Apparently there’s some purported campaign to draft former District 2 Supervisor Mark Farrell to run against London Breed in the 2024 mayoral race, and polling suggests he’d have a good shot at winning the increasingly crowded race.

It seems like a blip and a distant memory, but London Breed’s predecessor as Mayor of San Francisco was not Ed Lee. For just under six months back in 2018, then-District 2 Supervisor Mark Farrell was appointed interim mayor by the SF Board of Supervisors about a month after the sudden death of Ed Lee. Many of the board’s left flank felt uncomfortable with Breed serving simultaneously as mayor, District 5 supervisor, and board president while running for mayor. Farrell served about five wholly unremarkable months until Breed was elected the following June.

And when that time came, Farrell told the Chronicle he wasn’t ever running for office again. “This is it,” Farrell told the Chron after taking office. “Ask my wife.”

But was it it? On Wednesday, the Chronicle reported that there’s a draft Mark Farrell for Mayor campaign afoot. And the Chronicle got a statement out of Farrell that’s quite a non-denial, and sure leaves the door open.

Farrell’s statement to the Chronicle said he found it “humbling” that people were trying to draft him and he insisted “it has not been something on my radar” to run. But he didn’t push back on the idea.

“Like many San Franciscans, I am deeply concerned about the state and future of our City,” Farrell added. “San Francisco cannot afford to continue down the path we have been on and we all deserve better from City Hall. Any decision I make about the future will not be taken lightly.”

The impetus for this seems to be a DraftMayorMark.com website that has popped up, which only lists six people as “campaign co-chairs.” But this has the feel of that maybe not exactly grassroots “Run Ed Run” campaign from back in 2011, when supposedly interim mayor Ed Lee was supposedly swayed into running after being (again, supposedly) not willing to run but talked into it by supporters.

Farrell would be another moderate in a race that already has three. But a poll last week from FM3 Research (which hmmmm, somehow has Farrell the race though he is undeclared, and same goes for Aaron Peskin) has Breed winning an initial vote handily, but Farrell either tied or winning outright after “positive messaging” or “negative massaging.” There is little methodological detail on what is meant by that positive or negative messaging.

But the biggest takeaway there may be that the undecided vote gets a larger share than any candidate, with nearly a year still left in the race. That large undecided share is a great opportunity for all of the challengers, but may represent a political problem for Breed, considering she’s been mayor for five years. Any undecideds who would break for her, presumably, would already have done so by now.

Related: Daniel Lurie Makes Candidacy Official For SF Mayor, Says There's 'Hunger For Change' [SFist]

Image: SAN FRANCISCO, CA - MAY 17: San Francisco mayor Mark Farrell speaks during a news conference outside of the Civic Center Navigation Center on May 17, 2018 in San Francisco, California. Farrell announced a first in the nation program that will bring treatment for opioid drug addiction directly to people on the streets of San Francisco. Plans for the $6 million program will include a team of Department of Public Health Street Medicine clinicians that will provide the drug buprenorphine to addicts on the streets who want to get clean. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)