2018 San Francisco mayoral special election
Ed Lee, who was appointed Mayor of San Francisco in 2011 following Gavin Newsom's election as Lieutenant Governor of California, elected to a full term in 2011, and reelected in 2015, died of cardiac arrest on December 12, 2017. London Breed, the President of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, became the city's acting mayor.
San Francisco Public Defender's Office
Jeff Adachi, who was elected in 2002 and has held office since 2003, is the only elected public defender in California and runs an office of more than100 attorneys and 60 staff members, which has a $24 million budget and serves 23,000 clients each year.. Because Adachi answers to the voters rather than the mayor, he has used his position to advocate for increased public defender funding, reduction of racial disparities, police and prosecutorial accountability, and criminal justice reform in San Francisco.