Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg will not run for re-election next year

Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg announced Thursday that he will not seek re-election next year.

Steinberg, who was elected in 2016, will serve the rest of his term, which runs through the end of 2024.

He announced his decision during a news conference Thursday at City Hall’s council chambers, flanked by current and former city leaders.

“The word I feel in my heart is gratitude,” Steinberg said. “I just have gratitude. It doesn’t matter how hard it’s been at times, and it has been hard. It doesn’t matter that at times the role of mayor of a major California and American city is unique in terms of the scrutiny and sometimes criticism. I’m grateful.”

He decided not to run for a third term for personal reasons, not political ones, he said. No Sacramento mayor has ever served three terms.

“I considered it, having that legacy,” Steinberg, 63, told The Sacramento Bee in an exclusive interview Tuesday in his City Hall office. “But personally it’s time. It’s not a political decision. Politically I’m confident I could win a third term. But I had to ask myself, with my wife and family, how I want to spend the rest of my life.”

He expanded on this at his Thursday news conference saying that he wants to spend more time writing, teaching and working with his mental health foundation.

But he was clear on one point: “I am not retiring,” Steinberg said.

He would, however, consider continuing his more than 30-year political career with a bid for another elected office. Steinberg said he would consider a run for California attorney general in 2026 if current AG Rob Bonta runs for governor.

Though his ambitions take him away from Sacramento City Hall, he remains focused on leading the city through the end of this term.

“This ain’t no epitaph,” he said. “I’ve got a year and a half left and I’m gonna work harder than I ever have. I’ve got much more I want to accomplish.”

His decision not to seek re-election will likely spark a crowded field of candidates seeking to be his successor. So far epidemiologist and social justice activist Flojaune Cofer, prosecutor Maggy Krell, and Assemblyman Kevin McCarty, D-Sacramento, have announced they will run. Former Council members Steve Hansen and Jeff Harris have filed paperwork to raise funds to run, but have not made formal announcements. Former state Sen. Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, is also rumored to be considering a run.

Steinberg, former state Senate pro tem, is not yet making an endorsement, but he did say what qualities he would be looking for in making that decision.

“The city deserves someone who is sophisticated in their leadership and accomplished,” he said.

‘Willed my way’

During Tuesday’s interview, Steinberg was both reflective on the past as well as energized about the remaining term.

When he was sworn in as mayor in December 2016, he thought the job would be easier than it has been, he admitted.

“I didn’t imagine a cakewalk, but I didn’t think it would be as challenging as it’s been,” said Steinberg, who also served as a council member ahead of his time in the Legislature. “Between Covid, the rightful racial reckoning and homelessness.”

Due to the pandemic, many downtown Sacramento offices remain empty, especially those owned by the state. The city has opened hundreds of new shelter beds and spent unprecedented amounts of public money on homelessness since Steinberg took office, but the unhoused population has grown significantly. There are about 9,300 homeless people in Sacramento County, which is more than San Francisco.

Despite being faced with those challenging and polarizing issues, Steinberg is proud of what he has accomplished so far.

Even after years of delays and false starts, Sacramento is still in the running for a Major League Soccer franchise. The downtown Railyards, which had sat vacant for years, is suddenly in the early stages of a building boom, with apartment buildings under construction and a sprawling hospital complex planned. Even with an announcement from MLS that San Diego had landed an expansion franchise, Steinberg said this week the city was “moving forward with a first-class stadium in The Railyards.”

The rivefront, particularly in Old Sacramento, has seen development, a new youth sports complex in Meadowview has been funded and Sacramento has earned a reputation for building more housing – including affordable housing – than any city its size in California. Last year the California Department of Housing and Community Development named it the first “prohousing” city in the state.

“In six and a half years, I have literally willed my way and the city’s way toward great progress in the midst of difficult times,” Steinberg said.

In 2019 Steinberg said he wanted to help Sacramento grow up. Looking back, he thinks he has helped make that happen.

“Yes (I have) but I don’t think it’s there yet,” he said Tuesday. “It’s in its adolescence.”

Response to council disruptions

Steinberg also took the opportunity to address the issue of a man who has been coming to city council meetings the last several weeks to spout racist and antisemitic rhetoric.

“Any white person in America is open game, but you’re not allowed to criticize non-whites and you’re not allowed to criticize other groups,” Ryan Messano, of Solano County, told the council May 9.

The following week, on May 15, Messano said: “Antisemitism used to mean someone who hates all Jews, now it means someone who is hated by Jew bankers.”

Immediately following that remark, Steinberg, who is Jewish, yelled, “See ya later pal ... we don’t want to hear any more from you.”

Messano came to Tuesday’s meeting and signed up to speak but as he approached the podium, a group of activists blocked him from speaking. Steinberg had left the room, and Vice Mayor Eric Guerra paused the meeting for about an hour. Also in attendance at Tuesday’s meeting was Jeffrey Erik Perrine who was previously identified by The Sacramento Bee as a member of the Proud Boys, a far-right hate group. His group clashed with a group of activists, including advocates against police brutality, who tried to get them to leave City Hall.

Messano has told The Bee he is not a Nazi.

Steinberg took the opportunity during his news conference to address the topic. He encouraged young people to “get involved and get engaged,” in local government, regardless of the ongoing disruptions.

“Last Tuesday night, this chamber was the scene of something very unpleasant,” Steinberg said Thursday. “We have to model the behavior we want to see among others in our community. Aside from the bigots, who to me don’t count, there are strongly held points of view about the direction of this community ... we all must try harder to listen to one another, to be kinder to one another.”