Rival Candidates Try an Unusual Election Message: Vote for Both of Us
The joint press conference that Jane Kim and Mark Leno, two Democratic candidates for mayor of San Francisco, held together earlier this month looked like the kind of unity event that happens the day after a competitive-but-cordial primary election. Surrounded by their respective supporters, they stood side-by-side before a gaggle of microphones and cameras in front of City Hall and looked poised to perform that perennial primary ritual: Former rivals link arms, the loser endorses the winner, and they both vow to head into the general election as a unified force.
What made the Kim-Leno event unusual, however, is that it didn’t happen after a primary—it occurred right in the middle of the general-election campaign, and each candidate was endorsing the other for the job. Kim, a 40-year-old member of the city’s Board of Supervisors, still very much wants to be San Francisco’s next mayor, but she was there to tell voters that they should cast their ballots both for her and for Leno. And Leno, a 66-year-old former state senator, was there to reciprocate the gesture.
The two also made a joint ad together to hammer home the message. “Vote for me and Mark Leno,” Kim says in the video.
“Vote for me and Jane Kim,” Leno says in the next shot.
The odd alliance between these mayoral rivals ahead
