Email the Supervisors to Reject Joe Marshall for the Police Commission

Wow! The Board of Supervisors just voted 8-3 to reject the reappointment of Joe Marshall to the Police Commission! Fewer, Peskin, Cohen, Kim, Sheehy, Tang, Yee, Ronen against. Only Safai, Stefani, Breed supported Marshall. Thanks everybody! Your call & emails made a difference!

Can you please take a quick minute to email the Board of Supervisors to tell them to reject the re-appointment of Joe Marshall to the Police Commission? In May, the Board rejected interim Mayor Mark Farrell's re-appointment of Dr. Marshall, but Farrell nominated him again, and today is the last day for the Board to block his re-re-appointment! We're concerned that Mayor-elect London Breed has said she will support Dr. Marshall. If you want to go the extra mile, call her office at (415) 554-7630 and ask her to reconsider.

Here is a sample email:

Please vote against the re-appointment of Dr. Joe Marshall to the Police Commission. Dr. Marhsall is simply too cozy with the Police Officers Association (POA) to implement the police reforms San Francisco needs.

We are especially troubled by his dishonest statements at the Rules Committee yesterday. He tried to deny that his organization, Alive and Free receives funding from the POA, but their annual reports show POA donations of between $1,000 and $10,000 every year for the last six years! Dr. Marshall also tried to deny that he had initially voted to allow police to use the dangerous carotid restraint. And maybe most disturbingly, he said he didn't think the POA had delayed any of our police reforms! We've seen over and over and over how the POA has tried to stall or block Use of Force reform, body cameras, taser policy, etc.

The Board's recent hearing on applicants for the Police Commission demonstrated that there are many well-qualified community members who are interested in serving on the Commission. Please reject this appointment to create the opportunity for new leadership on police reform.

 


What's Gonna Happen??

Update 6/25: The Department of Elections concluded their count of ballots on June 21 and found one uncounted card they added to the tally. The final results are expected to be certified this week. Only 53% of the City's registered voters chose to vote. This abysmal showing is considered "high turnout."

Vote-by-Mail 163,827 33.99%
Election Day 89,756 18.62%
Total 253,583 52.61%

When we look at first place ballots cast, here's how the votes shook out on the top three candidates.

LONDON BREED 91,918 36.64%
MARK LENO 61,276 24.43%
JANE KIM 60,644 24.17%

After rank choice votes were distributed, the election was decided by 2,546 votes. Damn.

LONDON BREED 115,977 50.55%
MARK LENO 113,431 49.45%

Take a couple of weeks to enjoy your summer. The November election begins....um... already?

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Rebecca Solnit: Why I Want Jane Kim to Be San Francisco’s Mayor

Ready for something positive and inclusive and aspirational about the SF Mayor's race? Check out this piece by Rebecca Solnit.

I want a feminist mayor.

I want a mayor who is a champion of human rights.

I want a mayor who knows what it’s like to be a woman, an immigrant, a person of color, an outsider, a newcomer, a beginner, who stands with the dreamers and the old-timers, with the vulnerable and not just the powerful.

I want a mayor who’s passionately committed to keeping this place a sanctuary city.

I want a mayor who will be everyone’s mayor. A mayor who believes that San Francisco is for all of us, poor as well as rich, the baby born last week and the person who’s lived here nine decades, not just those of us in our prime working years. I want a mayor who knows that we need dishwashers and bus drivers and schoolteachers living here. I want the mayor with plans about how to close the widening gulf between rich and poor in in this town (and Jane Kim has them).

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Everybody Loves Mark Leno

There's no debate that Mark Leno was the most progressive member of the state Senate. Whether it was tenant protections, police reform, health care, LGBTQ rights, clean energy . . . you name it, Leno was on the right side. But Leno's super power is his ability to push the envelope on progressive policies while also earning the respect of everyone in the room and charming the pants off his fellow Senators! Check out this video of a bunch of stuffy state Senators gushing about how great Mark is! Drinking game: drink every time they talk about Mark's "grace!" Share this with your more moderate/less firey friends to show them they can feel safe voting for Leno. ;) Wouldn't it be great to have a Mayor who shares our values AND builds political bridges? That's why we're excited to vote for both Jane Kim and Mark Leno. See our voter guide for our full take.

P.S. Did you notice what a sausage fest this video is? Fun fact: there are currently only nine women in California's 40-member state Senate! :/


London Breed Denies Her Anti-Tenant Positions

KALW asked London Breed about the San Francisco Tenants Union's criticism of her record, and it didn't go well. Breed said the SFTU lied when they said she did not support 2014's Prop G, the anti-speculation tax. But then she says she did not take a position. Isn't "not supporting" the same thing as "not taking a position?" That's not a lie. The Tenants Union asked Breed to support Prop G, but she refused to. We were super excited about Prop G to discourage speculators from buying up apartment buildings to evict the tenants and flip the property for a big profit. Unfortunately it lost 46% to 54% after the National Realtors Association parachuted with $2 million against it. Breed could've made a difference on it.

Then Breed said she voted for the ordinance regulating tenant buyouts. But the Board of Supervisors website (page 15) and press reports clearly show she voted against it! We join with the Tenants Union in supporting Jane Kim and Mark Leno as the best choices to protect tenants as our next Mayor.

See our voter guide for our full take on everything on the ballot.


What's Up with London Breed and the Republican Party?

Charlotte Shultz, George Shultz, London Breed
London Breed with George and Charlotte Shultz, January 11, 2018. Photo by Drew Altizer.

(UPDATED 5/17/18 with confirmation from Richie Greenberg.)

In case you hadn’t noticed, things are getting weird in the Mayor’s race! Our friends at the Berniecrats posted this shocking video yesterday of a KTVU report that London Breed’s campaign approached the Republican Central Committee asking them to endorse her as their second choice, but they declined.

WHAT??

Breed rightfully joined the other major candidates in denouncing Angela Alioto’s proposal to weaken San Francisco’s Sanctuary City ordinance, but she’s going to ask for support from our local Republican party who opposes ALL Sanctuary City policy—in addition to all of their other awful policy positions?

This is extra troubling considering Breed’s campaign just paid $9,000 to send out a fundraising letter from George Shultz, a local Republican who was Ronald Reagan’s Secretary of State and Richard Nixon’s Secretary of the Treasurer! We would love to see the distribution list of who they mailed those letters to. We bet they went to a lot of San Francisco’s 35,000 Republicans.

It’s also weird that Breed would want the Republican’s #2 endorsement after she refused the local Democratic Party’s #3 endorsement! What’s going on here?

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The League’s Thoughts on the Housing Crisis

Mission High under construction

One of the big topics in the Mayor’s race is the Housing Crisis. (Another is homelessness, which is totes connected.) We’ve been calling for reforming Prop 13 since we were founded and for building 100,000 new units of housing since 2014. We’re all about building more housing as long as we prioritize protecting vulnerable tenants and building as much affordable housing as is feasible, along with the vital infrastructure to serve all those new bodies.

We’re pissed off at those Forest Hill NIMBYs who blocked affordable housing for seniors, and pissed that the Mayor’s Office of Housing didn’t fight for the project. We’re also pissed off at the developers who are trying to use state law to build less affordable housing than our local laws requireand the state legislators that are enabling them.

You want to upzone the suburbs? So do we! But, we’re skeptical of this idea that, “if the government would just get out of the way and let developers build as much market-rate housing everywhere, everything will be better.” When in the history of capitalism has it worked out to fully deregulate an industry and “let the market decide??”

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June 2018 Candidate Questionnaires

The League thanks the campaigns who took the time to respond to our policy questionnaire. Our qualified members will vote on endorsements on Saturday, March 10.

See links to the candidates full responses below. Be sure to check out what they say about their self-care strategy for the election (here's a twitter thread summary)! And scroll down for a table of the Mayoral candidates responses to our yes/no and short answer questions. 

San Francisco Mayor Candidate

Angela Alioto

Michelle Bravo

London Breed

Jane Kim

Mark Leno

Amy Farah Weiss

 

San Francisco District 8

Rafael Mandelman

 

US Congress, District 12

Shahid Buttar

Barry Hermanson

Stephen Jaffe 

Ryan Khojasteh

 

California Board of Equalization

Malia Cohen

 

Mayor Candidate Comparison

 

  London Breed Jane Kim Mark Leno Amy Farah Weiss Angela Alioto Michelle Bravo
Have you signed up for CleanPowerSF? Green Green Super Green Green Super
Support SFERS Divest from Fossil Fuels? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Support expansion of Charter SChools? No No Yes No   No
Do you support the parcel tax for SFUSD? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Implement vacancy controls in SF? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Fund representation for all immigration deportation cases? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Allow new Mayor to negotiate MOU with Police Officers Assoc? Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Consider 5+ year old reprimands of police officers for promotions?   No Yes Yes No No
Renew SFPD's involvement with FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force? Yes No No Yes Yes No
Support congestion pricing for the downtown core?   Yes Yes   Yes No
Support increasing the TSF by $5/square foot on commercial property? No Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Support a tax on transportation network companies (TNCs) and other "gig economy" operators? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Which gross receipts measure supported for June 2018? Homelessness Childcare Childcare Childcare Homelessness  
Support the SF tenant right to counsel measure on the June 2018 ballot?   Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Do you support the June 2018 ballot measure to provide SF police with tasers? Yes No No No Yes No
RCV for Mayor?   2nd Leno   2nd  Kim 3rd Leno 2nd Leno  
Board of Supervisors D2?       Stefani, Anderson Anderson Anderson
Board of Supervisors D4? Tang       Tang Kim
Board of Supervisors D6?   Haney Haney Haney, Johnson Trauss, Johnson Haney
Board of Supervisors D8?   Mandelman Mandelman Mandelman Sheehy Mandelman
Board of Supervisors D10? Walton, Ellington Kelly   Kelly, Walton Walton Kelly
Board of Education in 2018? Parker, Zhou Collins, Lope, Satya None Moliga, Chinchilla Parker, Satya Haney
Community College Board in 2018? Selby D'avila D'avila, Selby, Rizzo   Oliveri, Rizzo Temprano, Mandelman, Bacharach
Board of Supes D1 in 2016? Philhour Fewer Fewer Fewer, Lyens, Thornley   Fewer
Board of Supes D3 in 2016? Peskin Peskin Peskin Peskin   Peskin
Board of Supes D5 in 2016? Breed   Breed Preston Breed Preston
Board of Supes D7 in 2016? Yee Yee Yee Yee   Engardio, Yee
Board of Supes D9 in 2016? Arce Ronen Ronen Ronen, Espana Arce, Ronen Ronen
Board of Supes D11 in 2016? Safai Alvarenga, Safai Safai Alvarenga, Herrera, Hernandez Safai Herrera
Board of Education in 2016? Cook, Haney, Norton, McNeil Cook, Haney, Sanchez Cook, Haney, Sanchez, Norton     Haney
Community College Board in 2016? Temprano, Bacharach, Williams, Randolph Mandelman, Temprano, Williams Mandelman, Bacharach, Temprano, Randolph      
2016's Prop D "Let's Elect Our Elected Officials"? No Yes Yes Yes Yes No
2014's Prop G, the anti-speculation tax?   Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

 


Interim Mayor Vote at the Board of Supes Tuesday! Come Thru!

Caretaker Mayors

San Francisco voters asked for a transparent process to select an interim mayor, and hopefully that will happen at the Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, January 23! But, wait, we’ve still gotta show up to make our voices heard. Here's all you need to know to flex your democracy muscle.

(Two weeks ago, we broke down the whole mayoral succession process and gave our take, if you need a refresher.)

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Even Matt Cain Could be Interim Mayor: A Breakdown of Political Inside Baseball

Here’s your secret decoder ring for mayoral succession. The League breaks down the City Charter, definitions, process, and political inside baseball.

It’s been 14 years since San Francisco had a mayoral election without an incumbent! We think it's time.

TL;DR:

  • The last time the Mayor’s office was vacant in 2011 was a clusterfuck. The Willie Brown-Gavin Newsom crew pulled power plays to give Ed Lee the power of incumbency, which led to a divisive election and a lot of bad blood.
  • We don’t support power plays where political insiders decide who our mayor is -- even if the potential Mayor is someone we would support.
  • The Board of Supervisors needs to go through a transparent process to select a caretaker Mayor (we’ve got some ideas - see below).
  • San Francisco voters deserve the clean slate of a fair and rigorous debate about who should be our next Mayor without an incumbent running.
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Paid for by the San Francisco League of Pissed Off Voters. Financial disclosures available at sfethics.org.

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