Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie has announced his transition team and advisors, and it offers some interesting insight into who will be major players in Room 200 for the next four years.
For starters: Yes, tech will play a big role, with Sam Altman, of OpenAI, as one of the team members, along with Ned Segal, who is a former Twitter CFO.
But none of the big players who have tried to dominate local politics in the past decade are on the list. No Garry Tan. No Ron Conway. No Michael Moritz. No Chris Larson. In fact, the whole TogetherSF and GrowSF establishment, not long ago seen as a dominant force in local politics, seems to be iced out of this new administration.
There’s nobody from Big Real Estate in the mix, either: No William Oberndorf, no Thomas Coates.
Lurie was, of course, supported by a billionaire—his mother. And he put a ton of his own money into the race.
But the big tech and real estate money supported London Breed and Mark Farrell.
I’m sure some of these folks will eventually find a way into the administration, but for now they are on the outside. That can only be a good thing.
Some of the names are familiar, and entirely predictable: Joanne Hayes-White, the former fire chief who supported Lurie, is on the list, along with retired SFPD Commander Paul Yep, who also backed Lurie. He’s also tapped José A. Quiñonez, Mission Asset Fund’s founding CEO.
Then there’s a wildcard: He has reached out to Michael Tubbs, the former mayor of Stockton, who among other things created a pilot project for a guaranteed income, which by all accounts was a great success.
That’s an idea former Supervisor and state Assemblymember Tom Ammiano has been pushing for years—and mayors Gavin Newsom, Ed Lee, and London Breed showed no interest. How ironic if Lurie is the one who finally picks it up.
Most of this is just honorary, and we won’t know the real direction of the administration until Lurie hires a chief of staff and starts filling key senior positions.
But so far, what’s important is what’s missing—and that’s the TogetherSF Big Tech power structure.
