San Francisco Mayor’s Race is Off and Running

From Beyond Chron,

It’s eight months before San Francisco’s mayoral election, with the eventual winner already in the field. While a candidate identified with the city’s political Left still may emerge, the current frontrunners are Board of Supervisors President David Chiu, City Attorney Dennis Herrera, and State Senator Leland Yee. Former Supervisors Bevan Dufty and Michela Alioto-Pier and Assessor Phil Ting will shape the outcome due to ranked choice voting, but none have reached the top tier. This is the first time since 1975 where there is no clear favorite in the Mayor’s race, but keep in mind that Jack Molinari in 1987 and Art Agnos in 1991 were heavy favorites in March and both lost. Here’s my assessment of the major upsides and challenges affecting the three current leading contenders.

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Yee Seeks 'Truth in Naming' on Election Ballots - Bay Citizen

From the Bay Citizen,

State Sen. Leland Yee has reintroduced a bill that would require candidates for elected office to use an accurate phoenetic interpretation of their name when it appears on Chinese, Korean or Vietnamese-lanugage ballots.

The bill comes amid concern that more and more non-Asian candidates are listing Chinese names on San Francisco ballots in an effort to appeal to the city's growing block of Chinese voters.

In this past election, for example, Malia Cohen, who was recently elected supervisor in San Francisco's District 10, was listed as "Kuo Han" on Chinese-language ballots.

Michael Nava, a third-generation Californian of Mexican descent running to become a judge on the San Francisco Superior Court, called himself Zheng-Ping Lee on the ballot. (Nava lost to Richard Ulmer).

In a statement, Yee said his bill, SB 88, "attempts to stop the last-minute, deceptive practice of using a fake name simply to deceive Asian voters to win an election."

Yee introduced a similar bill in the last legislative session, but it was vetoed by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

"This unscrupulous practice should be prevented," Schwarzenegger wrote, "however, a change in state policy is unnecessary. Under current law, local election officials have the authority to address this fraudulent behavior and to set policies that are appropriate for their unique jurisdictions. For example, the director of elections in San Francisco has established a Chinese name translation policy to address concerns that improper translations were being used by candidates in local races.”