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All San Francisco for Democracy Events are listed on our calendar...we look forward to seeing you.

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Democracy for America Endorses Mark Leno

BURLINGTON, VT – DemocracyForAmerica.com, our nation's largest progressive political action organization, announced Monday that it has endorsed Mark Leno's campaign for the California State Senate.

"Mark Leno is a phenomenal candidate and a true champion of the grassroots.  Democracy for America is proud to endorse his campaign," said Jim Dean, Chair of DFA.  "Mark Leno has a long record as an effective and dynamic progressive."

Elected to the Assembly in 2002, Mark Leno represents the 13th District, which encompasses the eastern portion of San Francisco.  He is one of the first two openly gay men ever elected to the Assembly.  He currently chairs the Assembly Appropriations Committee, which oversees all bills with a fiscal impact on the state. He also serves on the Election & Redistricting and Labor Committees. Prior to his election to the Assembly, Leno served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors from April 1998 to November 2002.
 
While in the Assembly, Leno has fought for better schools and access to higher education, a cleaner and sustainable environment, universal affordable and quality health care, improved transportation, renewable energy, safer streets and equal rights for all Californians.
 
While on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Leno authored landmark legislation in the areas of affordable housing, universal health care for children, solar energy, late night entertainment, bond oversight, small business services, City CarShare, medical cannabis, equal access to services, and LGBT civil rights.
 
"This is going to be a tough race and I am incredibly proud to have the support of Democracy for America," said Mark Leno.  "My campaign is powered by the people of my District and DFA understands how important this is and that is why I know with their support we will be victorious."

Democracy for America is the key endorsement in this race, bringing donations from progressives and providing volunteers to participate in door-to-door, grassroots outreach.  DFA has helped elect over 550 progressives to office from Governor Deval Patrick in Massachusetts to Rep. Jerry McNerney in California's 11th Congressional District.  

"Mark Leno will work for progressive solutions on renewable energy, universal health care, marriage equality, and Clean Money campaign finance reform," said Arshad Hasan, Executive Director of DFA.  "Mark Leno's work as a community advocate, a county supervisor, and a state assemblymember shows that he has the experience and vision to deliver for his constituents and the state."

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Historic Grassroots Victory at State Dem Convention

An historic turn-around vote took place at the annual California Democratic Party convention in San Jose this year which has resulted in a “no endorsement” position for the CDP in the race for State Senate, District 3.  Here’s what happened: on Saturday,  the local endorsing caucus had given the nod to incumbent Carole Migden for re-election in the upcoming primary.  As an incumbent, Senator Migden only needed to get 50% plus one of the local delegate votes, while a challenger, such as our endorsed candidate Assemblymember  Mark Leno, would have needed to get 60% of the vote. 

Senator Migden won the local endorsement vote by 55%, but many grassroots activists questioned the legitimacy of that vote given reports that a good number of those voting in the local caucus had just recently been appointed as delegates by Senators who lived in other districts.  Although this practice is within party rules, the idea that the endorsement process can be manipulated by out-of-district Senators merely to protect an incumbent against a primary challenger seems contrary to democratic principles.  Many of us believe we need to replace the culture of incumbency with a culture of activism in order to truly return ownership of our democracy to the people.

Immediately after the endorsing caucus results were announced, Leno supporters began the difficult process of obtaining delegate signatures on an official petition to remove Carole Migden from the next day’s consent calendar.  To the surprise of us Leno volunteers,  we were able to obtain more than twice as many signatures as the 300  required by the 11:00 pm deadline.  On the convention floor on Sunday morning…after the speech by President Clinton…both the Migden and Leno campaigns were given the opportunity to speak,  followed by a vote of the entire membership.  The results of that floor vote were equally surprising: 742 of the state-wide delegates in attendance voted against ratifying the Migden endorsement, out of a total of 1,040 votes cast.  A subsequent vote was taken to see if the same group of delegates would endorse Mark Leno for SD 3, and although he did not receive the 75% threshold needed for an endorsement, he did get a comfortable 60% of the 979 votes cast. 

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Our June Primary Endorsements

On Thursday, March 20, SF4D PAC held a general membership meeting for the sake of hearing arguments and making endorsements for the June 3 State Primary. By far the biggest controversy was over local development measures F and G; supporters of measure G worry that development of the Bayview area will be delayed still further, while F supporters are concerned that too few of the area's current residents will be able to afford to stay in the Bayview. See our video debate here.

The endorsement results were as follows:

California Assembly

District 12	Fiona Ma
District 13	Tom Ammiano

California Senate

District 3

Mark Leno

State Ballot Measures

98 eminent domain/end rent control	NO!
99 eminent domain/sensible reform	Yes

SF Ballot Measures

A  (school parcel tax)	Yes
B  (city retiree healthcare fund)	Yes
C  (forfeit benefits for crime)	Yes
D  (diversity on city boards)	Yes
E  (appointment to PUC)	No Recommendation *
F  (50% affordable housing req)	No Recommendation *
G  (Bayview development project)	Yes
H  (prohibit officials from soliciting contributions)	Yes
* fewer than the 60% threshhold supported the measure.

For more information on the various propositions and candidates, go here.

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PAC Makes February Endorsements

Members of the SF4D state PAC made its endorsements for the February primary right along the lines recommended by the PAC Coordinators. The results are as follows (click on the proposition number for a detailed discussion):

Proposition	Endorsement
State Prop 91 - would ensure that fuel tax funds earmarked for transportation purposes don't get hijacked for other uses. This is what exactly what 2006's Prop 1A already did, so the submitters are now asking for a NO vote.	NO
State Prop 92 - mandatory minimun funding for K-12 and Community Colleges	NO REC
State Prop 93 - term limit reforms	YES
State Props 94-97 - more slots for additional taxation	NO
City Prop A - Parks Bond	YES
City Prop B - Police Retirement Program	NO REC
City Prop C - Alcatraz Peace Center	NO

Thanks to everyone who participated in this bold electronic experiment!

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PAC Makes November Endorsements

SF for Democracy PAC members met on September 19 to discuss and vote on local ballot propositions and candidates for the November 6, 2007 local election.   Proposition J – which would endorse a public/private partnership to provide free Wi Fi service for the residents of San Francisco—turned out to be one of the most controversial initiatives, as members, while supporting Wi Fi generally, could not agree on whether this would amount to an endorsement of another plan similar to the Mayor's flawed Eartlink deal.  Also, we'd rather have good Wi Fi than rush it. Our final vote:  No on Prop J.

SFFDPAC also took the controversial step of endorsing Safety Network Partnership program director Quintin Mecke over mayoral incumbent Gavin Newsom. Mr Mecke joined the race at the last minute because he believes the Mayor could be doing much more about homicide, housing, and the homeless, and should not be getting a free pass on this election. We agree.

SF Ballot Propositions

A  (transit reform)	YES
B  (hold-over service)	YES
C  (public hearings)	YES
D  (Library funding)	No Recommendation
E  (Mayor appearances)	No Recommendation
F  (Retirement benefits)	No Recommendation
G  (Horse stables)	YES
H  (Parking spaces)	NO
I   (Small business)	YES
J   (Free Wi_Fi)	NO
K  (Restrict street ads)	YES

SF Candidates

Mayor	Quintin Mecke
Sheriff	Michael Hennessey
District Attorney	Kamala Harris

Much thanks go to Political Director Erich Albrecht and all the coordinators who worked so hard to complete this endorsements process.

Download SF4D 2007 voter guide here. Candidate questionnaires are here.

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PAC Opposes Recall of Peskin and McGoldrick

At its first membership meeting on July 25, 2007, the newly formed SFFD PAC voted to oppose the recall of Supervisors Aaron Peskin (District 3) and Jake McGoldrick (District 1).  After some discussion, the PAC members concluded that the recall efforts directed at these duly elected supervisors cannot be justified based on evidence of corrupt behavior, incompetence or malfeasance.  Instead, it appears that in both cases a small group of special interests have launched recall campaigns to voice their policy disagreements with these supervisors. 

Earlier that evening, the general membership of San Francisco for Democracy voted to urge the Board of Supervisors to place a charter amendment on the February 2008 ballot that would reform our recall provisions.  While citizens should have recourse to remove elected officials for egregious behavior, a recall campaign based on narrow policy disagreements or supported by wealthy special interests seems to subvert the intent of the voters.  Other jurisdictions have tougher standards for qualifying a recall election than San Francisco and the members felt it’s time to consider making needed changes in our city charter.   If passed by the voters in February, the following amendments to the recall provisions in our city charter would mitigate against future abuses:

1.  Increase the number of required signatures from 10% to 20% of eligible voters living in the district
2.  Establish a contribution limit of $500 for recall petition efforts
3.  Require full disclosure from companies hired for petition gathering, to ensure that the paid petitioners live in the district in which they are gathering signatures.
4.  Require that the recall petition, when circulated, shall have attached to it an affidavit of one or more of the proponents that all of the facts contained in the Statement are true.

If the recall campaigns directed against these supervisors do qualify for the ballot, members of the San Francisco for Democracy PAC will work to defeat these inappropriate and abusive recalls.

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SF for Democracy Announces 2006 Endorsements

San Francisco for Democracy has completed its endorsements for the November 7th election.

California Propositions Prop 1A (transportation): Yes Prop 1B (transportation): Yes Prop 1C (housing): Yes Prop 1D (education): Yes Prop 1E (disaster preparedness): Yes Prop 83 (sex offenders): No Prop 84 (water quality/parks): Yes Prop 85 (parental notification re-run): No Prop 86 (cigarette taxes): No recommendation Prop 87 (alternative energy): Yes Prop 88 (education funding): Yes Prop 89 (clean money elections): Yes Prop 90 (property rights): No

S.F. Propositions Prop. A (school bond): Yes Prop. B (teleconference meetings): Yes Prop. C (salary survey): Yes Prop. D (privacy): Yes Prop. E (parking tax): No recommendation Prop. F (paid sick leave): Yes Prop. G (chain stores): Yes Prop. H (relocation assistance): Yes Prop. I (monthly mayor appearances): No Prop. J (impeach Bush & Cheney): Yes Prop. K (housing policy statement): No endorsement

Our outreach flyer for the local propositions is here; and for the state propositions here (and here's a two- sided half-sheet version.)

Many thanks are due to Mimi LaPointe and all the members of S.F. for Democracy's Political Affairs Committee for all their hard work in the candidate and proposition review process.

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November 2006 Election Endorsements: State initiatives

ll 14 of the state-wide ballot initiatives were also discussed and voted on for possible endorsements at our August 15th General Membership Meeting held in the Mission District police station. Members voted "YES" on the infrastructure bonds (propositions 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D and 1E) as well as Propositions 84, 87, 88 and 89; "NO" on Propositions 83, 85 and 90; and "No Recommendation" on Proposition 86, the tax on cigarettes. We've created a two-sided guide to all these state initiatives which you can download here. (Here's a 2-sided half-sheet version -- great for flyering.) You can also read the complete minutes to this meeting here

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June 2006 CA Election Endorsements and Officer Elections

SF for Democracy discussed, and was courted by, candidates and propositions for the upcoming June 6 California elections at our General Membership meeting Tuesday, April 18, in the Mission Police Station Community Room. Press release of the full results of SF for Democracy's endorsement vote for the June 6 CA election are linked and can be viewed here. We voted to support California propositions 81 & 82; in San Francisco, we're supporting Prop. B (eviction disclosure) and opposing Prop. D (Laguna Honda), with no recommendation on Props. A and C. (Download our flyer here). We also completed our yearly officer elections in record time.

2006-2007 officers elected for San Francisco for Democracy are:

• President: Thomas Brown
• Vice President: Susan Pfeifer
• Secretary: Julie Tsai
• Treasurer: Mark Nagel
• Membership Director: Tim Hsu
• Political Affairs Director: Mimi LaPointe
• Outreach Director: Jeff Whittington
• Communications Director: Will Easton
  (contact for press or meetup inquiries)