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District 1 reelects its supervisor — but who’s gonna fix the parking?

It’s been a month since Election Day, when some 35,000 District 1 voters re-elected Supervisor Connie Chan to another four-year term, choosing her over challenger Marjan Philhour by 1,301 votes. It was a far larger margin than the 2020 matchup between Chan and Philhour, and a far more lopsided race than many people expected. Chan benefitted from more than $1.2 million in outside spending by labor unions and other groups; Philhour had $320,800 from more pro-housing, YIMBY groups.What can voters expect from Chan? In an interview, the supervisor mentioned several priorities: The city’s looming $876 million deficit, local healthcare and childcare, wage theft and job training and education like the Free City College program. District 1 residents, however, often speak of more parochial concerns than Chan’s citywide visions: easier parking, better street designs and a more vibrant neighborhood. They want not just […]

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SF supervisor-elect Bilal Mahmood talks policy plans for District 5

Supervisor-elect Bilal Mahmood at a public interview on Monday pledged to be collaborative and cut down bureaucracy in his new role as the representative of District 5 — and residents seemed optimistic about his plans.Mahmood, who in January will take the seat of Supervisor Dean Preston, discussed to a full room of residents at Manny’s his plans to address the fentanyl crisis and homelessness, and how he plans to make it easier to build housing in San Francisco.  For Mahmood, eliminating bureaucracy was the solution to many problems, from permitting new housing to hiring more police officers. Asked by an audience member how Democrats — thereby, most of San Francisco — would “get their shit together” as the rest of the country becomes more conservative, Mahmood emphasized a need to deal with the city’s local issues to avoid being a “punching bag.” “There’s […]

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Chyanne Chen claims victory in the tight District 11 race

Longtime labor organizer candidate Chyanne Chen has won the tight District 11 race on Sunday, with a slim 190-vote lead over moderate candidate Michael Lai. Chen will succeed termed-out incumbent Ahsha Safaí. “I’m proud and honored to be Supervisor-elect for District 11,” Chen wrote in a statement. “This was a close election, and I am committed to bringing people together to fight for stronger communities, safe neighborhoods and improved services.” “We couldn’t do it alone,” Chen told Mission Local. Chen was bolstered by some $700,000 in outside spending by labor unions and an Asian-American political group, dwarfing the money behind Lai. “This is definitely a victory that belongs to the community. It belongs to everybody.”By 2 p.m. Sunday, Lai conceded on social media, saying he called Chen “to offer her congratulations as the first Asian supervisor for District 11 and offer my help […]

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Races tighten in District 11, Board of Education

The San Francisco Department of Elections moments ago released the results of another 6,923 ballots, crossing the 400,000-vote plateau. The total of processed ballots is now 403,466: 77.25 percent of the electorate.Perhaps 9,600 ballots remain. Of these, only 1,100 are vote-by-mail ballots, and 8,500 are provisional ballots cast throughout the city and at City Hall on Election Day. Scrutinizing provisional ballots requires additional time, and not all may be accepted. If every provisional ballot is accepted — which is not probable — turnout would peak at 79 percent (late-arriving mail ballots have pushed up the potential vote ceiling). That’s still a significant drop from 2020, when 86.3 percent of registered voters cast a ballot. Let’s dive right into the only two remaining contested races: District 11 supervisor, and the fourth and final open spot on the Board of Education:District 11 hopefuls Chyanne Chen, left, […]

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Few new votes, but Chyanne Chen keeps lead in District 11

The San Francisco Department of Elections just dropped the results of another 1,679 ballots, bringing the total of processed ballots to 390,437 — 74.76 percent of the electorate.Even though the count has been going slow so far this week, John Arntz, the director of the Department of Elections told Mission Local on Monday that they will “have most of the remaining ballot cards processed and reported this week.” San Francisco is seeing a record-low turnout this year with the total tracking to be about 77.8 percent. The average San Francisco turnout in a presidential year, going back 108 years, is 77 percent. All eyes are now on the only two remaining contested races: District 11 supervisor, and the fourth and last seat on the Board of Education:In District 11, Chyanne Chen kept up with her lead with 11,863 votes to her moderate […]

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District 1 Sup Connie Chan cruising to re-election; up by 1167 votes

Progressive District 1 supervisor Connie Chan is on track to defeat her moderate challenger Marjan Philhour, after today’s vote drop put her up by 1,167 votes at 51.75 percent. This likely concluded the most expensive supervisor race this year, as moderate groups saw Chan as particularly vulnerable because she beat Philhour by just 125 votes in their last contest in 2020. Almost $2.5 million was spent in the District 1 race. But it appears that Chan’s advantage has only improved. As of Nov. 11, Chan led, 17,232 to 16,065 after ranked-choice tabulation. About 34,000 votes were already counted in District 1. There were approximately 24,700 votes citywide to be counted, but the math is not there for Philhour. The race was expected to be extremely close — the two leading candidates were tied at 11,001 votes apiece after the Thursday results update — […]

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Dean Preston concedes likely defeat in San Francisco’s District 5

Tech entrepreneur and “YIMBY” candidate Bilal Mahmood is poised to unseat District 5 supervisor Dean Preston, San Francisco’s only democratic socialist now serving on the board. In the most expensive district race, political opposition groups lavishly funded the effort to “Dump Dean.”  Though some 42,000 additional citywide votes are still uncounted, Preston on Sunday evening acknowledged his dwindling chances to mitigate his vote deficit and seemed to concede the race.“I’ve spent a lifetime fighting for underdogs, often against the odds,” Preston said in a statement to Mission Local. “I wouldn’t change a minute of it. We can’t win every battle, but we’ll continue the fight.”Though Preston has continued to gain on Mahmood in first-place votes, Mahmood has maintained a lead when ranked-choice selections are counted, putting him more than 1,300 votes ahead of Preston with 52.7 percent.  “I think it’s representative of […]

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A race leapfrogs in District 11

The San Francisco Department of Elections moments ago released the results of an additional 35,979 ballots. That brings the grand total of processed ballots to 325,114 — 62.3 percent of the electorate.  There are, perhaps, 81,000 ballots remaining. The ceiling on turnout appears to be about 77.8 percent, just a shade higher than the 77 percent historical average in presidential contests going back to 1916.On to the contested Board of Supervisors racesDistrict 1 Supervisor Connie Chan and challenger Marjan Philhour are now untied. Photos by Junyao Yang on Mar. 16 and June 1, 2024.Thursday’s ballot drop resulted in the mathematical oddity of District 1 incumbent supervisor Connie Chan and challenger Marjan Philhour both having exactly 11,001 votes. The race continues to trend Chan’s way. After being up by 262 votes yesterday, today’s vote drop saw her lead rise to 558. Four years […]

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Danny Sauter, set to win District 3, had area-wide appeal

Danny Sauter leads the District 3 Supervisor race with 56 percent of the votes, leading his closest challenger Sharon Lai by 1,821 votes, according to the latest results.Though another 157,000 votes remain to be counted, ranked-choice voting experts said Sauter is unlikely to lose his commanding lead. For Lai to win, the remaining votes “would have to be very, very different to what we’ve seen so far. They have to be much more pro-Sharon,” said Jason McDaniel, San Francisco State University political science professor with a research focus on ranked-choice voting.“I don’t see that happening,” he added. Note: These results are preliminary. Table created by Kelly Waldron. Data released by the San Francisco Department of Elections on Nov. 6 at 1 a.m. Sauter, who at 36 would be one of the youngest members of the Board of Supervisors, was endorsed by […]

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District 9 analysis: How do the candidates differ?

Leer en español / 閱讀中文版We’re wrapping up our weekly “Meet the Candidates” Q&A with the District 9 candidates, and looking back at all the answers from those running to replace termed out Supervisor Hillary Ronen and how they differ on citywide and local issues. We’ve created a table to illustrate their clearest differences on mayoral picks, March propositions, the Mission street vending ban, encampment sweeps, and more. In answering most of our other weekly questions, the differences were more nuanced. To understand their stances better, we categorized the questions and summarized their answers. Click on each of the topics below to see the main takeaways.  Planters in the districtChandler supports the planters.Two candidates, Bermudez and Brown, oppose the planters.The others sidestepped the question. Hernandez and Fielder said that planters were a band-aid solution to treat the real issue of homelessness.Two, Bermudez and Torres, said the […]

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