SF 11/3/15 Election Results

On election night, November 3, 2015, the workingclass, the 80% of Americans who sell our labor for less than $80,000 a year, lost in San Francisco.

While the close races may change within the next 30 days of counting, here are the election night results: Proposition F, to stop the hotelization of San Francisco by Airbnb, was defeated with 55% voting No. Proposition I, the moratorium on luxury housing construction in the Mission, was defeated with 57% voting No. Proposition D, a brewery and 11 towers of luxury housing, passed with 73% voting Yes. Proposition C, a phony ethics reform that stifles organizing against the Democratic Party machine, passed with 74% voting Yes. Proposition J, which allows giving our tax dollars to private profit businesses to pay their rent, passed with 56% of the vote. Incumbent Sheriff Mirkarimi was defeated. In the mayor’s race, subject to instant runoff, pro-luxury housing, Republican Party endorsed Democrat Mayor Ed Lee is winning with 56% (70,715) of the vote and Green Party candidate Francisco Herrera is second with 14% (18,315) of the vote. The District 3 supervisor’s race, subject to instant runoff, is still too close to call, with Democrat Aaron Peskin, the pro-rent control challenger, receiving 52% (6,185) of the vote, and anti-rent control Republican Party and San Francisco Police Officers Association endorsed Democrat Julie Christensen receiving 43% (5,038) of the vote. The vote count was 132,262 as of election night, which may go up to 200,000 by December 3, but that is still far less than the 735,000 adults residing in San Francisco, most of whom are citizens. This is what Americans call democracy; the rest of the world calls this hypocrisy.
You can check the daily updates at http://www.sfelections.org/results/20151103/

San Francisco has 845,000 residents, of whom 13% are children under age 18. Each of the 11 County Supervisor districts has at least 77,000 residents. The registration is as follows: 55% Democrat, 31% No party (usually vote Democrat), 8% Republican, 1.56% Green (6,758) and .33% (2,375) Peace and Freedom. You can find the latest registration statistics at:
http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/voter-registration/voter-registration-statistics/ror-odd-year-2015

PEOPLE
In the mayor’s race, the Democrat-Republican incumbent, Ed Lee, spent over $1 million when he had no big money challenger to win 56% (70,715) of the vote. Green Party mayoral candidate Francisco Herrera, spent $14,000 to win 14% or 18,315 votes, which is more votes than the combined registration of the Green Party (6,758) and Peace and Freedom Party (2,375), which is certainly good news when campaigning in a very anti-democratic country. Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi, a founder of the Green Party who changed to Democrat to run for sheriff in 2011, received 32% (40,128) of the vote, being defeated by the police state Democrat challenger Vicki Hennessy who won 61% (74,522) of the vote. Perhaps Ross has finally learned a lesson everyone should learn: Never change to Democrat-Republican as the Democrat-Republicans do not want change favoring the workingclass. The District 3 supervisor’s race made history with each of the big money candidates, Peskin and Christensen, spending almost $1 million dollars.

For more on the money received and spent, and who donated to whom, see http://www.sfethics.org/ethics/2015/08/campaign-finance-dashboards-november-3-2015-election.html. Check the Contributors tab and let your pointer hover over each colored square to learn the name of the contributor and the amount. Also check the tabs Late Contributions, Lobbyist Contributions and Third Party Contributions. It was good to see labor unions contributing to tenant causes but they did not mobilize their members to vote and it is the votes that matter.

PROPOSITIONS
We are now faced with the possibility that all tenant housing in San Francisco will be eliminated by Airbnb and the Academy of Art, thereby subverting rent control. Proposition F was opposed by the San Francisco Democratic Party , as was Proposition I. The Democratic Party supported the reactionary propositions, C, D and J. The workingclass, including the homeless, need decent housing TODAY. Single Room Occupancy Hotels, with the toilet, shower and kitchen shared in the hallway, are not decent housing and should be required to put a toilet, shower, sink and cooking facilities in every hotel room. Proposition A, the housing bond, passed, as did Proposition K, allowing surplus land to be used for workingclass housing, but the housing has not been built and we have 15,000 homeless, with every public school in San Francisco having at least 1 homeless child. This is all occurring in the richest country in the world which spends trillions of dollars on the military to maximize the profits of the oil and munitions companies. We cannot have guns and butter. If you are still registered Democrat-Republican, you can change your registration online to one of the 2 peace parties, Peace & Freedom Party and the Green Party at: https://covr.sos.ca.gov/?language=en-US
For more information, see:
http://www.peaceandfreedom.org/home
and
http://www.cagreens.org/
http://www.gp.org/

In 2016, we will have the presidential campaign, where the war and peace issue will be primary, as it should be in every election as all politics are local. One of the Green Party candidates is Jill Stein. See http://www.jill2016.com/
One of the possible Peace & Freedom Party candidates is Gloria LaRiva. See http://www.votepsl.org/