Hello! Since I last posted in 2020, I have taken a job in San Francisco and moved. This will be my first major election since arriving. I got here just in time to vote against the Newsom recall and for Matt Haney for Assembly. But there’s a whole lot more on the ballot in November!
State and Federal Offices
My overall guiding principle is to never ever vote for a Republican again. Every single one of them either cheered on Trump or said “I can live with this.” I may be convinced to vote GOP in some unusual circumstance, but that circumstance for sure ain’t happening this election.
- Governor – Gavin Newsom
- Lieutenant Governor – Eleni Kounalakis
- Secretary of State – Shirley N. Weber
- Controller – Malia M. Cohen
- Treasurer – Fiona Ma. Ma has some positions that bother me, but not enough to get me to vote Republican.
- Attorney General – Rob Bonta. He’s been incredibly pro-housing in the year since I arrived, and I am excited to vote for him.
- Insurance Commissioner – Ricardo Lara
- Board of Equalization – Sally J. Lieber
- U.S. Senator – Alex Padilla
- U.S. Representative – Nancy Pelosi. Hell yes I’m voting for Pelosi! The most effective Speaker of the House in my lifetime, and she’s liberal AF.
- State Assembly, District 17 – Matt Haney. Haney is a progressive, pro-housing legislator. His opponent, David Campos, is anti-housing. Luckily, Campos is not contesting this election after losing this spring to Haney.
San Francisco Offices
- Assessor-Recorder – Joaquin Torres
- District Attorney – John Hamasaki (1st), Joe Alioto Veronese (2nd). My guiding principle here is that street drug use should be treated as a public health issue, not a law enforcement issue. That means putting social workers on the street, not cops. I want a D.A. that’s going to get people into treatment, not put them in jail. We’re not going to jail our way out of a public health issue. Additionally, Hamasaki is the candidate I trust to hold bad cops accountable. Brooke Jenkins fired and demoted the people responsible for prosecuting bad cops.
- Public Defender – Mano Raju. Nothing makes me want to vote for Raju more than a Supervisor going on a 7 tweet rant about how Raju shouldn’t be doing his job of defending people accused of crimes.
- Board of Supervisors, District 6 – Honey Mahogany. Mahogany ticks all the boxes of what I like to see in a local elected. She’s got roots in the community, and I don’t mean that she’s lived here a long time. I mean that she’s part of communities like the Transgender Cultural District. She’s pro-housing, backing efforts to get the Board of Supervisors out of approving individual projects. She’s pro-streets, getting around by foot and transit herself. She backs J.F.K. Promenade. And she has a healthy skepticism of the role of police in dealing with crime. Like me, she recognizes the need for police, but knows we can’t arrest our way out of street drugs, homelessness, or other crime driven by poverty. Matt Dorsey is also pro-housing, but his SF Recovers plan leads with cops rather than treatment.
State Measures
- Proposition 1 – State Constitutional Right to Reproduction Freedom. Very much yes. Republicans are out to take the right away, and post-Dobbs we no longer have the protection of the U.S. Supreme Court.
- Proposition 26 – Gambling. No. I don’t think we should outlaw gambling, but I don’t think we should have it as a big business in the state either.
- Proposition 27 – Gambling. No. I don’t think we should outlaw gambling, but I don’t think we should have it as a big business in the state either.
- Proposition 28 – Arts and Music Funding. Probably no.
- Proposition 29 – Dialysis Clinic Regulation. No.
- Proposition 30 – Millionaire Tax for EVs and Wildfire Programs. No. Best as I can tell this is meant to benefit Lyft. I like EVs over internal combustion vehicles, but the real way out of our climate crisis is to get people out of cars.
- Proposition 31 – Approve or Reject Banning Flavored Tobacco Products. Yes.
San Francisco Measures
- Measure A – COLAs For City Employee Pensions. Yes.
- Measure B – Eliminate the Department of Sanitation. No. The Department of Sanitation hasn’t even been created yet. Supposedly DPW can handle street cleaning without creating a new department. If DPW can do this, they would be. My street (500 block of Natoma) has feces & trash left daily. We’re lucky if DPW gets to the entire street once a year. We haven’t seen a street sweeper since June. The city voted to create a Department of Sanitation 2 years ago, and I see lots of evidence that was the right call.
- Measure C – Homelessness Oversight Commission. Yes. If only because I want a place I can give public comment of the need for social workers on the street instead of whatever the fuck it is they are doing.
- Measure D – Streamlining Approval of Affordable Housing. Yes. Gets rid of discretionary review for some affordable housing projects. Discretionary review is what killed 469 Stevenson.
- Measure E – Discretionary Review of Affordable Housing. Hell no.
- Measure F – Library Preservation Fund. Yes.
- Measure G – Grants to SFUSD. Yes.
- Measure H – Even Year Elections. Yes. I don’t think this will meaningfully change who gets elected. Proponents say higher turnout years will better represent the will of the people. But I suspect people will ignore downballot races about how much they do now, and there’s a good chance that the media covers the races even less if there’s shit to be said about the big races. But I don’t think it hurts either, and ultimately I want votes consolidated so we’re not always having elections.
- Measure I – Allow Drivers to Kill Pedestrians and Bicyclists. Big No. Keep cars off JFK. Keep cars off the Great Walkway. Patrons and execs of the DeYoung Museum don’t want to have to pay for parking in the garage. Fuck that. The garage is convenient. And an accessible parking lot was created just for the museums. Let us have J.F.K. It’s a goddamn park!
- Measure J – Approve J.F.K. Promenade for People. Big fucking Yes. See my No vote on I explanation.
- Measure L – Public Transportation Funding. Yes. I don’t own a car. Without L, my ability to get around will take a huge hit.
- Measure M – Apartment Vacancy Tax. Yes. It’s not going to do much to get more units on the rental market (according to the S.F. Controller, about 1,000 units), but we need every bit we can right now. After it passes, hopefully the Board of Supervisors add single family detached homes to the properties that are taxed under the measure.
- Measure N – Acquire the Golden Gate Parking Garage. Yes.
- Measure O – Property Tax for City College. Don’t know enough about this yet.