Editorial

The articles sounding the death-knell of the progressive candidates seem to forget the fact that we have ranked-choice voting and a growing population who vote first along ethnic lines.

First, I think that Beyond Chron's analysis that the progressive vote is too fractured for a progressive to win it all is wrong. I think quite the opposite - I think the split on the moderate side is so fractured that it creates an opening for the top progressive candidate to hang on long enough to pick up the #2 and #3 votes of all the other progressives who get eliminated first.

The moderate group is pretty evenly split among Moss, Sweet, Cohen, and Enea, and unlike on the progressive side, I see all of them getting an equally (within 10-20%) strong showing compared to one another. They'll stay in the rounds of elimination until close to the bitter end, while the candidates getting knocked out along the way will slowly add more and more to the top progressive's totals, and not as much to theirs. Remember, Marlene Tran has suggested her supporters pick Tony Kelly as their #2. Tran deservedly commands a huge amount of respect in the Chinese community, and her word will be heeded by many. Of course, the more conservative bent of many Chinese voters means that many will ignore Tran and throw their support behind the moderates, but again, their votes get split, although Moss probably comes out ahead here because of, sad to say, racial reasons, despite Sweet trying hard to woo these voters.

I've also been hearing a lot of grumbling about Moss, Cohen, and Sweet for their various alleged and confirmed transgressions, lack of experience, and general knowledge gaps. Although anectodal, people looking for a moderate who has a voting record on important land-use issues, but who is otherwise untainted, are looking to Enea, and she may very well come up the middle here.

The above all said, Moss could still pull this out. In running so hard against him in their reporting, the Bay Guardian may have shot progressives and all other, more palatable moderates in the foot, steering moderate voters to rebel and vote for Moss en masse out of pure spite. Moss has done a good job of working the 'poor me, the Guardian is out to get me' angle. He can tell his supporters and those on the fence that he's done all he can to placate them, but they still keep coming after him. Poor Steve. What they've ended up doing is rally his base, as it were, and galvanized his supporters against the progressives in the race. They've given him nearly daily press coverage that he couldn't have gotten in his own paper. He's played the Guardian like a fiddle, and will have them as much as Coates and all the anti-tenant forces for his victory, should he win.

League of Women Voter Interviews

A couple of weeks ago, the League of Women Voters held a candidate forum at UCSF Mission Bay. After the forum, they asked the candidates to record a short video message. I was able to find videos for James Calloway, Malia Cohen, Kristine Enea, MJ Marie Franklin, Tony Kelly, Steve Moss, Geoffrea Morris, Eric Smith, Lynette Sweet, Marlene Tran, and Stephen Weber. I've also embedded the videos on their respective 'Why I'm Voting For...' pages. If I've missed one, please let me know so that I can link to it, too.

Newspaper endorsements

In preceding weeks, we've seen most of the more partisan endorsements come out from unions, environmental groups, the Democratic Party, and the more 'focused demographic' newspapers like the Bay Area Reporter, SF Bay Guardian and the BayView, plus those from several, if not all, of the various sitting supervisors.

Now, on the heels of Supervisor Maxwell's endorsement earlier this week, the Examiner and Chronicle have made their favorites to fill the D10 seat known:

The Examiner likes Malia Cohen and Lynette Sweet, while the Chronicle has chosen Ms Sweet, but gives an "also impressed with" to Kristine Enea.

Ms Sweet must be waking up pretty happy these days, but trust me, she won't be resting on her laurels any more than other candidates did after getting their endorsements. Each of them knows that with the number of strong candidates out there, they're going to have to dig for every #2 or #3 vote that they can get to pull this one off. With name recognition strong for so many of the candidates, I have this feeling that we're going to get a dark horse coming up the middle to win this thing.

Chronicle Supervisor Candidate Questionnaires

Not sure how long this has been up, but SFGate has their questionnaires from some of the candidates up online (According to the Chronicle, they contacted all 21 District 10 supervisor candidates. The candidates not listed here have not responded to The Chronicle's questionnaire):

Maila Cohen
Candidate Malia Cohen asserts that District 10 has too often been the City's forgotten and last priority. Cohen wants District 10 to become a cornerstone of San Francisco, a home to a thriving job market, a healthy and growing community and a safe place for children and families.

Teresa Duqué
Particularly concerned with the issue of crime in San Francisco, Teresa Duque believes that the City needs to balance the Board of Supervisors in an effort to insure that real economic revival takes place.

Kristine Enea
Kristine Enea credits her knowledge of land use, waterfront development, redevelopment, public housing revitalization and fresh food resources to nearly six years of volunteering on the Bayview Project Area Committee, on the Shipyard Restoration Advisory Board, and as chair of the India Basin Neighborhood Association.

Chris Jackson
If elected District 10 supervisor, the biggest issue Chris Jackson wants to tackle is the flight of working and middle class families from San Francisco.

DeWitt Lacy
DeWitt Lacy has endured the same struggles as many of the working residents in D10, which he believes helps him better understand the needs and aspirations of the community. He also has a background in law, providing him the skills to work within bureaucratic systems.


Geoffrea Morris
Possessing a Master Degree in Social Work, Geoffrea Morris has spent her life in the social support field in advocating for people and families in San Francisco. If elected, Morris plan to make local hire her highest priority.

Eric Smith
Candidate Eric Smith hopes to make San Francisco run more efficiently, which includes creating sustainable policies in economic reform and establishing support for the green industry.

Lynette Sweet
With over 20 years experience as a fiscal manager and as BART director, Lynette Sweet promises job creation will be her number one priority as Supervisor.

Park-Friendly Candidates

In case you want to prep for tomorrow's NPC Forum:

2010 Park Friendly Candidate Ratings

NPC recognizes candidates as Park Friendly who not only demonstrate a love and appreciation of parks, but also knowledge of how parks in San Francisco function and specific challenges the system faces. Park management in such a geographically-limited, resource-scarce environment is very challenging and NPC looks to all of San Francisco’s elected officials to be informed, collaborative and community-minded as we work together to ensure neighborhood parks are clean, safe and fun.

Malia Cohen (Park Friendly)
Kristine Enea (Park Friendly)
Chris Jackson (incomplete questionnaire submitted)
Tony Kelly (Park Friendly)
Steve Moss (Park Friendly)
Eric Smith (Park Friendly)

The following Candidates did not return a completed questionnaire by the deadline:

* James Calloway
* Ed Donaldson
* Teresa Duque
* MJ Marie Franklin
* Rodney Hampton, Jr.
* Ellsworth “Ell” Jennison
* Nyese Joshua
* DeWitt M. Lacy
* Geoffrea Morris
* Jackie Norman
* Ashley Hawley Rhodes
* Diane Wesley Smith
* Lynette Sweet
* Marlene Tran
* Stephen Weber

Redevelopment throws Arc Ecology under the bus - SFBG

No one was really surprised when the Redevelopment Commission voted 4-0 not to renew Arc Ecology’s contract to provide environmental information services regarding remediation plans at Hunters Point Shipyard and award it to Circle Point.

Read more...

Questions for the Candidates

Steve Moss (D10 Candidate and publisher of the Potrero View) asked me last week to compile for his newspaper some basic biographical information on the top candidates. Apologies to those I haven't asked for info, but my 'top candidates' are those who've garnered the greatest buzz (press), have collected the largest amounts of money (yes, money), and quite honestly, have the greatest chance of winning among the remaining 21 candidates.

I sent an email to all the candidates last week asking for basic stuff, and have heard back from... Steve Moss.

OK, candidates, if you're reading this, I'm not doing some Steve Moss-centric piece for the PV. I don't work for Mr Moss, and he's not paying me to do this. I'm posting what I find here on my site, as well as writing the piece for the PV. Potrero Hill is important to your election, and how you come across to the voters there WILL affect your chances of winning. I am writing this completely unbiased, and am basically putting in the PV information that you have on your websites or that is totally public if people care to go looking for it. I'm just doing the legwork for them.

For you to be cast in the absolute best light, it would behoove you to send me some info (pretty basic, really) instead of having the words 'no reply' next to the simple questions I've posed. If I can't find info on your website, you're going to get a 'no reply'.

My deadline is Thursday. It'd be great to hear from all y'all.

You'll find the stuff that I find on the left side of this page under the "D10 Candidate Pages" section.

- your humble blogger, Chris

Why I'm Voting For Kristine Enea

I'm voting for Kristine Enea because ...