I think I've already made my position clear on the most important elective office in today's ballot in The City. As it turns out, there are some other elective posts and propositions on the ballot. Here are the Chron Endorsements:
And the Alice B Toklas LGBT Democratic Club Endorsements:
The interesting bit about these diverse endorsements is that all of the preferred candidates for all of the elected offices by those three organizations are exactly the same. Who am I to disagree?
MW Brigade Election Selections:
Done deal. Still prefer voting in person on the "day of" the election rather than casting an absentee vote by mail.
While completing my ballot, I listened to poll workers patiently explain for the umpteenth time that if you vote for the same candidate on the three Ranked Choice Voting options, your ballot will be invalidated. The simple fact is that Ranked Choice Voting is confusing for voters, subject to "gaming", and will never be as accurate a reflection of voter intent as is a simple "top two" runoff. I am reminded again of the final word on San Francisco's election process as perfectly articulated in the November, 2011 edition of Walter Hinkle's Argonaut:
"Let us express our complete and unqualified contempt for the city’s system of ranked choice voting and taxpayer financing of campaigns."Exactly. Nothing to do now but wait for the results and hope for the best. Stay tuned. We'll update this post as the results come in...
UPDATE: 11:00 PM
The results are in. Among the elected offices, six of my seven choices prevailed. The big one was, of course Vicki Hennessy with 60% plurality over Ross Mirkarimi's 30% vote. Our long civic nightmare is over at last. My loser was also a big one. I live in District 3, and Aaron Peskin defeated Julie Christensen by a decisive 53% to 43% margin. It's all about Chinatown in this district, and Rose Pak proved to be a bigger power broker than Lee. I can only hope that Peskin has mellowed since his last stint on the Board of Supervisors and is not the same flaming asshole he was then. TBD. Rank Choice Voting was not a factor in this election, and that is a good thing.
As far as the props are concerned, it was a mixed bag, which I expected. Five of the eleven props went against my voting preference. However the ones I cared the most about - No on D, No on F, No on I, all went down to defeat. All in all, a good election, except for Rose Pak's new pocket supervisor.
UPDATE II: 04-November-2015
Chron columnist C.W. Nevius has his finger on the pulse of the City. His take of the election gets it mostly right on Lee, Mirkarimi, and the Props, I just hope he got it right on Peskin:
"Much will be made of Aaron Peskin’s win in District Three, but I fail to see it as the end of the civilized world. Peskin is no Chris Daly — the polarizing F-bomb thrower. Peskin is smart and knows how to figure the angles. You can deal with him — just be sure to count your fingers after you shake hands.
And one more thing. Peskin campaigned his butt off. Every day there was another story of a Peskin sighting, on a corner in North Beach chatting up voters or attending a neighborhood meeting. I even heard he’d contacted a Republican group about speaking to them.
The point is, this is no hobby. Peskin is all in for city government. Good. Now let’s see forward-thinking legislation and not just attempts to stymie the mayor. A good sign is he spoke with Lee on Wednesday."
TBD. I do find it interesting how the EssEff Progs were so incensed when "power broker" Rose Pak backed Ed Lee for Mayor, but were much more sanguine about her influence in Chinatown when she supported Aaron Peskin in D3.
x-posted on my other blog
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| Rose Pak backing Ed Lee |
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| Do not mess with Rose |
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| Rose Pak backing Aaron Peskin |
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