Is Manny Yekutiel Going to Re-Enter the District 8 Race?

It appears that the moderate political group GrowSF has been quickly and quietly doing some polling to see how voters feel about the possibility of Manny Yekutiel resuming his campaign for supervisor, following last week's new sexual assault allegations and his dropping out of the race.

The political waters may be murky around the District 8 supervisor race, which is definitely the SF supervisor race that has garnered the most media attention in this election cycle. And while progressives have rallied behind Gary McCoy and applauded Mayor Daniel Lurie and others for dropping their endorsements of Manny Yekutiel, moderates appear at least curious about what Yekutiel's chances may still be in this race — since his name is going to be on the ballot regardless.

In case you missed it, Yekutiel dropped out of the race in dramatic fashion on Thursday, just hours after the SF Standard published new and similar allegations against him to one that came from a different accuser several months back. Ryan Clark, who admitted to having been on at least one date with Yekutiel, claimed that Yekutiel had aggressively groped him and his boyfriend on the dancefloor of the Midway during a Pride event in 2023, grabbing both of them by the testicles — one of them under the pants — leading Clark to have to forcibly push him off.

Debate has raged in recent days, in the gay community in particular, about whether this or an earlier, similar allegation by Brad Chapin constituted sexual assault or just uncalled-for groping, or whether groping is, in fact, assault. Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, who is gay and currently represents heavily queer District 8, had appeared to want to split the difference and give Yekutiel the benefit of the doubt following Chapin's allegation in June, but when Clark came forward describing something similar and non-consensual, even Mandelman had to rescind his endorsement and say, "[it's] become painfully clear to me that he has work to do on himself and is not ready to serve as an elected official."

Interestingly, the night before the Standard story published and Yekutiel said he was dropping out of the race, billionaire philanthropist and SF Standard founder Michael Moritz had appeared on stage with Yekutiel at an event promoting Moritz's book, with Moritz calling Yekutiel, "one of my favorite people in San Francisco," per the Chronicle.

Fast-forward to this week, and the Standard is reporting on active polling that has been happening, sponsored by GrowSF — a group closely aligned with Moritz's own former political action group TogetherSF, now known as BlueprintSF. The poll reportedly asks, "If Manny Yekutiel were to resume his campaign, where would you rank him on your ballot, if at all?"

Another question says, "Mayor Lurie, as well as several members of the Board of Supervisors and other elected officials, withdrew their endorsements of Manny Yekutiel after the latest allegations against him. Knowing this, where would you rank Manny Yekutiel on your ballot, if at all?"

GrowSF Director Steven Bacio gave a statement saying, "We're not backing any candidate in District 8, but we want to understand where votes are at after such a substantial shake-up." Bacio adds, "Gary McCoy was trailing by over 30 points, he doesn't get to crown himself supervisor — the voters get to decide whose vision represents the district."

A spokesperson for McCoy's campaign, Catie Stewart, tells the Standard, "If GrowSF wants to light money on fire in support of someone who's been credibly accused of sexual assault by three people, that's their right."

Yekutiel, who had close ties to Mayor Daniel Lurie prior to last week, in particular in working on the Civic Joy Fund since before Lurie was elected, would likely have to change his mind and say so publicly very quickly, given that mail-in ballots arrived in mailboxes this week in SF, and there are only 26 days left before Election Day. And if he did resume his campaign, that would put Lurie in an awkward spot.

The fight to bring Yekutiel down, and the political camps lining up to attack or defend him, has echoes in the 2012 scandal over domestic violence allegations against former Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi, a recently elected progressive, whose wife Eliana Lopez recorded a video documenting bruises on her arm with a neighbor after a fight with her husband. That neighbor went public with the video, and the situation led to months of political drama and efforts to get Mirkarimi removed from his job, all while each political camp debated what constituted domestic violence — and as Mirkarimi's wife subsequently made efforts to downplay what happened and attack the moderate camp for using her to try to destroy her husband's career.

Though in this case, 14 years later, moderates know better than to try to downplay what three different people consider sexual assault, though they did try to downplay it when there was only one accuser and Yekutiel had plausible deniability.

GrowSF may have reason to wonder whether Yekutiel's candidacy is still viable. As the Standard notes, an August poll by GrowSF found Yekutiel with 47% and McCoy polling at 15%, with patent attorney Michael Nguyen at 12%.

Previously: Manny Yekutiel Drops Out of D8 Supervisor Race After New Groping Allegation, Lost Endorsements