San Francisco League of Pissed Off Voters

You found it! The Pissed Off Voter Guide for San Francisco's June 2026 election.

June 2026:
Vote While You Still Can!

Statewide Offices

Governor: Tom Steyer
Lieutenant Governor: Oliver Ma
Secretary of State: Shirley Weber
State Controller: Meghann Adams
State Treasurer: No Endorsement
Attorney General: No Recommendation
Insurance Commissioner: Jane Kim
Superintendent of Public Instruction: Richard Barrera
Board of Equalization, District 2: Sally Lieber

San Francisco Offices

US Congress, District 11: Connie Chan
US Congress, District 15: No Endorsement

Supervisor, District 2: Lori Brooke
Supervisor, District 4: Natalie Gee
SFUSD Board of Education: Virginia Cheung
Superior Court Judge, Seat 16: Alexandra Pray
State Assembly, District 17: No Endorsement
State Assembly, District 19: No Endorsement

San Francisco Ballot Measures

Prop A: $535M Earthquake Safety and Emergency Response Bond: Yes
Prop B: Weird Do-Nothing Tweak to Term Limits: No! Why??
Prop C: Business Tax Poison Pill: No
Prop D: Overpaid CEO Salary Tax: Hell Yes!

Want to know why we recommend voting this way?
Keep reading for our research and snarky analysis!

Looking for a voter guide outside of SF?

We focus on San Francisco, but if you are in the Bay Area we recommend voting with Bay Rising Action's voter guide for Oakland, Alameda, Contra Costa, Sonoma and beyond!

Voting Logistics

Register to Vote at any Post Office or online at RegisterToVote.ca.gov. If you’re registered by May 18th, you’ll get a ballot in the mail. But in SF you can always register in person at City Hall up until Election Day. You can also register at any polling place on Election Day: just ask to cast a provisional ballot. Call 415-554-4375 for more info.

WHEN?

May 4th: Early voting starts at City Hall, weekdays 8am–5pm (closed May 25th).

May 23rd: Weekend early voting starts at City Hall, Saturdays and Sundays 10am–4pm.

June 2nd: Election Day! Polls open 7am–8pm. If you’re in line by 8pm you can vote. You can also drop your ballot off at any polling place on Election Day.

WHERE?

Everyone will get a ballot in the mail! Make sure yours is coming to the right place by checking your registration at SFElections.org.

Mail your ballot if you can't drop it off. You don't need a stamp, but make sure you sign the envelope and that it's postmarked by June 2nd.

Drop off your ballot early at one of the 37 official ballot drop boxes across the City, from May 4th through 8pm on Election Day, June 2nd.

Where’s your polling place? Check https://SFelections.org/tools/map_poll_time/, call 311, or just go vote at City Hall.

WHAT ELSE?

Did you forget to register? You can still vote! Go to City Hall or your polling place and tell them you want to "register conditionally and vote provisionally!"

People with felony convictions can vote! You can vote even if you’re on parole. Re-register at Restore Your Vote.

Youth can (almost) vote! If you’re 16 or 17, pre-register to vote and your registration will automatically be activated when you turn 18.

Ranked Choice Voting Strategy

The Congressional races are not Ranked Choice. So only mark one candidate for Congress or your vote won't count. Our one and only choice for Congress is Connie Chan!

For the Supervisor races, RCV allows you to vote for multiple candidates: your 1st choice, 2nd, etc. Your vote initially goes to your first choice, but if that candidate ends up in last place, they go poof and your ballot is ‘moved onto the pile’ of your second choice. This keeps happening until one contender has enough votes to win.

RCV is intended to reduce polarization and increase voter choice—and we can also use it strategically: to play defense. It sometimes makes sense to cast an RCV vote for a candidate you don’t support in order to block a candidate you hate.

For instance, entiiiiirely theoretically, say you want to make sure Lurie-appointee Alan Wong does not win election to District 4 Supervisor. You could vote for our favorite Natalie Gee 1st, and then list anybody but Alan Wong as your 2nd and 3rd choices, leaving Wong off your list entirely. This way, if it came down to a face-off between Wong and any other candidate, your vote would help keep him off the Board. Use ranked choice voting to vote your heart while making sure the worst candidate doesn’t win.

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Dear San Francisco,

Yes, the world is falling to pieces and democracy itself is being flushed down the robot shitter by AI billionaire oligarchs and their buddies in Washington. But the good news is, we can still vote! At least for now.

Here in SF, most people don’t even know there’s an election in a few weeks. And, as always, low turnout is a goal of the right-wingers who have money but fear large numbers of voters. So we’re here to walk you through your ballot—don’t forget to turn it in before the June 2nd deadline!

If you're curious how the Pissed Off Voter Guide became the most trusted progressive guide in San Francisco, it's because we show our work (and use a community process—reach out to get involved!). Keep scrolling to read our full voter guide, where we share our analysis and the strategy behind our endorsements for the most important contests on the June ballot:

Connie Chan for Congress: Send a progressive champion to DC! Remember: you can only vote for one candidate for Congress! It’s not a ranked choice race.
Overpaid CEO Salary Tax: Tax wealth inequality by voting Hell Yes on Prop D, which will raise $300 million annually for city services just by taxing companies with overpaid CEOs. And don’t be fooled by the poison pill Prop C Business Tax, written by the Chamber of Commerce to torpedo Prop D.
Lori Brooke (D2) and Natalie Gee (D4) for Supervisor: Break up the Mayor’s rubber stamp majority on the Board by sending two independent supervisors to City Hall.

There are only two other props on the ballot, and we’re supporting the Prop A emergency services infrastructure bond but opposing Prop B, which weirdly tightens term limits on the only elected offices that already have them (Mayor and Supervisors), but leaves out all the other citywide offices with no term limits. Huh?

And don’t forget to check out the down-ballot races. We're proud to support independent candidates for Judge (Alexandra Pray) and School Board (Virginia Cheung). Scroll down to read the full Pissed Off Voter Guide to learn how we navigated CA’s weird Top Two primaries to decide our statewide endorsements, and why we’re endorsing progressive-enough billionaire Tom Steyer for Governor.

Don’t stop pestering everyone you know about how important it is to vote in this election. Voting matters! Look, if it didn’t, the GOP overlords and the Supreme Court wouldn’t work so hard to keep us from doing it.

Rouse from hibernation, Pissed Off Voters, and vote while you still can! We've got work to do.

Love,

The League

^Back to Top

San Francisco Offices

US Congress, District 11: Connie Chan

Remember: You can only vote for one candidate for Congress! It’s not a ranked choice race. If you vote for multiple candidates, your ballot will be thrown out.

Holy shit. This is the first open congressional race in our political lives (and for some of us, our ACTUAL ENTIRE LIVES). Sending a capable progressive to Washington will ensure that SF gets our share of federal funds, and install another sane activist to help fight the good fight for the whole country.

There are three leading candidates in this top-two primary: State Senator Scott Wiener, New Kid on the Block Saikat Chakrabarti, and District 1 Supervisor Connie Chan.

We are proud to endorse Connie Chan for Congress! Connie immigrated with her family to SF’s Chinatown as a child, cut her teeth as a community organizer, and then worked her way up in politics, maintaining her commitment to social justice the whole way. As District 1 Supervisor, she’s been a champion for renters, small businesses, seniors, and working families in the Richmond. As a smart and thorough Budget Chair, Connie has prioritized vital city services amidst the call to slash spending, and found money to stave off the worst local impacts of Trump’s cuts to health care and food benefits. She has launched progressive initiatives that can be a model for the country: overseeing free City College, funding public transportation and affordable housing, defending tenants and immigrants, protecting the social safety net, and taxing the goddamn billionaires (see Prop D).

Connie’s got a long list of endorsements, especially from progressive labor unions, who are key allies in the coalition to bring power to working families, and who will help her to win. While Connie’s first order of business would be working with other progressive reps to block Trump’s harmful cuts and evil policies, it’s her vision for what government can do for everyday people that we're really excited about.

Scott Wiener is terrible (see every voter guide ever).

Saikat Chakrabarti is new to San Francisco politics, but he worked on Bernie’s campaign in 2016 and ran Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign in 2018, before doing a brief stint as her Chief of Staff in DC. (AOC has rather pointedly not endorsed him in this race.) Before entering politics, Saikat made boatloads of money in tech, and currently runs a national progressive think tank. As a candidate, his focus is on strengthening the national Democratic Party to stand up to Trump, and supporting reforms that will clean up dirty politics in Washington. We are 100% on board with all that, but Saikat doesn’t have much to say about San Francisco’s specific needs—and he doesn’t have specific ties to communities here that will keep him accountable if elected (and actually, we’re concerned about the ways he has shown up in local politics—mainly through donations to defeat progressives in recent Supervisor races). It kinda sounds like he could be running this same campaign anywhere: nice ideology, no grassroots activism, just a lot of money to hire canvassers and buy ads.

But it’s unclear that Saikat’s millions will buy him a victory in the primary, and it’s even less clear that he would win in November without the support of the labor unions and community groups that are backing Chan (and may not throw down for a wealthy tech bro). If Saikat ends up being on the ballot in November we’ll reassess. But for now, It’s a no-brainer: Connie Chan is the only candidate who can beat Scott Wiener* in November and bring San Francisco values to Congress. Let’s send Connie Chan to DC!

Uh oh! According to a news report, Chakrabarti's campaign has provided their paid canvassers with a script that implies that voters could rank vote both Saikat and Connie Chan to avoid a Wiener victory. This is misleading. The race for Congress is not ranked choice, and marking a #2 candidate will invalidate your vote.

Vote Connie Chan, and only Connie Chan, for Congress!

*Curious why Scott Wiener is terrible? Click through to read our previous voter guide writeups, but basically: he’s madly pro-cop, pro-developer, pro-YIMBY (trickle-down housing) with a gloss of pro-LGBTQ pinkwashing. Oh, and Weiner lost the California SEIU endorsement because he opposes Prop D, the Overpaid CEO tax.

US Congress, District 15: No Endorsement

Ok, the incumbent, Kevin Mullin, is going to win. He’s a centrist YIMBY who believes in being “an active leader in the fight to protect America’s innovation economy.” He’s running against a couple other well-meaning centrist Democratic businessmen (from tech and defense,) a Republican whose main issue is “getting men out of women’s sports,” and a no-party-preference retired police officer.

Mullin is proud of his endorsement by the state party, and sure doesn’t need ours.

Supervisor, District 2: Lori Brooke

Does it really matter which rich white homeowner represents District 2 (the Marina and Pac Heights) at the Board of Supervisors? Yes, actually – the balance of power at the Board rests on the outcome of this election. Interim Supervisor Stephen Sherrill is so terrible at his job that he could easily lose in June. Sherrill’s loss would change the Board math for countering the Mayor’s defunding of city government in the name of downtown revitalization, so progressives can’t ignore this race.

Supervisor Sherrill was appointed by Mayor London Breed last year as a payback for his mentor Michael Bloomberg's massive campaign contributions to her. His dad is a Republican mega-donor, and Sherill himself is a former Republican who interned in the Bush White House. District 2 voters feel that their supervisor is not representing his constituents as much as he is rubber-stamping the Mayor's policies. His support for Lurie's “Family Zoning” housing developer giveaway is best symbolized by the proposed demolition of the beloved Marina Safeway in order to erect 25 stories of luxury waterfront pied-à-terres. District 2 voters are pissed off: they never voted for Sherrill in the first place, and seem ready for a change.

Lori Brooke is the viable, independent challenger who could break the Mayor's green-light majority on the Board. She has deep roots in the district, and has been a leader in the Cow Hollow Neighborhood Association for decades. As a housing activist, Lori has been rallying her neighbors to challenge Lurie on his bad decisions that put downtown real estate interests above neighborhood residents and small businesses. Lori's call for community-driven housing policy suggests a vision we can get behind: neighborhoods that build communities instead of more luxury condominiums.

Just as with our strategic endorsement for Governor, we're holding our breath and trusting in a rich white person to stay independent and to vote with us some of the time, with some prior assurance of common goals. To be clear, while Lori has supported progressive candidates like Aaron Peskin and Jane Kim in the past, she is not a progressive. She’s representing one of the most conservative neighborhoods in the city, so the best we can hope for is an independent Democrat. We won’t agree with Lori on every vote, but electing a non-lapdog D2 supervisor grounded in her neighborhood is crucial for blocking Mayor Lurie's charter reform power grab in November and bringing the voices of neighborhoods back into City Hall ASAP.

Vote Lori Brooke for District 2 Supervisor!

Supervisor, District 4: Natalie Gee

Natalie Gee is a goddamn progressive unicorn. She’s our dream supervisor for District 4 (the Sunset!).

Natalie is the whole package: a Cantonese-fluent community organizer, a leader in her union, a Lowell and SF State alum. Natalie is a connector, and gets along with everybody from conservative homeowners to young tenants like herself. She’s an experienced City Hall legislative aide: working for D10’s Shamann Walton, she’s written and passed important legislation by centering community voices and building coalitions, a rare skill on the Board given so many newbie supervisors. On day one, Natalie will be ready to deliver for her neighbors in the Sunset.

Natalie is a proven fighter for workers’ rights. As a member leader of her union, IFPTE Local 21, Natalie has fought for full funding of crucial neighborhood services and is supporting Prop D, the Overpaid CEO Salary Tax. She’s endorsed by almost every union in town—including the SF Tenants Union! She has the backing of five supes (Walton, Myrna Melgar, Jackie Fielder, Connie Chan, and Chyanne Chen), along with the city’s most progressive current and former elected officials.

If Natalie wins, the Board math will shift to a solid block of 5+ progressive votes. With a progressive majority in November, we can push back on the Mayor’s narrative of downtown recovery with our own narrative of neighborhood recovery. The Sunset’s voices have been ignored by their representatives during the past two elections, but Natalie will bring the community back into City Hall.

Natalie’s opponents include the wiffly-waffly Alan Wong, finally appointed by Mayor Lurie after an embarrassing series of clownish candidates (remember PetStoreGate?); Albert “oops I forgot to file taxes on my nonprofit” Chow, and so on. Conservative PACs are pouring money into the race slamming Gee as a cop-hater, but anyone can see they’re just worried because Gee’s got the ground game. Tell your Sunset friends!

Vote Gee for D4!

Board of Supervisors Races? In June?

Supervisor elections for all the even-numbered districts are scheduled for November 2026. But two of the Mayor's allies on the Board are appointed incumbents, and in a particularly confusing twist, must run for election this June and again in November if they win. This June’s Supervisor races will only be on the ballot for District 2 and District 4 voters.

Why is the Board of Supervisors important?

Currently the Mayor enjoys a rubber stamp majority on the Board of Supervisors. So far, the Board has supported every one of the Mayor's initiatives: his real estate developer zoning giveaways, his overfunding of the police and sheriff’s departments through unbudgeted overtime, his cuts to public health and homelessness services, and his proposed charter reform, a game-changing power grab funded by right-wing rich guys and destined for the November ballot. Lurie wants to “reform” the City's charter to give the Mayor even more power, reduce civilian oversight of City departments, and make it harder for angry voters to gather signatures for new legislation via initiative ballot measures.

The Board as it currently exists cannot challenge the mayor. How can we make the Board grow enough of a spine to resist Lurie's DOGE-lite executive overreach?

If we replace two Lurie appointees with independent neighborhood voices this June, we could flip the Board progressive in 2026. We'll have more work to do for November's general election, with exciting and viable progressive candidates in District 8 (Castro) and District 10 (Bayview). See you then—but for now it’s up to those in Districts 2 and 4 to get things rolling.

SFUSD Board of Education: Virginia Cheung

Wow, did y’all catch that badass teachers’ strike in February? It was an incredible citywide lovefest in solidarity with educators and in support of San Francisco’s students and schools. But as much as we love any opportunity to march in the streets with our communities, the strike should not have had to happen. The teachers and educators’ union, UESF, negotiated in good faith for nearly a YEAR without getting anywhere close to the contract they deserved. The Board of Education could have and should have directed the Superintendent to negotiate and prevent the strike, or make it shorter than the 4 days it ended up lasting. Superintendent Maria Su responded to the successful strike by threatening hundreds of teacher layoffs, which is so not the vibe. School Board President Phil Kim’s lack of leadership was especially disappointing. And guess what? It’s Kim’s seat on the ballot in this June election to complete his term (since he was appointed by the Mayor in between elections). Luckily, we have a chance to elect Board of Education members in June and November who can turn the ship around.

Virginia Cheung, our pick for school board on this June ballot, was right there with her labor allies on the picket line at her own child’s school, part of a growing movement calling for a new vision for public education in San Francisco. If elected, she’d be the only Chinese-American on the Board, and a strong voice with roots among educators and community organizations.

The current school board and SFUSD leadership are stuck in a doom loop. Austerity hawks have convinced them that there’s an inevitable fiscal cliff right around the corner, which means our kids and educators have no choice but to do more with less, which means fewer families will trust public schools, which means even fewer resources in the system. The massive public support of the educators’ strike, though, sent a clear message: San Francisco deserves a great school system, and we need our leaders to fight for the resources to make it happen. Virginia Cheung’s priorities show us a path forward: SFUSD can stabilize our schools to improve retention for teachers and families; invest in the arts, language, and special education programs that set SFUSD apart; expand community schools to support working class families, and restore trust by increasing transparency for critical issues like budgeting and facilities decisions.

Brandee Marckmann is the other progressive candidate in this race. While we respect Brandee’s advocacy to prevent school closures and curtail privatization within SFUSD, our members decided that Virginia is the team player we need who can work with the other board members, as well as city leaders, to build the school system our city deserves. And PS: the teachers we met on the picket lines agree: Virginia earned the sole endorsement of their union, UESF!

Vote Virginia Cheung for Board of Education!

Superior Court Judge, Seat 16: Alexandra Pray

Alexandra Pray is a trial attorney with experience in lengthy criminal trials during her 15 years at the S.F. Public Defender's Office. As a public defender, Alexandra has seen firsthand that understaffed courts slow down justice. She understands the problems in the jails and courts caused by over-arresting and over-charging drug users.

Alexandra’s competition is predictably from the Office of the District Attorney. Assistant DA Phoebe Maffei has about as much litigation experience as Alexandra, but as a career prosecutor. Maffei is also politically connected, as she and her husband have contributed the maximum amount to the campaigns of “law and order” candidates like Suzy Loftus for DA, Brooke Jenkins for DA, Catherine Stefani for Supervisor, and Mark Farrell for Mayor. As a candidate, Maffei has accepted thousands of dollars from the SF Deputy Sheriff's Assocation (aka "Bad DSA") and the SF Police Officers Assocation. For a judicial candidate, accepting money from law enforcement and other sectors that could have future matters before the court should be disqualifying. Judges should be impartial.

Keeping the courts fair is a national and local issue, with local "tough on crime" group StopCrimeSF threatening to bankroll competitive judge races if they don’t get court outcomes that fit their doomloop narrative. Since judge races for local counties are regulated by the state, there are no campaign contribution limits (thanks to a weird loophole). So, as in years past, billionaires are investing unlimited money in reliable hanging judges who will protect their property and interests. Shaping the bench by challenging judges is not what justice looks like.

Alexandra Pray is the most qualified candidate in this race. She's done impressive work for the PD office's research unit, looking for faulty judicial rulings that might cause a case to succeed in the Court of Appeal. And as the only candidate who has represented actual people as clients, we're voting for public defender Alexandra to balance the Superior Court's extreme over-representation of corporate attorneys and former prosecutors.

Vote Alexandra Pray for Superior Court Judge!

State Assembly, District 17: No Endorsement

Matt Haney is running for reelection unopposed. He was solidly progressive on the Board of Education and Board of Supervisors, but now that he’s in Sacramento he’s more aligned with the moderates.

He’s been decent at representing SF at the state level—he supports the Overpaid CEO Tax (Prop D), he stood up for California’s Housing First policy when Trump tried to end it, and he passed AB1976, which will make CA the first state to require Narcan in workplace first-aid kits. He authored AB1611 (would have ended a tax break for Wall Street landlords buying single-family homes), AB1248 (would have banned sketchy landlord fees), and AB1633 (would have imposed a 50% tax on private ICE detention centers). Unfortunately none of these became law.

Judging by the low-bar standards of Sacramento, Haney is on the progressive side of that motley bunch of Democrats. But we can’t endorse him. We were disappointed by his AB255 to create a new state funding apparatus for sober abstinence-only-based housing. And we’re even more disappointed by how he continues to use his campaign funds to live the high life. Despite his needing to spend $50K of his donors' funds on lawyers for FCCC complaints about his “fundraisers” at 49ers, Warriors, and Giants games, he’s still spent $28K on travel to Ireland, (including $3K for two nights in a castle!) Spain, Norway, Colombia, Dubai, and more. We understand it can be important for legislators to travel, but did he really need to stay in a fancy castle on his donors' dime?

State Assembly, District 19: No Endorsement

Catherine Stefani is running for reelection, and her only opponent is a Republican. She was the most conservative member of the Board of Supervisors, and in her first two years in the Assembly established herself firmly on the side of those corporate-cash-tilted-scales of Sacramento Democrats.

We’re particularly pissed off about her key role in killing AB1157, which would have extended rent control and eviction protections to single family homes, and cut in half the increases allowed under rent control. Stefani was one of five Democrats to abstain on AB1157 in committee, leaving it three votes short of surviving. Given her history of anti-tenant votes at the BOS, we’re not surprised, but still pissed. We appreciate that Stefani has continued her track record as a leader on gun control in Sacramento, but on way too many other important issues, she doesn’t share our values.

Statewide Offices

Governor: Tom Steyer

The primary for Governor is a clown car filled with seven mediocre Democrats and two scary Republicans. Because there’s a real chance both slots for the November election could go to Republicans, we urge you to vote strategically. We skipped over some long-shot progressive candidates in favor of a progressive-enough candidate who has the best shot at beating the corporate Democrats now, and winning in November.

We’re going with Tom Steyer: the straight, white billionaire boomer who’s juuuuust progressive enough.

At one point we thought about just flipping a coin and choosing between Tom Steyer and Katie Porter. Porter's whiteboard sessions were on point, but we doubt her ability to win: she ran statewide for the U.S. Senate in 2024 and came in third, with only 15% of the vote. As of late April, she’s polling at 9%. Porter was progressive but has moved to the right. While she's gone back and forth on supporting the minimum wage increase, we need someone who will stand firm with workers and everyday Californians. And weirdly enough that's billionaire Tom Steyer.

Tom made his money as a hedge fund trader from 1986 to 2012 profiting off real estate speculation, prisons, and fossil fuels. Since his retirement, he's spent the past 15 years trying to atone for these sins by spending his ill-gotten gains on progressive ballot measures and candidates, with a special focus on climate justice.

We like that Tom has put his money where his mouth is: he has contributed tens of millions of dollars to over a dozen (mostly) progressive statewide ballot measures. In 2016 alone, he spent $10 million to pass progressive laws like Prop 57's juvenile justice and parole reform, and Prop 62's repeal of the death penalty. And just last year, Tom dropped $12 million on Prop 50*, the Democrats’ successful response to the GOP's red state effort to gerrymander the House of Representatives.

In 2013, Tom established the progressive climate change organization NextGen America. Through NextGen, he's spent hundreds of millions of dollars to drive youth voter turnout, finance climate warrior candidates in legislative races, and develop the next generation of climate change leaders. A lot of the climate geeks we trust like Rebecca Solnit and Bill McKibben are excited about Steyer. The fact that PG&E dropped $10M to oppose him speaks volumes. We love his plans on giving the CPUC a backbone to take on the utilities and build a modern, affordable electrical grid.

Tom is a self-financing candidate, and this would be his first time as an elected official. Super-wealthy candidates don’t have to fundraise for their campaigns, and like to claim this affords them some ‘independence’ from ‘special interests,’ but we all know they can become truly unhinged once they buy their way into office. But an important distinction between Tom Steyer and, say, Mayor Daniel Lurie, is that Tom has already put his money to work against special interests, massively funding important parts of left-aligned movements to address the root causes of homelessness, racial policing, and climate change. And unlike most billionaires, Tom supports California’s proposed tax on people like him.

If Tom accomplishes even one or two of his lofty campaign promises—if he's able to close Prop 13 corporate property tax loopholes to raise money for public schools, achieve single-payer healthcare for all Californians, or fully fund childcare and free community college—these would be huge progressive victories for our state, and help California stand strong to protect people against the shitstorm coming from Washington. Tom has the support of important labor unions like the California Federation of Teachers (CFT) and the California Nurses Association (CNA). Progressive electeds like Ro Khanna, Betty Yee, and Alex Lee are also supporting Tom’s challenge to corporate Democrats.

With his self-funded campaign, Tom Steyer has the best shot at surviving the circular firing squad that is our Democratic primary for governor. And if Tom makes it into the top two, and continues forward to the November election? Well, he's just progressive enough for that to count as a win for pissed off voters.

Vote Tom Steyer for Governor!

*Prop 50 sidebar: Ironically, there's a scenario where the GOP could gain more of the new Prop 50 districts, if the two Republican front-runners for governor win the top two June primary spots. This is very unlikely, with Trump's recent endorsement of former Fox news host Steve Hilton, and the apparent tanking of MAGA sheriff Chad Bianco's campaign after his seizure of Riverside County's ballots. But keep it in mind, and get out the vote! We can’t let low turnout make it possible for both of these ghouls to claw their way onto the ballot in November

Lieutenant Governor: Oliver Ma

If you haven’t heard of Oliver Ma, that’s because he hasn’t run for office before—he was too busy. And if you have heard of him, that’s probably because you’re a rapid responder dealing with ICE raids in Kern County, or a tenant facing eviction in Boston, or an immigrant farmworker in detention, or any other frontline activist, and you’ve needed his help.

Oliver has been on the ground for years as a civil rights lawyer, a tenant organizer, and an activist defending rural Californian immigrants and workers, most recently as a lawyer for the ACLU. He’s an immigrant himself, a graduate of UC Berkeley and Harvard Law. As Lieutenant Governor, Oliver would work to divest the UC college system from apartheid.

Another great candidate in this race is former Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs, who shares our progressive values. The rest of the candidates aren’t so great. We’re backing Oliver because he’s endorsed by the California Democratic Socialists of America, and we’re excited to see DSA start running more and more candidates for office. They move the needle of what’s possible in California, so we’re all in on Oliver.

Vote Oliver Ma for Lieutenant Governor!

Secretary of State: Shirley Weber

Why would we not support Shirley Weber? She’s experienced, a fierce defender of voting rights, and the rare state official whose integrity is not compromised by ambition. Last time she ran, we wrote about the way Weber stood up to Governor Newsom when he asked her to let him appear on the recall ballot as a Democrat despite missing a deadline—“Hey, Shirley, I know I’m late, but do me a favor and just put me down as a Democrat, OK?” She refused, and when Newsom sued her, Weber held her ground and the case was tossed out. Integrity in politics, we love to see it!

Given the current level of wackiness and racism around elections (cough cough, Chad Bianco, Voter ID laws, the reactionary Supreme Court) why wouldn’t we want a principled, effective, honest Black public servant with a dedication to accuracy and transparency running our election process? Her opponent, Orange County Republican Don Wagner, is a voter ID hawk who wants to stop sending mail-in ballots to all voters, so this vote really matters. We’ve endorsed Shirley Weber twice (June and November 2022) and are proud to endorse her again.

Vote Shirley Weber for Secretary of State!

State Controller: Meghann Adams

We supported Meghann in her run for State Treasurer in 2022. When she called for more money for education and public transit by taxing the billionaires, we knew Meghann shared our values of economic justice. She’s a school bus driver and president of her union. We’re excited that Meghann’s running for office again, on the Left Unity Slate, which helps the Green Party and the Peace and Freedom Party expand their ballot access.

We didn’t support Malia Cohen in 2022 when she climbed up from her cushy spot on the State Board of Equalization to her current position as incumbent State Controller. Cohen is another political climber who needs to keep raising money by running for barely-contested statewide offices like State Controller. Cohen has raised $1 million to defend her seat, and has spent just $270,000. That should be enough to keep her name out there while putting away a tidy sum in her campaign war chest for whatever she runs for next. Must be nice!

Vote Meghann Adams for State Controller!

State Treasurer: No Endorsement

We can’t endorse Eleni Kounalakis, the former lieutenant governor who’s clearly gonna win. Kounalakis has raised literally millions of dollars more than any other candidate, mostly from developers, organized labor, and the California YIMBY Victory Fund. She earns millions a year from her family’s real estate holdings, and even leases office space to the state in Sacramento! How is that not a conflict of interest? She’s endorsed by Gavin “hold my hair gel” Newsom, hacks like Fiona Ma and Malia Cohen, and, wait for it, Hillary Clinton. That’s plenty, and while it’s tempting to shout out nutjob Republican candidate David Serpa for calling Ted Cruz a “hoe,” and Anna Caballero has been pretty progressive as a state senator, neither are likely to win so we are not endorsing in this race.

Attorney General: No Recommendation

There’s a lot to like about incumbent Attorney General Rob Bonta. He’s filed over 50 lawsuits against the Trump administration, recovered federal funds to support Californians, and won a massive monopoly verdict against Ticketmaster. Bonta is immensely popular, and has a campaign war chest of over $6 million. He will coast to re-election over his challengers, Voter ID Republican and former Huntington Beach City Attorney Michael Gates, (war chest: $600,000) , and Green Party Peace Activist Attorney Marjorie Mikels (war chest: $0).

But virtually uncontested primaries are a chance to vote our values. So we’re leaving the Attorney General race blank on our ballots to show our disappointment with how Bonta has turned a blind eye to local Bay Area tragedies. When a Walgreens security guard got away with shooting Banko Brown in 2023, Bonta upheld our corrupt District Attorney Brooke Jenkins’ decision to not press charges. WTF? And later that year, Bonta declined to file charges against the Vallejo police officer who claimed self-defense in the killing of 22-year-old Sean Monterrosa for having a hammer in his pocket. Rob, you’re from Alameda—how about a little justice for the Bay?

When he was in the State Assembly, Bonta supported the law requiring the California Department of Justice to investigate police killings when there is no deadly weapon involved. As Attorney General, his department wasn’t even keeping track of these incidents until a reporter started asking questions. Bonta should follow the law he voted for and make sure the CA DOJ investigates these injustices. Until then, No Recommendation.

Insurance Commissioner: Jane Kim

Jane Kim, the former S.F. supervisor and California director of the Working Families Party, is a force in city and state progressive politics. And though she admits she doesn’t have a background in the insurance industry, that’s actually a plus: we believe California’s Insurance Commissioner needs to take on the big insurers, not cozy up to them.

The state Insurance Commissioner regulates the nation’s largest property and casualty insurance market, approves premium rate increases, and regulates life, health, and workers’ comp insurance. Homeowners insurance is entwined with real estate and mortgage lending, and health insurance is entwined with, well, health. So Insurance Commissioner is a hugely important job, which is why it matters to have a commissioner who shares our values and prioritizes the public over profits.

Insurers have been going wild in California, driving up the cost of living by canceling homeowners’ policies, abandoning whole areas of the state, increasing premiums to unimaginable highs, and denying claims. After the devastating fires in Los Angeles, voters say they’re fed up, and most of the candidates are at least giving lip service to reform. Jane Kim is proposing to create a public insurer for natural disasters, much like the system in New Zealand, and she promises to use the office to rein in the powerful industry and develop new, functional alternatives. Right on, Jane!

Vote Jane Kim for Insurance Commissioner!

Superintendent of Public Instruction: Richard Barrera

You may have heard that the San Francisco teachers’ strike earlier this year was part of a coordinated effort among large, urban school districts in CA to stand up for fully-funded schools in the face of chronic, egregious, unconscionable underfunding that plagues every district. But did you know there’s one school district that’s holding the line on paying educators a living wage and growing programs for students amidst all this bullshit? It’s San Diego, baby.

In his 18 years on the San Diego school board, Richard Barrera has led the charge to reject austerity narratives, direct district leaders to stop hoarding taxpayer money in reserves, increase teacher pay, and improve outcomes for low-income and BIPOC students. And he hasn’t just done it for his own community in the land of the California Burrito—Barrera has made himself available to advise and consult with education advocates fighting the good fight around the state. Since 2024, he’s worked on special projects for the CA Department of Education to protect immigrant students and families, build affordable housing on school property, and lower chronic absenteeism.

Berrera understands the critical moment we’re in for public education, and all the things that need to change at the state level for local schools to have what they need. He is running to increase funding, stabilize the education workforce, and grow the model of schools as community hubs. Through it all, we trust that he’ll continue to work closely with union partners because he knows that there’s no pathway for improving schools that doesn’t start with supporting educators and the other humans who keep our education system running. No wonder he’s got the endorsement of the CA Teachers’ Association! Join us in imagining a brighter, bolder future for public education and vote Richard Barrera for State Superintendent!

Sidenote: We gotta shout out local educator and union leader Frank Lara who is also running for State Superintendent. His platform is smart and bold and shows a deep understanding of classroom-level needs (and love for students!) that only the very best teachers exhibit. We went with Barrera this time because of his statewide experience, but we hope this isn’t the last we see of Frank Lara running for office!

Board of Equalization, District 2: Sally Lieber

The state Board of Equalization collects tax, and is the only publicly-elected tax commission in the United States. The Board of Equalization can hold corporations accountable by ensuring they pay their taxes; since Lieber came on, the Board has also made a major commitment to rigorously examine the programs and mechanisms that help fund affordable housing.

The League endorsed Sally Lieber twice in June 2022 and November 2022, praising her competence and progressive record in Sacramento. Now she’s the incumbent, and doing a great job. Lieber is running a corporate-free campaign against Republican Bill Shireman, “a fiscal conservative with a conscience,” and John Pimentel, a kinda tired centrist Democrat endorsed by a slew of tired centrist Democrats. Lieber is endorsed by progressives like Lateefah Simon, Alex Lee, and Ro Khanna; SEIU California, the National Union of Healthcare Workers, and the California Teachers Association—as well as by the California Democratic Party and even the reprehensible billionaire troll farm GrowSF. Clearly everyone can see that Lieber knows what she’s doing.

Vote Sally Lieber for Board of Equalization!

San Francisco Ballot Measures

Prop A: $535M Earthquake Safety and Emergency Response Bond: Yes

Prop A asks voters to authorize the city to take out $535 million in bonds in order to fund projects including the retrofitting of the Emergency Firefighting Water System, the repairing and retrofitting of fire and police stations, and the seismic retrofitting of the SFMTA Potrero Yard.

First, the scary: in the event of a major earthquake (something that scientists seem to think is pretty damn likely) San Francisco’s domestic water system could suffer enough damage to render it unusable for large-scale firefighting. Those readers who were here in 1989 for Loma Prieta will remember the Marina engulfed in a sea of flame, and any readers old enough to vote on this bond can recall the horrific fires last year that swept through Los Angeles County. A revamped emergency water system is a critical infrastructure investment which will help San Francisco prepare for the inevitable hell of an earthquake/tsunami/fire.

Now, the good: part of this bond will go toward the construction of thirty new emergency cisterns city-wide, including fifteen on the under-repaired West Side. It will also strengthen fire stations across the city in need of significant upgrades and retrofitting, so they can stay functional in the next disaster.

And now, the crappy: the other sticking point is Prop A’s money for the police department. Police stations will also be upgraded using money from this bond, on top of the department’s already bloated budget.

And finally, the weird: Prop A has a set-aside for a seismic retrofit of Potrero Yard, which has been the object of ire from all sides of the political spectrum. Folks who really hate SFMTA are, of course, enraged at the idea of any more bond money going to a public transit system that they don’t use and viscerally dislike. But many activists in the Mission are disappointed by the downscaling of affordable housing at Potrero Yard. This project has already cost the city $612 million, making some nervous about providing even more money for the Potrero Yard.

Sadly, we’re faced with a sort of crappy bond to face off a possible hellish future. The League feels firmly that crappy is better than hellish. Vote Yes (following a deep sigh) on Prop A.

Prop B: Weird Do-Nothing Tweak to Term Limits: No! Why??

A solution in search of a problem, Prop B would tweak the term-limit rules for the Board of Supervisor and Mayor, instituting a lifetime ban after you serve two terms. Currently, you can take four years off and run again. Is this, like, really the biggest problem facing SF right now?

Nope. Only two former Supervisors have ever tried to run after four years, and only one of them won. No Mayor has ever run again after serving two terms. (And honestly, why would any Mayor want to, if they could continue, à la Willie Brown, to maintain their machine in power and spend their time lunching and schmoozing instead?)

Meanwhile, Prop B is silent on the City Attorney, District Attorney, Assessor, and Treasurer positions, which currently have no term limits. We’ve been doing this shit since 2004 and we haven’t ever seen a single competitive election for any of those offices!

So why do we have Prop B? Because the moderates are so scared of Aaron Peskin running again, they think this is the only way to stop him. 🙄 In general, term limits are tricky. In Washington, aging Democratic boomers holding onto power are a real problem, but we don’t see that happening here. Reject the ban and let the voters decide. Prop B is petty, and a waste of time.

Prop C: Business Tax Poison Pill: No

Prop D: Overpaid CEO Salary Tax: Hell Yes!

Between Props C and D, only one can pass. Each has a poison pill that negates the other, so the one that gets the most votes over 50% will go into effect.

Unions and community organizations put Prop D, the Overpaid CEO Salary Tax, on the ballot to fill the gaping hole Trump’s Big Bullshit Bill ripped in the City budget. Downtown businesses put Prop C on the ballot as a smokescreen to confuse voters and defeat Prop D.

Prop D is not gonna hurt regular people. It’s not gonna drive companies out of the city. It only applies to companies with (a) top executives who earn 100 times their median workers’ salary, (b) over 1000 employees, and (c) over $1 billion in revenue. Prop D would generate an extra $300 million in revenue a year to pay for vital neighborhood services, like medical clinics and in-home health care for seniors, that are on the chopping block this year in yet another of Mayor Lurie’s “austerity budgets.” Prop D addresses the larger issues of systemic inequality that plague our city, and provides the resources to keep our city strong. SF voters overwhelmingly passed the first Overpaid CEO tax in 2018, but that tax was reduced in 2022 to help encourage economic recovery from the pandemic. Now that the city is seeing a return of the workforce, it’s time we ask the companies making the most to pay their fair share.

Sure, Prop C would help out those small-ish businesses making between $5 and $7.5 million in sales per year by exempting them from the city’s gross receipts tax. (Prop C would offset that revenue decrease with small tax increases to other businesses, leading to total estimated revenue of $30–40 million.) But it’s not really about small business. Prop C was cynically placed on the ballot by the Chamber of Commerce to help some very large corporations; it’s got big bucks behind it from conservative wealthy donors, including billionaires Chris Larsen and Michael Moritz, and from Bill Obendorff’s notoriously reactionary Neighbors for a Better SF.

If Prop C gets more votes than Prop D, big businesses will have torpedoed a truly progressive “tax the rich” opportunity, losing the City $260–270 million a year. Make sure you vote on both: Vote No on C and Hell Yes!!! on D.

Meet the SF League of Pissed Off Voters

We're a bunch of political geeks in a torrid love affair with San Francisco. The League formed in 2004 with the goal of building a progressive governing majority in our lifetime. Our contribution is this voter guide⁠: a secret decoder ring for SF politics. All of us lucky enough to enjoy the San Francisco magic owe it to our City to fight to keep it diverse, just, and healthy.

This voter guide (our 35th in SF!) is thoroughly researched and thoroughly biased. It’s how we educate our friends on the issues, excite pissed-off progressive voters, and remind sellout politicians that we’re paying attention.

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