KQED NEWS (SAN FRANCISCO) -- “It was the support she was getting from trusted leaders in the city across the spectrum of race, ethnicity and ideology that ended up making her pretty popular as a mayoral candidate,” said Jason McDaniel, associate professor of Political Science at San Francisco State University.
In the end, the plot by progressives to remove Breed as acting mayor may have helped her more than Leno and Kim, according to McDaniel.
“It galvanized her core supporters,” McDaniel said. “It also took away any ability for Leno or Kim to blame London Breed for some of the things happening in the city now, like homelessness. It may have taken away a strategic avenue of attack that Leno and Kim could have used if Breed had been the interim mayor.”