Mayor Lee formally announces re-election bid

Two days removed from a successful Election Night that saw voters approve his slate of ballot questions, including a minimum-wage hike, Lee confirmed Thursday that he will seek a second full term as San Francisco mayor.

“We had a good Election Night,” he said. “Based, really, on the fact that the voters were so strong that they want these things done, I'm up for leading that effort and making sure it gets done successfully.”

Lee enters his fifth year as mayor in January.

He was selected by the Board of Supervisors in January 2011 to fill out the rest of current Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom's second term. In November that year, Lee earned election to office in his own right — something he initially said he would not do — after he jumped into a crowded field of candidates in August.

In the four years since, Lee's focus has shifted sharply from pulling The City out of the Great Recession with tax breaks for tech firms like Twitter to figuring out how to keep San Francisco affordable for working people and families left out of the tech sector's economic good times. The City has one of the sharpest income inequality gaps in the United States, along with some of the country's scarcest and most expensive real estate.

No other major candidates have formally announced runs, though state Sen. Mark Leno — who placed ahead of Lee in a poll taken earlier this year — says he is considering it.

Any challenger is sure to hit Lee on his close ties to the tech sector, which has been blamed for exacerbating The City's housing shortage.

Lee, who lived in public housing in Seattle as a child, says he is committed to meeting this new set of “challenges.”

“This is personal for me,” he said. “I want to deliver on these promises.”