Register by Friday! Vote for Who Reps SF in the CA Democratic Party
While most of us have been hibernating from local politics for the holidays, the ever active Democratic Party politicos have been busily gearing up for an election this week!.
Voters will choose Assembly District Delegates at an obscure meeting called the Assembly District Election Meetings (ADEMs). These delegates help set the policies and priorities for the California Democratic Party. So if you’ve ever been pissed off about sellout Democrats, and you live in Assembly Districts 17 or 19, you might want to vote for a bunch of rad progressives who are running against a slate of more middle-of-the-road Dems.
The League’s steering committee has a range of feelings about how involved we should be in ADEMs, absent a formal endorsement process, so we’re not making any official endorsements. We are not a Democratic club and some of us aren’t Democrats. Some of us are turned off by participating in these insider politico machinations and/or question if the ADEMs really matter or if it’s just a popularity contest for politicos. Some of us are excited to see some of our allies and heroes stepping up to run for the ADEMs to increase grassroots power in the state Democratic Party that has been dominated by corporate sellouts for as long as we’ve been around. If this kind of geekery interests you, read on!
What the hell is the ADEMs?
The ADEM elections are held every two years to elect Assembly District Delegates to the Democratic State Central Committee (DSCC). There’s an explainer video on the California Democratic Party website.
In San Francisco, registered Democrats and Decline to State voters elect leaders to the local Democratic Party governing body, the San Francisco's Democratic County Central Committee (DCCC) that decides the Party’s endorsements of candidates and ballot measures. ADEMs are like the DCCC on the state level.
Unlike the DCCC elections that are run by the independent Department of Elections and appear on your City ballot, ADEMs are weird and run by Democratic Party. And instead of being a public government-run election, the process is managed by a convener and volunteers. In the past, you’d vote in person at specific polling places based on the district. So, you’d be standing in a line wrapping around the block in front of the Women’s Building in San Francisco. Or standing in line in the rain in Daly City. In the past, that lack of accountability has led to some major shenanigans. In 2017, David Chiu was accused of busing in voters who jumped the line ahead of voters who’d been waiting in the rain, some for hours.
For the 2025 ADEMs, CADEM has implemented an online voting option. Online voting registration closes Friday January 31, 2025, at 12:00 PM (noon). You will receive your ballot by email. To participate in the ADEM you must be a registered Democrat in that Assembly district. To verify your Assembly District, use this link.
Why are the ADEMs important?
San Francisco and California are essentially “one party towns” where the Republicans are thankfully mostly sidelined while third parties struggle to break through the Dems’ monopoly. The ADEM delegates vote on the party chair and leadership for the California Democratic Party that controls a massive amount of resources for campaigns up and down the state.
The delegates also will decide the state party endorsements for ballot measures and candidates. Delegates don’t decide the state party endorsement for presidential candidates -- not until after the national convention when it’s a done deal.
The ADEM election is important for movement building, securing official party endorsements for progressive candidates, and moving the dial on progressive issues.
Who’s running?
San Francisco is divided into two Assembly Districts. You can find your district here.
Assembly District 17 - the East Side of SF represented by Matt Haney and Assembly District 19 - the West Side of SF represented Catherine Stefani
In AD17 and AD19, there are two competing slates -- the “Grassroots Rising Slate” and a competing moderate slate. The grassroots rising slate includes some people we know to be rockstars and some people we don't know, but who seem solid. Unlike district or citywide elections, the candidates usually aren’t seasoned politicians. The grassroots rising candidates are labor organizers and racial/social justice organizers affiliated with groups like the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club, SF Berniecrats, and San Francisco Young Democrats.
Extra credit geekery:
Some of the candidates are running for re-election. Here’s where you can geek out on their past votes on endorsements. You see, their votes aren’t anonymous, and they’re posted next to their names.
What's Gonna Happen?? 2024 Edition
The first San Francisco results will be posted at 8:45. This will include only ballots received by Sunday, and they're likely to be brutal for us. Historically, us progressives can sometimes be procrastinators, and the early votes traditionally leans more conservative. So keep the faith, and let's see what it looks like in the morning.
All the ballots that were dropped off Monday or Tuesday won't be counted until Thursday or later! A lot of times, these late ballots lean our way, so close races could swing our way over the coming days.
Results:
- San Francisco results
- SF election reporting schedule
- California results
-
Chris Arvin's Election Maps SF (may start updating around 9pm)
- You can also Track your ballot to make sure it was counted
- You can go back to look at our voter guide here
November 2024 Endorsements
Read the full Pissed Off Voter Guide Here: https://theleaguesf.org/Nov_2024
Our membership voted to endorse the following candidates and ballot measures for the November 2024 election.
Our full Pissed Off Voter Guide is published here
Local Offices
Mayor: Aaron Peskin
Supervisor, District 1: Connie Chan
Supervisor, District 3: #1 Sharon Lai, #2 Moe Jamil
Supervisor, District 5: Dean Preston
Supervisor, District 7: Myrna Melgar
Supervisor, District 9: #1 Jackie Fielder, #2 Stephen Torres
Supervisor, District 11: #1 Chyanne Chen, #2 Ernest "EJ" Jones
District Attorney: Ryan Khojasteh
City Attorney: No Endorsement
Sheriff: No Endorsement
Treasurer: Jose Cisneros
SFUSD Board of Education: Matt Alexander, Virginia Cheung, Jaime Huling
City College Board of Trustees: Alan Wong
BART Board Director, District 7: Victor Flores
BART Board Director, District 9: Edward Wright
Local Propositions
Prop A: $790M School Infrastructure Bond: Yes
Prop B: $390M Community Health Infrastructure and Parks Bond: Yes
Prop C: Create Inspector General to Combat Corruption: Yes
Prop D: Kill All Civilian Oversight Commissions: No
Prop E: Streamline Civilian Oversight Commissions: Yes
Prop F: Deferred Retirement Payday for Police: No
Prop G: Fund Affordable Housing for Seniors and Families: Yes
Prop H: Earlier Retirement Payday for Firefighters: No
Prop I: Retirement Buy-In for Per Diem Nurses and 911 Operators: Yes
Prop J: Protect Funding for Children, Youth and SFUSD: Yes
Prop K: Parkway at Upper Great Highway: Yes
Prop L: Rideshare Tax to Fund Muni: Yes
Prop M: Gross Receipts Tax Reform: Strategic "No Endorsement"
Prop N: Establish Unfunded First Responder Student Loan Forgiveness Fund: No
Prop O: Guaranteed Reproductive Freedom in SF: Yes
State Propositions
Prop 2: $10B Education Facilities Bond: Yes
Prop 3: Marriage Equality: Yes
Prop 4: $10B Water Infrastructure and Parks Bond: Yes
Prop 5: Lower Voting Threshold to 55% for Housing and Infrastructure Bonds: Yes
Prop 6: Abolish Slavery in CA Prisons: Yes
Prop 32: Raise the Minimum Wage: Yes
Prop 33: Allow Local Governments to Expand Rent Control: Yes
Prop 34: Attack on AIDS Healthcare Foundation: No
Prop 35: Extend Funding for Medi-Cal: Yes
Prop 36: Treat Misdemeanors as Felonies: No
Federal Offices
President: Kamala Harris
Senate: No Endorsement
US Representative District 11: No Endorsement
US Representative District 15: No Endorsement
Statewide Offices
State Senate: No Endorsement
State Assemblymember, District 17: No Endorsement
State Assemblymember, District 19: No Endorsement
Looking for help with cities outside SF?
We focus on San Francisco, but if you are in the Bay Area we recommend checking out Bay Rising Action's voter guide for Oakland, Alameda, Contra Costa, Sonoma and beyond!
November 2024 Candidate Questionnaires
The League thanks the candidates and campaign workers who took the time to respond to our policy questionnaire. Our qualified members vote on endorsements on August 15th and August 18th.
See links to the candidates' responses below.
Board of Supervisors, District 3
California Assembly, District 17
California Assembly, District 19
November 2024 Early Endorsements
The San Francisco League of Pissed Off Voters membership voted to early endorse the following candidates for the November 2024 election:
Local Offices
Mayor: Aaron Peskin
Supervisor, District 1: Connie Chan
Supervisor, District 5: Dean Preston
Stay tuned for our full endorsement process in August and our full voter guide in September 2024!
No Death Threats in SF Politics (a modest proposal)
Wow, things are really heated in the City these days. I mean, we get it. We're pissed off too (obviously). But we've always tried to focus our anger on San Francisco's injustices and corruption, not specific people, and to root that anger in love. We understand that the City's intense politics can make it hard to stay grounded….But yikes it's getting scary out there--particularly on twitter/x ever since Elon Musk unleashed the troll hordes.
Speaking of Elon, last September, he made headlines when he called for Supervisors Dean Preston and Aaron Peskin to be jailed, and pledged to donate $100,000 to GrowSF's anti-Preston PAC.
GrowSF clutched their pearls and said they wouldn't accept Musk's money because they "need to be aligned on values with our donors." Bilal Mahmood, who was preparing to launch his campaign against Preston, dropped an f-bomb on Elon in a (now-deleted) tweet saying, "Elon should keep his fucking money out of our politics."
We appreciated their stances, because we know it can be hard to stand up against political allies who cross a line. That initial courage now looks like hypocrisy after Garry Tan recently tweeted that Supervisors Peskin, Preston, Walton, Melgar, Ronen, Safai, and Chan should "die slow motherfuckers." GrowSF and Mahmood haven't said a word.
Why not? Because unlike cheapskate Elon, Garry Tan--CEO of tech incubator Y-Combinator and a GrowSF board member--has been a huge funder of moderate campaigns. He’s dropped nearly $200K since 2015, including $50,000 to the anti-Preston PAC and $5,000 to Mahmood's DCCC campaign.
Since Tan's tweet, five of the Supervisors have received threats in the mail at their homes that say, “Garry Tan is right! I wish a slow and painful death for you and your loved ones.”
But still the candidates and PACs that Tan funds refuse to cut ties with him, or even condemn his comments. Tan’s apologists have tried to minimize his comments because they were based on a Tupac diss track. But come on, he’s still telling his political enemies to “die slow!”
And when we flashback to this wild-pupil Tan video from last summer where he pledged to "wipe out the Preston-Peskin hard left cabal" and says, "Preston, Peskin, Chan, Walton, Melgar, Ronen, your days are numbered," it makes his “die slow” tweet seem less like a drunken mistake and more like a pattern of menacing intimidation. In the context of our federal election climate, these threats are all the more concerning.
What can we do?
- Sign the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club's petition demanding that campaigns return Garry Tan’s money and condemn his comments, and that Y Combinator condemn Tan’s rhetoric and call for his resignation.
- Email the Board of Supervisors and say you support President Peskin's proposed legislation to require a campaign finance disclaimer on political mail and ads linked to anyone who has made credible and documented violent threats. We know this ordinance will need to be narrowly tailored to respect the First Amendment, but we think it’s reasonable to include a disclosure on a political hit ad if it’s paid for by someone who told the ad’s target to “die slow.”
- Vote with the Pissed Off Voter Guide and share it with your friends!
Don’t feed the trolls!
Garry Tan and GrowSF are seriously trolling progressives. Even when they aren’t actively making death threats, they are continuing a pattern of bullying and fanning the fake news flames. We’ll end this post with what we said the last time we dealt with this bullshit, which coincidentally was during the last DCCC race:
While hater noise sure gets us down, we LOVE talking to SF voters about the issues we care about in the streets, on Muni, on campuses, and in our neighborhoods. Thanks for the love that so many of you send our way every election — we feel it! If you like what we do and want to get involved, get on our email list or check our website or facebook or instagram for pub crawls and other opportunities to volunteer. Donate if you can, help us educate voters on local races before the March primary, and become a member of the League so you can help us with the November guide!
Check out our Pissed Off Voter Guide for the March 5, 2024 primary election — a 6,500 word democracy-bomb of sharp analysis and inside baseball, and if you can, please donate to the League so we can print more voter guides.
San Francisco Pissed Off Voter Guide March 2024 Endorsements
Hey! Surely you're looking for our voter guide - this is just our endorsement lists - come back in early 2024 for our full unabridged voter guide!
The San Francisco League of Pissed Off Voters membership voted to endorse the following candidates and ballot measures for the March 2024 election.
Local Offices
Democratic County Central Committee (DCCC) AD17: Labor & Working Families Slate
- John Avalos
- Patrick Bell
- Gloria Berry
- Vick Chung
- Peter Gallotta
- Kristin Hardy
- Jane Kim
- Jeremy Lee
- Anita Martinez
- Michael Nguyen
- Joshua Rudy Ochoa
- Sal Rosselli
- Sydney Simpson
- Adolfo Velasquez
Democratic County Central Committee (DCCC) AD19: Labor & Working Families Slate
- Connie Chan
- Queena Chen
- Natalie Gee
- Greg Hardeman
- Frances Hsieh
- Hene Kelly
- Leah LaCroix
- Sandra Lee Fewer
- Gordon Mar
- Mano Raju
Judicial Offices
Superior Court Judge, Seat 1: Michael Isaku Begert
Superior Court Judge, Seat 13: Patrick Thompson
Local Propositions
Prop A: $300M Affordable Housing Bond: Yes
Prop B: Police Officer Staffing Levels Conditioned on Amending Existing or Future Tax Funding: No
Prop C: Real Estate Transfer Tax Exemption and Office Space Allocation: No
Prop D: Changes to Local Ethics Laws: Yes
Prop E: Police Department Policies and Procedures: No
Prop F: Illegal Substance Dependence Screening and Treatment for Recipients of City Public Assistance: No
Prop G: Offering Algebra 1 to Eighth Graders: No
State Propositions
Prop 1: Behavioral Health Services & Bond: Yes
Statewide Offices
State Assemblymember, District 17: No Endorsement
State Assemblymember, District 19: No Endorsement
State Senate: No Endorsement
Federal Offices
US Senator: Barbara Lee
US Representative, District 11: No Endorsement
US Representative, District 15: No Endorsement
Vote No on Prop I: Protect SF's Plan for Sea-Level Rise at the Great Highway
Prop I on the November 8, 2022 San Francisco ballot would reopen two streets to cars: JFK Drive in Golden Gate Park and the Great Highway south of Sloat. Like everyone else in San Francisco, the League had big feels about whether or not JFK Drive in Golden Gate Park should be (partially) closed to car traffic. But the idea of trying to reopen the Great Highway south of Sloat is foolish in the face of climate change (and the California Coastal Commission), so our members voted for a No on Prop I.
Background: After the Supes voted to keep JFK Drive car-free in April 2022, a coalition largely funded by Republican mega-donor (and Fine Arts/DeYoung Museum trustee) Dede Wilsey gathered signatures for Prop I (fully re-opening the Drive and the Great Highway Promenade to cars again.)
What swayed us to a No on Prop I was the damage it would do to the City’s sensible Ocean Beach Climate Change Adaption Project to address sea-level rise and sandstorms in 2023 by closing the Sloat extension, removing harmful coastal armoring, and restoring habitat. If Prop I passes, the City would have to spend at least $80 million to construct a ridiculous seawall at Ocean Beach– a temporary and destructive attempt to wish away the water.
Here’s some more context if you want to go deep:
It’s hard to overstate how divorced from reality it would be to try to armor the Great Highway South of Sloat to try to keep it a two-way road for cars. The City committed to closing the Great Highway South of Sloat back in 2014, when they settled a lawsuit about coastal erosion. In 2018, the SFPUC studied four options for this stretch of road, none of which included full car access because they said the California Coastal Commission wouldn’t allow it. But if somehow we were allowed to build that stupid ugly seawall, the EIR for the Ocean Beach Climate Change Adaption Project says it would require placing 100,000 cubic yards of sand every year to protect the seawall and could “result in accelerated erosion of shore areas to the north and south of the wall,” including "bluff instability at Fort Funston.” In the interests of all-cars-all-the-time, Prop I would pour huge amounts of money into bad infrastructure, pretending that the sand’s not blowing and the seas aren’t rising.
We also oppose Prop I because it can only be amended by another ballot measure. That means even if the City implements all the accessibility improvements that SDA and others are asking for, we’d have to beat Dede Wilsey’s money at the ballot to make any changes to JFK in the future.
For all of those reasons, we urge you to vote no on Prop I.
And see our full Pissed Off Voter Guide for our take on everything else on the ballot.
Paid for by the San Francisco League of Pissed Off Voters.
Committee major funding from:
Save John F Kennedy Promenade, Yes on J, No on I. ($5,000) - contributors include Jeremy Stoppelman ($300,000), The Nature Conservancy ($50,000), Emmett Shear ($50,000)
Financial disclosures available at sfethics.org.
November 2022 Endorsements
Hey! Surely you're looking for our November 2022 Pissed Off Voter Guide - this is just our endorsement lists - click through to read the full thing!
The San Francisco League of Pissed Off Voters membership voted to endorse the following candidates and ballot measures for the November 2022 election. Our full Pissed Off Voter Guide is available now- read it!
Statewide Offices
Governor: No Endorsement
Lt Governor: No Endorsement
Secretary of State: Shirley Weber
Controller: No Endorsement
Treasurer: No Endorsement
Attorney General: Rob Bonta
Insurance Commissioner: No Endorsement
Superintendent of Public Instruction: Tony Thurmond
Board of Equalization, District 2: Sally Lieber
State Assemblymember, District 17: No Position
State Assemblymember, District 19: No Endorsement
Supreme Court Judges: Yes on Groban, Guerrero, Jenkins, Liu
Appeals Court Judges, First District: Yes on Brown, Burns, Fujisaki, Jackson, Petrou, Rodriguez, Goldman, Stewart, Tucher
Federal Offices
US Senator: Alex Padilla
US Representative, District 11: No Endorsement
US Representative, District 15: David Canepa
Local Offices
Supervisor, District 2: No Endorsement
Supervisor, District 4: Gordon Mar
Supervisor, District 6: #1 Honey Mahogany, #2 Cherelle Jackson
Supervisor, District 8: No Endorsement
Supervisor, District 10: Shamann Walton
City College Board of Trustees, 4 Year Term: Vick Chung, Anita Martinez, Susan Solomon
City College Board of Trustees, 2 Year Term: Adolfo Velasquez
SFUSD Board of Education: Alida Fisher, Karen Fleshman, Gabriela López
Assessor-Recorder: No Endorsement
District Attorney: John Hamasaki
Public Defender: Mano Raju
BART Director, District 8: Janice Li
State Propositions
Prop 1: Protect Abortion Rights: Yes
Prop 26: Legalize Sports Betting in Tribal Casinos: Yes
Prop 27: Legalize Mobile Sports Betting: No
Prop 28: K-12 Art and Music Education: Yes
Prop 29: Dialysis Clinic Regulation: Yes
Prop 30: Wealth Tax for Climate Change: Yes
Prop 31: Ban on Flavored Tobacco: Yes
Local Propositions
Prop A: Retiree Supplemental Cost of Living Adjustment: Yes
Prop B: Sanitation & Streets Public Works Reorg: Yes
Prop C: Homelessness Oversight Commission: Yes
Prop D: Affordable Homes Now: No
Prop E: Homes for Families and Workers: Yes
Prop F: Library Preservation Fund: Yes
Prop G: Student Success Fund: Yes
Prop H: Voter Participation Act: Yes
Prop I: Open JFK Drive + Great Highway to Cars: No
Prop J: Close JFK Drive to Cars: No Position
Prop K: Withdrawn E-Commerce Tax: No
Prop L: Renew Half Cent Sales Tax for Transit: Yes
Prop M: Empty Homes Tax: Yes
Prop N: City Funding for Golden Gate Park Parking Garage: Yes
Prop O: City College Parcel Tax: Yes
November 2022 Candidate Questionnaires
The League thanks the candidates and campaign workers who took the time to respond to our policy questionnaire. Our qualified members vote on endorsements on August 25th.
See links to the candidates responses below.
- Vick Chung
- Brigitte Davila
- Anita Martinez
- John Rizzo
- Susan Solomon
- William Walker
- Jill Yee
- Jason Zeng