District 6 Supervisors Race Goes Down to Wire

For the first time since San Francisco reinstated district elections in 2000, an incumbent supervisor is not assured of victory a week before Election Day. Since downtown businesses, BOMA, the Plumbers Union, the Police Officers Association, and other opponents of Supervisor Chris Daly have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on mailers attacking him, Daly’s negatives have been raised enough to put his once-certain re-election in doubt. In a district where only 13,000 residents cast ballots for supervisor in 2002—1/3 the number cast in most districts—the impact of these anti-Daly mailers has been huge. Supervisors Sandoval and McGoldrick easily withstood a similar onslaught in 2004, but, unlike Daly’s, a seasoned campaign manager ran their campaigns,. This race resembles both the Agnos-Jordan mayoral contest in 1991 and the Phil Burton-Milton Marks congressional race in 1982--- and will ultimately be decided by the number of low-income, infrequent voters who cast ballots.