There were dozens of election watch parties throughout San Francisco late last night and into the early morning. At a watch party for supporters of Proposition A –which would give San Francisco City and County the right to issue $300 million in bonds to build affordable housing – the mood was of cautious optimism.
Early returns showed Prop A a little more than a percentage point ahead of the 66 and two-thirds needed for approval.
“This shows what we can do when we come together.”
That was Aaron Peskin, the president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, who supported the measure.
“Rather than doing performative politics, this is actually something that will change people’s lives, that will give housing to nurses and janitors and first responders and working families.”
Voters appeared poised to pass six of seven measures on the ballot in San Francisco. This included Prop E, which modifies the use of force and pursuit policies to the San Francisco Police Department.
In the San Francisco Superior Court, incumbent judges Michael Begert and Patrick Thompson – both of whom had faced allegations of being soft on crime – appeared to fend off the challenges by candidates supported by conservative corporate backers.
Meanwhile, across the Bay Bridge, in Oakland, another party at the Fluid 510 nightclub, a festive crowd gathered to root for Lateefah Simon. The BART director is running to succeed longtime Congresswoman Barbara Lee, who gave up her seat to run for the U.S. Senate. Lee finished a distant fourth.
Simon led her eight rival candidates with 43 percent of the vote – more than double the runner-up, Jennifer Tran. The two will face off in November.Simon, a longtime community organizer, was clearly looking ahead.
“I’m hoping within the next eight months, our coalition is so big, that it’s only going to grow more. I’ve been an organizer for 30 years. And attempting to take a federal position is way more work than I could imagine, in terms of understanding the complexities of many of these issues, but being on the BART board for the last seven years, I realize, as someone who is extremely progressive, I can have those ideas, and ideals and goals, I need to be extremely pragmatic in moving things forward.”
