How I’m Voting and You Can Too - November 2024
I began writing this guide when I realized some people I know weren’t voting because they felt the ballot was too complicated. Now, I study the issues with dorky zeal and offer this guide to the public.
These views are mine, and mine alone. If you assume that my spouse shares all these views, you are wrong and possibly very sexist.
VOTE. Not voting is actually a vote for, “I don’t care, be corrupt, put money in your pockets and screw the people.”
PREPARE but DON’T PROCRASTINATE. You probably already received your ballot in the mail. Go ahead and fill it in now. Who knows what will happen between now and election day.
IGNORE the advertising. The way money affects politics is through advertising. Paid political advertising will always be misleading, by design. Throw those mailers straight into the recycling. Ignore promoted posts on social media. You will receive a stack of mailers right before election day. These will contain the worst lies — there will be no time for journalists to fact-check them.
The Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival is part of what I love about San Francisco. People coming together for free music in our beautiful public park. I made drawings (in real time) of the bands playing at the festival and am sharing those pictures embedded in this voting guide. It's all connected by my love for what is beautiful in this city.
Billionaires vs. Good Government in San Francisco
Full disclosure, I don’t have time to write this guide this year. I’m teaching middle school art with the SFUSD and taking a full load of classes with CSU East Bay to get my teaching credential. But this election, democracy is under attack RIGHT HERE IN SAN FRANCISCO.
You can help by doing a little more to make sure everyone you know is ready to vote on the entire ballot.
The billionaires and their millionaire libertarian sycophants are pouring record amounts of money into our local races. They’ve got a variety of motivations, most of which boil down to they don’t want to pay taxes and they don’t want any regulations on their businesses. Some of them just want to sow chaos in San Francisco so we can be a punching bag for Republican politicians across the country. Together SF says they want to “grow and sustain [a] movement of community dissatisfaction.” Others want to make it ever more difficult to be poor so that the rest of us will feel thankful to get a job delivering for Door Dash.
And they’ve been winning. In March, they took over the SF Democratic County Central Committee, meaning that San Francisco Democratic Party endorsements are now very conservative. They even managed to take over the local Planned Parenthood chapter, so you can’t trust those endorsements either.
Mission Local has covered this very well in a series of well-sourced articles about big money in SF politics.
Notice how the groups and politicians who talk the most about “law and order” are also the most likely to flaunt the laws that apply to them? This trend goes from Donald Trump down to SF SAFE (“Former Head of SFPD-Linked Nonprofit Arrested Over Alleged Misuse of $700,000”) to local conservative pressure groups (“BigMoneySF: How public-pressure groups use (and abuse?) U.S. tax law”) to mayoral candidates (see below).
Patti Smith at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival
8" x 10", marker and pencil on paper, 10/6/2024
The big issues
These recommendations are made based on some basic values and understanding of how the world works.
Our whole society benefits when you help the people who are suffering the most.
When someone is poor and without a home, no amount of punishment will change that status. Even if you take away their possessions and throw them in jail, they still won’t be able to afford an apartment here or anywhere else.
The most efficient way to combat homelessness is to protect tenants.
Without rent control, I would have been driven out of San Francisco years ago and definitely couldn’t afford to become a middle school teacher here. Multiply that effect by thousands of people.
Police should be held accountable for doing their jobs and not killing people.
Petty theft will go up along with income inequality and more brutal punishments won’t fix that.
The government is much better equipped to battle wage theft by employers and provide a better safety net to combat poverty.
We should build more affordable housing. For-profit developers won’t build housing if prices are going down.
Traffic violence is a bigger threat to our safety than any of our neighbors.
Logistics
You should have received your ballot in the mail already. You can bring that to a drop box outside your local library branch or put it in the mail. The League of Women Voters of San Francisco has information about all of your voting logistics.
Scroll down to see My Picks, My Reasoning, and My Reference Materials
General strategy
Ranked-choice voting: With ranked-choice voting, you don’t need to run any game theory scenarios. We can just rank them in order of who we want to win. League of Women Voters of San Francisco explains in “Ranked-choice voting: You don't have to pick just one candidate.”
“Leave it blank:” When a candidate has no legitimate opponents and has been at all flawed at their job, I leave that spot on the ballot blank. It’s the only way to have a voice in that election.
Be Boosted
Voting is one way to do your part for the greater good. Another way is to get your COVID booster and your flu shot.
Jessica Pratt at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival
8" x 10", marker and pencil on paper, 10/4/2024
My Picks:
Local Offices
Mayor: #1 Aaron Peskin, #2 Ahsha Safai, #3 Daniel Lurie, #4 London Breed
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 Roberto Hernandez, #3 Stephen Torres
Supervisor, District 11: #1 Ernest "EJ" Jones, #2 Chyanne Chen
District Attorney: Ryan Khojasteh
City Attorney: Leave it blank
Sheriff: Leave it blank
Treasurer: Jose Cisneros
SFUSD Board of Education: Matt Alexander, Virginia Cheung, John Jersin, Madeline Krantz
City College Board of Trustees: Alan Wong
BART Board Director, District 7: Victor Flores
BART Board Director, District 9: Edward Wright
Local Propositions
Proposition A – Schools Improvement and Safety Bond: Yes
Proposition B – Community Health and Medical Facilities, Street Safety, Public Spaces, and Shelter to Reduce Homelessness Bond: Yes
Proposition C – Inspector General: Yes
Proposition D – City Commissions and Mayoral Authority: No
Proposition E – Creating a Task Force to Recommend Changing, Eliminating, or Combining City Commissions: Yes
Proposition F – Police Staffing and Deferred Retirement: No
Proposition G – Funding Rental Subsidies for Affordable Housing Developments Serving Low Income Seniors, Families, and Persons with Disabilities: Yes
Proposition H – Retirement Benefits for Firefighters: No
Proposition I – Retirement Benefits for Nurses and 911 Operators: Yes
Proposition J – Funding Programs Serving Children, Youth, and Families: Yes
Proposition K – Permanently Closing the Upper Great Highway to Private Vehicles to Establish a Public Open Recreation Space: Yes
Proposition L – Additional Business Tax on Transportation Network Companies and Autonomous Vehicle Business to Fund Public Transportation: Yes
Proposition M – Changes to Business Taxes: No
Proposition N – First Responder Student Loan and Training Reimbursement Fund: No
Proposition O – Supporting Reproductive Rights: Yes
Sleater Kinney at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival
8" x 10", marker and pencil on paper, 10/4/2024
State Propositions
(I usually type out the names as they appear on the ballot, but this time I just copied the descriptors that the League of Pissed Off Voters uses).
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: Adam Schiff
US Representative District 11: Leave it blank
US Representative District 15: Leave it blank
Statewide Offices
State Senate: Leave it blank
State Assemblymember, District 17: Leave it blank
State Assemblymember, District 19: David Lee
My Reasoning
Dakhabrakha at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival
8" x 10", marker and pencil on paper, 10/6/2024
Local Offices
Mayor: #1 Aaron Peskin, #2 Ahsha Safaí, #3 Daniel Lurie, #4 London Breed
Aaron Peskin knows how to maneuver through San Francisco’s bureaucracy better than anyone else in office today. He has by far the best record of any candidate in protecting the rights of tenants and workers and in actually supporting affordable housing projects. Most recently he has showed great savvy and leadership in passing a bill to expand rent control in San Francisco if CA Prop 33 passes and to make it illegal for landlords to collude on price increases using an algorithm website (“Hoping to cut San Francisco rents, supervisors approve software-pricing ban” SF Gate). Peskin is also the only candidate who vows to fight against school closures.
His commitment to serving his constituents in North Beach and Chinatown made Peskin unbeatable in his district for decades. I think he was legitimately reluctant to join the mayoral race until it became clear how bad the well-funded candidates are. He would certainly become the best mayor the city has had since Moscone.
The League of Pissed Off Voters has more about how he is the “only adult in the race” including, “Or maybe you’ve heard that he’s “anti-housing?” Well, this fact-check of his legislative record documents how he’s voted for over 115,000 units of housing, pioneered ADUs, kept vulnerable tenants in their homes, and consistently championed affordable housing funding.”
Daniel Lurie is a wealthy heir to the Levi’s fortune getting huge donations to his campaign from his mom. I think he does have good intentions to try to get more people the mental health and addiction treatment services they need, but when he talks about his policies, they all seem pretty half-baked.
Ahsha Safaí hasn’t wowed me with leadership in the board of supervisors, but I’ve talked with district 11 constituents who trust him. He earned a dual endorsement from the United Educators of San Francisco. His recent opposition to rent control and strange ranked-choice voting alliance with Mark Farrell made me drop Safaí down a rank.
Ever notice how the politicians who talk the most about “law and order” are the ones most likely to violate the laws themselves. That’s true for Donald Trump and it’s also true for London Breed and Mark Farrell.
James Hunter at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival
8" x 10", marker and pencil on paper, 10/6/2024
London Breed is better than Mark Farrell, but has led a City administration with regular revelations of corruption. The latest is that, “The Sunshine Ordinance Task Force, San Francisco’s oversight body responsible for public records and transparency laws, unanimously ruled on Wednesday night that Mayor London Breed and City Attorney David Chiu both violated city law by deleting text messages dealing with official business” (“S.F. mayor, city attorney broke law by deleting texts, task force says” Mission Local).
And Breed's penchant for ethics and other violations is nothing new (see “S.F. Mayor Breed to be fined nearly $23,000 for series of ‘significant’ ethics violations while in office” from 2021) and there's a whole new potential scandal brewing with Breed at the center “SF Mayor Breed Pushes Back Against Corruption Criticism From Opponents” KQED https://www.kqed.org/news/12004947/sf-mayor-breed-pushes-back-against-corruption-criticism-from-opponents
What’s the punishment for such a violation? WE VOTE HER OUT.
With this secrecy, you’ve got to wonder if she was able to cover up her connections to the scandals in her Human Rights Commission, Parks Department, Recology contract - oh I don’t have time to list all the scandals.
How does this all impact people in San Francisco? In “Mayor Breed’s critics say her obsession with loyalty has gone too far: ‘She sees enemies everywhere’” we see allegations that she delayed essential repairs to public housing for her own benefit.
Mark Farrell is basically a law-and-order Republican. He put “small business owner” as his profession on the ballot when he actually owns a massive venture capital firm (see “Venture capitalist Mark Farrell wants to be ‘small business owner’ on November ballot” in Mission Local). He has also been accused of campaign finance fraud, and “3 former S.F. mayors call for criminal investigation of Mark Farrell’s mayoral campaign” (Mission Local). He’s the worst.
A note on labels: Aaron Peskin and Ahsha Safaí are the actual moderates in this race. There is no real progressive candidate this time. Peskin claims to be a progressive, and he usually does cast progressive votes, but his shenanigans in support of overpaying police with Prop F (“Clash Over SFPD Staffing Measure May Cost Peskin a Progressive Ally in His Mayoral Bid” - KQED) and his willingness to make compromises for political expediency make him an actual moderate.
District 9 Debate at El Rio
8" x 10", marker and pencil on paper, January 17, 2024
I attended the District 9 supervisor candidate debate at El Rio in January and drew all the candidates there. I neglected to take a proper picture of it before selling the drawing at City Art in February (whoops!).
Supervisor, District 9: #1 Jackie Fielder, #2 Roberto Hernandez, #3 Stephen Torres, #4 Julian Bermudez
For my home district, I attended a candidate debate at El Rio and watched a candidate forum on streaming, so I feel pretty knowledgeable about this large set of candidates.
Jackie Fielder is the most seasoned as a rather wonky activist. She has been a leader in pushing for a public bank - so that instead of San Francisco keeping its money in various institutions with morally dubious investments, the city could be investing its money with long term investments at home. Housing construction across the city has stalled because of financing (because rents and housing prices have flattened out a bit). A Bank of San Francisco could solve that problem by providing the loans for those housing projects.
Roberto Hernandez is best known as the organizer and manager of Carnaval in the Mission District, a wildly successful event that has brought so many different groups in the community together. He also has been a leader of quite a few neighborhood organizations and projects, including the Mission Food Hub, an amazing lifeline during the height of COVID. He would also be deserving of a #1 vote. It would be interesting to see what someone with so much heart and organizing experience would do in the political arena.
Stephen Torres is a nightlife activist who earned support from the Tenants Union and seems plenty smart.
Julian Bermudez, who works for his family business, the wonderful appliance refurbishers Rancho Grande, is a bit naive and seems lovely.
Trevor Chandler got his emergency substitute teaching credential just in time for him to call himself a teacher on the ballot (stolen valor). He’s actually a political consultant who spent 5 years working for AIPAC (the pro-war, Republican-backing lobbying group for the Israeli government and military contractors). He’s the only candidate in the race to not support CA Prop 33 (expanding rent control) and is the most conservative candidate for any topic.
Other Supervisor Districts
Raining Chainsaws with Mission Delirium at at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival
8" x 10", marker and pencil on paper, 10/6/2024
I did less research about other districts, but those all have fewer candidates and pretty clear choices. I’m copying the recommendations of the SF Tenants Union, the League of Pissed Off Voters, SF Rising, and the SF Bay Guardian. If you want to do your own research, Mission Local has a great series where they talk to the supervisor candidates about community issues and the League of Women Voters of San Francisco has two-minute videos where candidates explain who they are and why you should vote for them, and also recordings of their candidate forums (pro tip: watch the videos on 1.25x speed).
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 11: #1 Ernest "EJ" Jones, #2 Chyanne Chen
District Attorney: Ryan Khojasteh
The incumbent, Brooke Jenkins, should have been run out of town when she was caught lying about being paid to campaign for the Chesa Boudin recall (Tangled web: How all 3 nonprofits that paid DA Brooke Jenkins have links to the Chesa Boudin recall” SF Standard) . She’s a political hack without morals. Ryan Khojasteh is an experienced attorney who is running as a more competent alternative.
City Attorney: Leave it blank
David Chiu was just found to be violating sunshine laws along with London Breed. You’re the City Attorney, you ought to be doing better than that!
Sheriff: Leave it blank
Miyamoto is running unopposed.
Treasurer: Jose Cisneros
Cisneros is unopposed, but I’ll follow the League of Pissed Off Voters in supporting some recent improvements.
acrylic on canvas, 16” x 20”, 2024
SFUSD Board of Education: Matt Alexander, Virginia Cheung, John Jersin, Madeline Krantz
Normally, I would support the union’s endorsements for school board, but something was wrong with their endorsement process and they picked a couple of candidates who are endorsed by GrowSF and SF Parent Action (two conservative organizations who were involved in the toxic recall a few years ago and who I do not trust with our public schools).
Matt Alexander is an easy yes. He’s the incumbent who was a principal at June Jordan School for Equity. The only one in the race with actual educator experience in the school district. Virginia Cheung and John Jersin are endorsed by Coleman Action Fund for Children and seem to have decent records. Madeline Krantz is a college student and recent SFUSD graduate who could add some more perspective if she is successful in her longshot campaign.
I’m not thrilled with the lack of real education experience among the candidates including some really toxic people like the racist Ann Hsu (who was trying to start a private school while serving as an appointee by Mayor Breed) and Laurence Lee.
City College Board of Trustees: Alan Wong
“He’s part of a progressive coalition that is fighting to keep City from shrinking; instead of making the pieces of the equity pie smaller, we need to bake a bigger pie.” - League of Pissed Off Voters. It’s a shame that he’s the only recommended candidate. Let’s make sure he wins.
BART Board Director, District 7: Victor Flores
Flores is “a formerly incarcerated rising young Democrat who has become a transit and climate leader through his work at the Greenlining Institute and Greenbelt Alliance. Serving as a constituent liaison under two Oakland City Councilmembers, he advocated for immigrant communities and working-class neighborhoods. Victor gets that BART plays a vital role in climate resilience, economic security, and culture for the Bay Area. His campaign is supported by the BART transit unions, and we’re happy to help our East Bay neighbors grow the bench of elected community leaders.” - League of Pissed Off Voters
BART Board Director, District 9: Edward Wright
“Wright is a great candidate for the BART Board of Directors. Edward came up in the progressive movement, working for Jane Kim and Cleve Jones and serving as President of the Harvey Milk LGTBQ Democratic Club. He wrote significant legislation as former Supervisor Gordon Mar’s Chief of Staff, and currently works on transit strategy and communications for the City. We’re excited to see this seat filled with a dedicated activist who knows his way around a budget.
BART is heading towards a funding crisis and Edward is committed to making sure BART’s budget isn’t balanced on the backs of its riders.” - League of Pissed Off Voters
Potrero Highways
acrylic on canvas, 12” x 15.5”, 2024
Local Propositions
Proposition A – Schools Improvement and Safety Bond: Yes
Always support fixing up schools - it’s how we show we value education. The kids notice.
Proposition B – Community Health and Medical Facilities, Street Safety, Public Spaces, and Shelter to Reduce Homelessness Bond: Yes
Yes.
Proposition C – Inspector General: Yes
We can’t wait for the FBI to catch every local crook. This idea came from Peskin and is another reason to vote for him.
Proposition D – City Commissions and Mayoral Authority: No
This comes straight from the billionaires. They want to eviscerate the city’s government to lower taxes. They want to consolidate power in the mayor because that’s the office big money can most easily buy. Prop D eliminates much of the citizen oversight of government agencies allowing for more corruption. What is left would be controlled by the mayor - so that the city departments that the mayor controls would be watched over by other people the mayor appoints.
Eliminate the San Francisco Arts Commission?
Destroy the police oversight commission?
The League of Women Voters outlines various ways Prop D is terrible in their ballot recommendations.
Proposition E – Creating a Task Force to Recommend Changing, Eliminating, or Combining City Commissions: Yes
Aaron Peskin put this on the ballot to override Prop D. If they both pass, the one with the most votes goes into effect.
City commissions can be streamlined and this is the sensible way to go about it.
Proposition F – Police Staffing and Deferred Retirement: No
The SFPD are already well-paid, especially when you include the ridiculous overtime pay they are able to earn. This would let them get paid a salary and a pension at the same time.
Proposition G – Funding Rental Subsidies for Affordable Housing Developments Serving Low Income Seniors, Families, and Persons with Disabilities: Yes
“Because of convoluted housing formulas, many low-income seniors don’t make enough money to qualify for the city’s low-income housing! The Board of Supes responded to this ridiculous situation in 2019 by setting up a subsidy program, but the Mayor’s budget reduced its annual funding from $4 million a year to a measly $125 thousand. Prop G would establish a baseline of $4 million annually to subsidize units for seniors and families who are too poor to qualify for low-income housing, so that the people who most need homes aren’t shut out. “ - League of Pissed Off Voters
Proposition H – Retirement Benefits for Firefighters: No
Note that I had listed this as a “yes” in an earlier version of the guide. That was a typo.
“...The thing is, the SFFD doesn’t have trouble recruiting or retaining firefighters: they’re highly paid, with great benefits, and applicants flock from around the state for these jobs. (And after a 1988 consent decree to overcome a legacy of racial discrimination, the city’s “most intransigent institution” even made some hires from outside its good-old-boy network.)
acrylic on canvas, 11” x 17”, 2024
Note that the gold in the sky of this painting is extra shiny.
You’ve probably seen the firefighter union’s billboards claiming that since they get more cancer than the rest of us, they should be able to retire earlier. Listen, everyone should be able to retire earlier. But other at-risk workers (all the underpaid cleaners, night-shift workers, and food delivery serfs) don’t get politicians clamoring to increase their pensions–at a cost of more than $10 million in the first year alone. The ever-mounting cost of this prop—by 2040, the controller estimates it will add over $21 million a year to the budget— does nothing to improve the actual operations of the fire department, and means likely cuts to other city services. We know firefighters are sexy, but vote no on Prop H.” - League of Pissed Off Voters
Proposition I – Retirement Benefits for Nurses and 911 Operators: Yes
“This one is far from a giveaway. It just corrects an injustice in the pension system: Per Diem nurses, who work for the city as needed, get no retirement credit at all. 911 operators, who are part of the public safety system, don’t get the same benefits as other safety employees. Nurses who worked an average of 35 hours a week could buy into the city’s retirement system. Dispatchers would pay more into the system, and get more out of it at the end. Vote yes.” - SF Bay Gaurdian
Proposition J – Funding Programs Serving Children, Youth, and Families: Yes
This creates a new body to oversee certain funds for youth. I was a little unsure about this one knowing that there is already a citizens committee advising about Public Education Enrichment Funds (PEEF) that would be included in the purview of the new group - but I also know that their recommendations were often systematically ignored (the superintendent’s PEEF budget recommendations would come out before the committee’s report until Alison Collins and Gabriela Lopez fixed it before they were recalled from the Board of Education).
“Prop J does one crucial thing that tipped us over to a “Yes.” Remember when we passed the Student Success Fund a few years back, to give city money as grants to public schools for academic and social-emotional programs? That money goes from SF’s general fund to DCYF, which then makes grants to schools. In the last round of budget battles, DCYF’s budget was cut because they counted the Student Success Fund as part of DCYF’s baseline funding! When it was supposed to be extra! That led to huge cuts in other programs funded by DCYF [facepalm emoji]. Prop J includes a provision that protects the Student Success Fund, specifying that those funds “cannot replace, supplant, count as, or substitute for other City funding for the School District or children and youth.” So let’s at least fix that bug. Vote yes on Prop J. “ - League of Pissed Off Voters
Arts education advocates in San Francisco have long been annoyed that “enrichment” funds were used to provide basic arts funding in schools. Maybe this will help fix that too?
Proposition K – Permanently Closing the Upper Great Highway to Private Vehicles to Establish a Public Open Recreation Space: Yes
The way San Francisco can fight global warming is to move away from a reliance on cars. We can also realize that the ocean will take back the Great Highway anyway, so let’s have a park there.
Mission Delirium at El Rio
acrylic on canvas, 14” x 11”, 2024
Proposition L – Additional Business Tax on Transportation Network Companies and Autonomous Vehicle Business to Fund Public Transportation: Yes
League of Women Voters San Francisco explains, “The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, which provides Muni bus, train, and metro services, is massively underfunded. Proposition L would generate much-needed funds for public transit through a business tax on rideshare and driverless car companies like Uber, Lyft, and Waymo. This is not a tax on individual rides, but on the revenue of these businesses.”
Remember, those ridesharing companies are explicitly trying to destroy public transit. “Uber wants to compete with public transit. These experts are horrified” - CNN.
Proposition M – Changes to Business Taxes: No
If Pop M gets more votes than Prop L, even if they both pass, Prop L will not go into effect and our transit will suffer.
Businesses are still benefiting from Trump’s major tax cuts at the expense of public services. Democratic strongholds should have raised business taxes to make up for some of that shortfall, but that never happened. Prop M is mostly a business tax cut, vote no.
Proposition N – First Responder Student Loan and Training Reimbursement Fund: No
“Prop N creates a completely unfunded “fund” to forgive student loans for first responders. We love (most) of our first responders, but with no actual money allocated for this, it’s another 100% vibes-only prop that does nothing except make our ballot longer.” - League of Pissed Off Voters
Proposition O – Supporting Reproductive Rights: Yes
“Prop O is a symbolic reaffirmation of San Francisco’s dedication to preserving abortion rights. Fake crisis pregnancy centers would be required to post signs saying they’re actually not health care providers. The City would be required to not cooperate with federal prosecutors or other states coming after us for providing medical services that might be illegal in other places. This one is a slam dunk. Vote yes.” - League of Pissed Off Voters
acrylic on canvas, 11” x 17”, 2024
State Propositions
Often the state propositions include some confusing language, shenanigans, and trickery. That’s not the case this year. Except for Prop 34 (a nasty attack on one organization), they all do what they say they’re going to do. And some of them - like 32 and 33 - will truly help correct for the expanding income inequality in California.
Okay, this is just copied from League of Pissed Off Voters. These are all very easy choices to make and really don’t require more arguments. You can read the League of Pissed Off Voters reasoning here.
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
Way better than Trump.
Senate: Adam Schiff
He was the worst of the Democratic options in the primary, but now he’s way better than Steve Garvey.
US Representative District 11: Leave it blank
US Representative District 15: Leave it blank
Statewide Offices
State Senate: Leave it blank
State Assemblymember, District 17: Leave it blank
State Assemblymember, District 19: David Lee
Not impressive and not gonna win, but way better than Catherine Stefani who has been the most conservative of San Francisco supervisors.
My Reference Materials
Some of the tabs I had open while writing this guide include these ballot guides: Mission Local’s coverage and candidate profiles, The League of Women Voters of San Francisco, The League of Pissed Off Voters guide, San Francisco Rising, the San Francisco Tenants Union endorsements, KQED’s voter guide, Bay Curious Prop. Fest, Harvey Milk Democratic Club Endorsements and the San Francisco Bay Gaurdian. I get much of my news from those sources and by following local officials and journalists on social media, and sometimes observing meetings myself.
View of Candlestick Point
acrylic on canvas, 30” x 24”, 2022