SF League of Pissed Off Voters

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."

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

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

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

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).

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! :/

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.

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?

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 require—and 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??”

Voting Logistics!

↓ scroll down for the endorsement cheat sheet ↓

Where’s your polling place? Call 311, see SFelections.org, or vote in City Hall.

Key dates:

• June 2-3: Weekend voting in City Hall! 10am-4pm.
• June 4: Vote at City Hall, 8am-5pm.
• June 5: Election Day! Polls open 7am-8pm. If you're in line to vote by 8pm, they gotta let you!

Little Known Voting Facts:

• 16- and 17-year-olds can (almost) vote! You can pre-register and your registration will automatically be activated when you turn 18!
• Felons can vote! Even if you've committed a felony, you can vote as long as you’re off parole. Don’t let the Man disenfranchise you!
• Slackers can vote: Election Day Voter Registration!
  Did you miss the 5/21 deadline to register to vote? For the first time in California, you can still vote - register and vote at City Hall. You can’t use a normal polling place, but if you go to the basement of City Hall you can register and vote there! Go ahead, make history! Do it!

TL;DR:
The League Endorsement Cheat Sheet

Printable 11x17" voter guide (SF plus state)

Mayor

1-2-3 Ranked Choice Vote

#1 Jane Kim
#2 Mark Leno
#3 Amy Farah Weiss

Board of Supervisors

District 8: Rafael Mandelman

State Propositions

Prop 68: $4B Bond for Parks, Drought Protection, Climate Adaption - Yes
Prop 69: Require Diesel Tax to Be Spent on Transportation Stuff - Yes
Prop 70: Give Republicans & Corporate Dems Power on Cap’n’Trade Funds - No
Prop 71: Delay Effective Date of Ballot Measures Until All Ballots Are Counted - Yes
Prop 72: Rainwater Capture Systems Won’t Trigger Property Tax Assessments - Yes

Regional Measures

Regional Measure 3: Raise Bridge Tolls $3 Over 7 Years to Fund Transportation Projects - Yes

Local Propositions

Prop A: Authorize Public Utilities Commission to Issue Clean Energy Bonds - Yes
Prop B: Commissioners with Conflicts Can’t Be Candidates - Yes
Prop C: Commercial Rent Tax for Child Care & Early Education For All - Hell Yes!
Prop D: Divisive Commercial Rent Tax for Too Little Housing - Disappointed No :(
Prop E: Uphold the Ban on Flavored Tobacco Products - Yes
Prop F: Right to Counsel for Tenants Facing Eviction! - Hell Yes!
Prop G: Parcel Tax to Give Teachers a Raise! - Hell Yes!
Prop H: Let Police Use Tasers on Nonviolent People?!? - Hell No!
Prop I: SF Shouldn't Steal Sports Teams from Other Cities - Sure ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

State Offices

Governor: Delaine Eastin
Lieutenant Governor: Gayle McLaughlin
Secretary of State: Alex Padilla
Controller: Betty Yee
Treasurer: Kevin Akin
Attorney General: Dave Jones or Xavier Becerra (Dual Endorsement)
Insurance Commissioner: Nathalie Hrizi
Board of Equalization, District 2: No Endorsement

Federal Offices

U.S. Senator: Kevin de León
Congress, District 12: Shahid Buttar or Ryan Khojasteh (Dual Endorsement)
Congress, District 14: Jackie Speier

State Legislature

State Assembly, Districts 17: No Endorsement
State Assembly, Districts 19: No Endorsement

Judges

Superior Court Judge, Seat 4: Phoenix Streets
Superior Court Judge, Seat 7: Maria Evangelista
Superior Court Judge, Seat 9: Kwixuan Maloof
Superior Court Judge, Seat 11: Niki Solis

School Offices

State Superintendent of Public Instruction: Tony Thurmond

***Click here for a printable 17x11" PDF of our voter guide***

Voting Logistics! Make a plan for how and when you're going to vote!

Polls are open 7am-8pm.

Where’s your polling place? Look it up here, or call 311, or anyone can vote in City Hall. Or if it's 7:50pm and you can't make it to your polling place, find the nearest one and vote provisionally.

Even if you've committed a felony, you can vote as long as you’re off parole. Don’t let the Man disenfranchise you!

TL;DR - the League Endorsement ‘Cheat Sheet’!

National Races *

US Senate: Kamala Harris

US House District 12: Preston Picus

US House District 14: Jackie Speier

California Legislature

State Senate, District 11: Jane Kim

State Assembly, District 17: No endorsement

State Assembly, District 19: No endorsement

Superior Court Judge

Office No. 7: Victor Hwang

Board of Education

      Stevon Cook
      Matt Haney
      Mark Sanchez

Community College Board

      Rafael Mandelman
      Tom Temprano
      Shanell Williams

BART Board of Directors

District 7: Lateefah Simon

District 9: Bevan Dufty

Board of Supervisors

District 1: Sandra Lee Fewer

District 3: Aaron Peskin

District 5: Dean Preston

District 7: Norman Yee

District 9: #1 Hillary Ronen
                   #2 Melissa San Miguel

District 11: #1 Kimberly Alvarenga
                     #2 Francisco Herrera

State Propositions

Prop 51: School Construction & Repair Bond - No Endorsement
Prop 52: Wonky Hospital Medi-Cal Matching Fees - Yes
Prop 53: Require Even More Bonds On the Ballot - No
Prop 54: Publish Bills 72 Hours Before a Vote - Yes
Prop 55: Extension of Income Tax on the 1% - Hell Yes
Prop 56: Tax E-cigs & Bump Up Cigarette Tax - Yes
Prop 57: Progressive Parole Reform - Hell Yes
Prop 58: Allow Multilingual Education in Public Schools - Yes
Prop 59: Citizens United Sucks - Sure ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Prop 60: Moralizing Crusade to Require Condoms in Adult Films - No
Prop 61: Wonky Prescription Drug Pricing Change - No
Prop 62: Repeal the Death Penalty - Hell Yes
Prop 63: Gavin Newsom’s Vanity Gun Control Prop - Ugh, fine
Prop 64: Marijuana Legalization - Hell Yes
Prop 65: Redirect Money from the Disposable Bag Fee - No
Prop 66: Kill Everyone Even Faster with the Death Penalty - AYFKM? No!
Prop 67: Protect the Plastic Bag Ban - Yes

San Francisco Propositions

Prop A: Local School District Bond - Yes
Prop B: Renew the Parcel Tax for City College - Yes
Prop C: Bond to Make Loans to Buy and Fix Affordable Housing - Yes
Prop D: Let’s Elect Our Elected Officials - Hell Yes
Prop E: Make the City Responsible for Street Trees - Yes
Prop F: Vote 16! - Hell Yes
Prop G: Rename the Office of Citizen Complaints - Sure :/
Prop H: Create a Public Advocate - Yes
Prop I: Set Aside Funding for Seniors & People with Disabilities - Yes
Prop J: Set Aside Funding for Homelessness & Transportation - Yes
Prop K: Sales Tax to Cover Prop J’s Set Aside - Yes
Prop L: Shift 3 of 7 MTA Board Appointments from Mayor to the BoS - Yes
Prop M: Create Oversight Commission & Kill Realtor Props P & U - Yes
Prop N: Non-Citizen Voting in School Board Elections - Hell Yes
Prop O: Special Favor for Lennar Corp on Office Development - No
Prop P: Snarl Affordable Housing in Red Tape - Hell No
Prop Q: Demonize Homelessness for Political Gain - Fuck No
Prop R: Micromanage the Police Department - No
Prop S: Reallocate Hotel Tax to Arts and Homeless Family Services - Yes
Prop T: Restrict Campaign Contributions from Lobbyists - Yes
Prop U: Eliminate Affordable Housing - Hell No
Prop V: One Cent an Ounce Soda Tax - Yes
Prop W: Luxury Property Transfer Tax - Hell Yes
Prop X: Preserve Industrial and Arts Spaces - Yes

Regional Proposition

Prop RR: $3.5 Billion Bond to Repair & Upgrade BART - Yes

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

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.)