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Filner announced on June 8, 2011, that he would be a candidate for Mayor of San Diego in the 2012 election and would not run for re-election to Congress. In the primary on June 5, 2012, he placed second with 30.7% of the vote. He faced city councilmember Carl DeMaio in the November 2012 runoff election. Filner defeated DeMaio, 52.5% to 47.5%. Filner, age 70, won as San Diego's first elected Democratic mayor since 1992 and only its second since 1971.

2013 allegations and resignation
Allegations of sexual harassment

On July 11, 2013, three of Filner's long-time supporters held a press conference to call for Filner's resignation as mayor, based on numerous unspecified but "credible" allegations that he had sexually harassed women. KPBS-FM said that it had been investigating reports of sexual harassment of female staff members for several months, and that the complaints included "inappropriate comments, kissing and groping". Later that day Filner issued a video statement apologizing and saying that he was seeking professional help to change his behavior. The next day Filner told reporters that he had treated women poorly and sometimes intimidated them, but insisted that a "fair and independent investigation" would clear him of sexual harassment charges.

On July 12, Filner's chief of staff, Vince Hall, announced his resignation, effective immediately. On July 24, Filner's new chief of staff Tony Buckles, his former congressional chief of staff, resigned after only 10 days on the job and was replaced by Lee Burdick, a woman who had been serving as deputy chief of staff.

On July 15, the same three former supporters held another press conference, describing in more detail charges by women who said they had been forcibly kissed, groped, and subjected to sexually suggestive comments by Filner; the alleged but unidentified victims include a mayoral staffer, a campaign volunteer and a constituent. Filner repeated that he had done nothing wrong and would not resign.

On July 22, 2013, attorney Gloria Allred announced at a press conference that her firm had filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Filner on behalf of the mayor's former communications director. By August 26, 19 women had publicly claimed that Filner had sexually harassed them, including a retired admiral, a Marilyn Monroe impersonator who appeared at one of his fundraisers, a 67-year-old great-grandmother who worked for the city, a nurse who said Filner demanded a date in exchange for helping a Marine who had suffered a brain injury and PTSD during service in Iraq, and several female members of the U.S. armed forces who had been raped during their service. In the last two instances, Filner's contact with the women stemmed from his position at the time as ranking member of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee.

In the ensuing weeks, calls for Filner's resignation came from Democratic U.S. senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, representatives Susan Davis and Scott Peters, DNC chairwoman and U.S Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, California State Assembly members Toni Atkins and Lorena Gonzalez, Nancy Pelosi, and all nine members of the City Council.

On July 26, 2013, Filner announced that he planned to take a leave of absence "to undergo two weeks of intensive therapy” starting August 5. He started the treatment but ended it early on August 10, according to his attorney.

On July 29, 2013, Filner asked the city of San Diego to pay his legal fees for a sexual harassment lawsuit regarding his former communications director. The city council voted not to do so, and in fact to sue Filner for any costs incurred by the city due to claims filed against him and the city. The City Council later reversed itself as part of a negotiated agreement with Filner.

Other issues

Federal, state and local investigators looked into several other issues involving Filner. One matter involved a trip he took to Paris with his then-fiancée in June 2013; questions had been raised about the nonprofit group that paid his expenses and the use of city credit cards to pay for his accompanying security detail. On another issue, FBI agents looked into a pair of proposed housing developments which Filner blocked with an "administrative hold" until the developers contributed money to certain city projects.

Recall effort

In August 2013 two different groups started the process to mount a recall drive against Filner; the two groups later combined their efforts. In order to force a recall election, they would have had to gather more than 100,000 signatures of city voters (15% of the votes cast in the most recent election) within a 39-day window. On August 18, 1,200 volunteers began collecting signatures. Less than a week after the signature drive began, Filner agreed to resign. The recall organizers wound down the effort, called for all petitions to be turned in so they could be counted and destroyed, and worked on preparing a final financial accounting.

Resignation

On August 21, 2013, city attorney Jan Goldsmith said that Filner had reached an agreement with the city after three days of mediation. The City Council considered the agreement in a closed session on August 23 and voted 7-0 to accept Filner's resignation. The resignation deal with the City Council limits Filner's "legal and financial exposure" by providing a joint legal defense for him and the city for claims filed against him by current or former city employees, as well as paying up to $98,000 of his outside legal fees. Filner signed a letter of resignation that became effective at 5 p.m PDT August 30, 2013. City Council president Todd Gloria served as interim mayor, with limited powers, pending election of a new mayor. A special election was held on November 19, 2013; since no candidate received a majority of the vote, a runoff election was held on February 11, 2014, wherein Kevin Faulconer was elected to be the next mayor.

Conviction

On October 15, 2013, Filner pleaded guilty in San Diego Superior Court to three criminal counts filed against him by the California state attorney general, who took over the case after the San Diego County district attorney recused herself. The charges were one felony count of false imprisonment and two misdemeanor battery charges. The victims were identified as three Jane Does. He could have faced up to five years in prison, but a plea bargain was reportedly reached, under which he would be given three months of house arrest, three years probation, and partial loss of his mayoral pension. On December 9, 2013, the terms of the plea bargain were imposed at a sentencing hearing. The plea bargain would have prohibited him from ever seeking or holding public office again, but the judge reduced the prohibition so it applies only while he is on probation. He served a three-month term of house arrest which ended on April 6, 2014