San Francisco moves right with progressive mayoral candidate an underdog as crime and drug abuse rage on

San Francisco is known as a reliably liberal city to most of America, but a Los Angeles Times editor believes there are signs that the City by the Bay has swung to the center, as voters are sick of rising crime rates and ramped-up drug use and remain shaken from COVID-era shutdowns.The L.A.Times published a piece on Thursday headlined, “San Francisco has shifted to the center.

Can a progressive still compete there?” Times audience engagement editor Defne Karabatur kicked off the piece by asking, “Has famously liberal San Francisco moved too far right to embrace an old-school progressive for mayor?”The L.A.paper noted the presidential election will be here soon and that “outrage over the progressive agenda is playing out in an unlikely place: The San Francisco mayoral race.”“My colleague Hannah Wiley looked into the race this week and found that only one of the race’s five candidates, San Francisco Board of Supervisors president Aaron Peskin, is running on a progressive agenda.

And he’s the underdog,” Karabatur wrote before fretting, “What does it all mean? Is San Francisco no longer a bastion of progressive politics? What even is progressivism?”Aaron Peskin, seen as the most progressive of the Democrats to enter the mayor’s contest, is seen as an “underdog” compared to incumbent Democratic San Francisco Mayor London Breed, former interim Mayor Mark Farrell, Levi Strauss heir Daniel Lurie and S.F.Board of Supervisors member Ahsha Safaí, according to the Times.The L.A.

Times piece noted that San Francisco was “famous for being a pioneer of progressive political discourse,” but has “tottered toward the center” in recent years.Voters approving ballot measures to broaden police surveillance powers and impose drug screenings on people receiving county welfare benefits are mentioned as examples of the community distancing themselves from the far left.

Both examples were pushed by incumbent Mayor Breed.In addition, “San Francisco...