Vibes were high less than a month ago between District 8 candidates Gary McCoy and Darshini Patel.
The two had just announced their joint campaign, appearing at events in tandem and encouraging supporters to rank the other candidate second, above their main moderate-backed opponent, Manny Yekutiel. McCoy and Patel, both considered progressives, took to Instagram to gush over each other as they announced an alliance.
“She’s been fun to hang out with,” McCoy said in a video announcing the joint campaign Sept. 25. “She’s my opponent, but she’s got some great platform pieces.”
Patel similarly sang McCoy’s praises.
“I actually like him a lot,” she said. “He has a wealth of knowledge, and I’ve learned so much from him.”
But a few short weeks later, the tone has changed, with Patel accusing McCoy of altering his famously progressive values to appease a moderate base. “I just wonder where this shift is coming from suddenly,” Patel told The Standard. McCoy denies the shift, claiming his positions have remained consistent throughout his campaign.
The squabble comes just weeks after Yekutiel dropped out following a second allegation of sexual assault, opening the lane for one of the progressive candidates to pick up moderate votes. Yekutiel, who has denied the allegations, was considered the front-runner, having raised more than $500,000 from voters, many times what McCoy and Patel had raised.
Last week, the moderate political group GrowSF endorsed Patel and vowed to spend more than six figures against McCoy. Two days later, McCoy released a more extensive public safety platform that includes positions typically reserved for a moderate candidate, such as praise for Mayor Daniel Lurie’s handling of street conditions and increased accountability on nonprofit spending.
“Since Mayor Lurie’s election, San Francisco has made meaningful progress,” the Oct. 14 platform says (opens in new tab). “Overdoses are down and street conditions have improved in many neighborhoods. I will be an ally to Mayor Lurie on public safety, and will work with him to make meaningful progress.”
Lurie has not endorsed a candidate since withdrawing his endorsement of Yekutiel.
Patel, who has distanced herself from GrowSF’s endorsement, said McCoy’s platform indicates to her that he has deviated from his progressive values under pressure from moderates. Specifically, Patel said McCoy has waffled on his stance around the RESET Center, a Lurie-backed facility where police drop off drug users as an alternative to jail, as well as his views on Flock surveillance cameras.
Darshini Patel was endorsed by GrowSF earlier this month. | Source: Courtesy Darshini Patel
“He’s shifted quite a bit. That should be something that we are allowed to do, but he has shifted without any new evidence coming out,” Patel said. “I can’t speak to GrowSF’s motivations. I don’t know if they did it in order to push Gary more moderate. But certainly that’s been the outcome.”
The Standard found that McCoy’s position on the RESET Center has been consistent, at least since July, while his position on Flock appears less consistent.
A July article (opens in new tab) from the Bay Area Reporter quotes McCoy as being in support of the RESET Center, with some reservations. In an interview with The Standard on Tuesday, McCoy said he supports the RESET Center because it’s a more humane alternative to jail. Had he been on the Board of Supervisors at the time of its opening, however, he would’ve requested an amendment to make the program a temporary pilot.
McCoy said he supports the use of surveillance cameras, but with guardrails. He said Tuesday that Flock “would have to change a lot in the way their system is set up” to earn his support. However, he noted, he has become more confident over recent months that the city will successfully implement guardrails needed to ethically use the license plate readers.
In August, McCoy told The Standard’s Power Play newsletter that, if elected, he would end Flock’s contract with the city, redirect the money spent on the cameras to mental health crisis teams, and hold a hearing on the use of license-plate data. A statement on his website from September said, “We need to end the relationship with Flock,” describing it as a“vendor who has shown they simply can’t be trusted.”
“We put that together with things I’ve already been talking about all over the place,” McCoy said of his new platform. “I’ve always been very pragmatic. I’ve operated well and worked well with progressive and moderate circles.”
Meanwhile, McCoy has said he has a good working relationship (opens in new tab) with Lurie and backed the mayor’s Family Zoning Plan, which faced pushback from progressives.
Patel, on the other hand, has expressed full-throated support for progressive measures. In an Instagram post (opens in new tab) during budget season in June at City Hall, Patel said she would not vote for the mayor’s budget because it “grows police overtime” and “cuts basic services.” In an interview, she said she would not have supported opening the RESET Center because she doesn’t believe drug users can be forced into treatment. She said she wouldn’t support automated license-plate readers, such as Flock, even with additional guardrails.
GrowSF’s endorsement of Patel puzzled observers. GrowSF — run by Steven Bacio and Sachin Agarwal — is closely aligned with pro-law-enforcement voices and Lurie and has spoken out against progressive policies. But Patel is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and a board member of HealthRIGHT 360, a nonprofit where McCoy used to work that is known for its progressive approach to addiction treatment.
Manny Yekutiel dropped out of the race Oct. 1. | Source: Omar Rashad/The Standard
GrowSF was highly critical of McCoy’s previous role as vice president of policy and public affairs for HealthRIGHT 360. In a statement, GrowSF’s Bacio said it endorsed Patel “because she is the best candidate for the district. We don’t ask for 100% alignment from the candidates we endorse, but we are confident that of the three remaining candidates, her values are most closely aligned with the voters of District 8.” The group this month released a poll showing McCoy and Patel in a close race.
But one political insider suggested the decision had little to do with Patel and everything to do with opposition to McCoy: “Mission accomplished. Anyone who thinks GrowSF was itching to elect a card-carrying member of the DSA is high.”
The person added, “This wasn’t just an endorsement of Patel — it was a cannon pointed at McCoy’s head, with a promise to tell every mom in Stroller Valley that their would-be supervisor supported opening safe-injection sites and shutting down the public-safety cameras keeping their Volvo SUVs from getting broken into.”
On Tuesday evening, the Commonwealth Club will host a debate (opens in new tab) between McCoy, Patel, and a third candidate, Michael Nguyen.
Asked whether she would still encourage her supporters to rank McCoy second on their ballots, Patel danced around the question.
“The race has changed,” she said. “If our strategy was that this was a way to beat Manny, I don’t know how relevant it is anymore. … At some point, we both want to win.”
When pressed on the matter, Patel paused for nearly 10 seconds.
“I would still put Gary No. 2,” she said before pausing again. “Did Gary say something different?”
As of Tuesday afternoon, it appeared McCoy was sticking with the plan. And the two were still holding a joint meet-and-greet for Thursday.
“We still have an alliance,” McCoy said. “I respect that she wants to win and wants to distance herself from me.”