 11-member Board of Supervisors on the ballot, but only three were seriously contested.
In District Five, appointed incumbent Supervisor Christina Olague faced a daunting task in attempting to win her first election in a race fraught with tension and acrimony - even by San Francisco political standards.
Challenger London Breed, the executive director of the African American Art and Culture Complex and the leading fundraiser in the race, opened up a surprising double-digit early lead that she maintained throughout the night.
Two preliminary calculations using the city's ranked-choice voting system also showed Breed defeating Olague, although final results may not be ready for several days.
Outside of Nickie's Bar and Restaurant, Breed's campaign declared victory.
"I'm pretty speechless right now," Breed said. "It's a new day in District Five. ... The races are behind us."
Olague's campaign spokeswoman, Stephanie Tucker, sent a text message cautioning: "It's not over yet."
That contest in District Five, a stronghold for the progressive faction on the city's political left that includes the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood, was the most dramatic among the board races.
Olague had the advantage of incumbency after Mayor Ed Lee tapped the former Planning Commission president in January to fill the remainder of Ross Mirkarimi's term after he was elected sheriff.
She was often attacked by her seven opponents for being too close politically to the mayor, a business-friendly moderate, to represent the city's most liberal district.
That campaign narrative was upended in October when Olague voted against the mayor's effort to remove Mirkarimi for official misconduct after the sheriff bruised his wife in a domestic dispute.
The vote shored up Olague's credentials with some on the political left for defying Lee in voting to reinstate a fellow progressive, but it also alienated her from the mayor and brought outrage from domestic violence advocates and others. An independent expenditure committee linked to Lee backer and tech investor Ron Conway and others spent more than $104,000 in the final days of the campaign to defeat Olague.
"The dynamics of this race were unlike any race in district election history," said Alex Clemens, a lobbyist, consultant and veteran City Hall watcher. "It defies description."
Under the city's ranked-choice voting system, voters pick a first, second and third choice for office. If no candidate gets more than 50 percent outright, the lowest-ranked candidates are eliminated one by one. The second- and third-choice votes of their supporters are then reassigned to the remaining candidates until someone finishes with more than 50 percent.
The winner in District Seven also may not be known for days.
In that race, school board President Norman Yee held the lead in first-place votes, but the latest ranked-choice tabulation showed labor leader F.X. Crowley with a narrow edge to replace termed-out Supervisor Sean Elsbernd. Businessman Mike Garcia and journalist Joel Engardio were trailing the two front-runners.
For decades, the homeowner-heavy district stretching from West of Twin Peaks to the zoo has been the moderate to conservative center of the city.
Supervisor David Campos in District Nine and Supervisor John Avalos in District 11 faced no challengers on the ballot.
Board President David Chiu easily fended off three rivals in District Three.
John Coté and Neal Riley are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. E-mail: jcote@sfchronicle.com, nriley@sfchronicle.com
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/S-F-supervisors-Mar-wins-Breed-Yee-lead-4014661.php#ixzz2BXgv5mKU
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