It’s a good night for progressives in San Francisco.
With the final Election-Day results in, we can say that two public defenders and a tenant lawyer look to be headed for the Superior Court. The progressive slate is going to dominate the local Democratic Party. The most important land-use ballot measure in decades – a move to link new office development to affordable housing – is going to pass handily. A new tax on vacant storefronts is going to pass with more than two-thirds of the vote.
State Sen. Scott Wiener is not looking strong. While the other incumbent Legislators, Assemblymembers Phil Ting and David Chiu, are cruising to re-election essentially unopposed, Wiener is at 54 percent – a pretty low number for an incumbent whose opponents are an unknown Republican and an underfunded progressive challenger who has been in the race only a few months and has never held any elective office before.
Jackie Fielder has 32 percent of the vote – a sign of significant discontent with the incumbent, particularly over housing issues.
Under the state’s top-two primary law, Wiener will face Fielder again in the fall.
The Department of Elections still has to count a vast number of vote-by-mail ballots turned in on Election Day; we don’t have numbers yet, but it could be 100,000, and could take a week to get the final results. Cary Gold’s lead over Rani Singh for Superior Court Seat 21 is only 3,400 votes, and that could change.
But the data we have now looks very good for the local progressives.
Coverage brought to you by the 48hills Election Night team: Isabella Albaisa, Ali Aldrees, Juan Miguel Arcayena, Molly Bryant, Savannah Dewberry, Callie Fausey, Matthew Kerfoot, Gabriela Lanza, Isabel Maschmedt,Bridget McGreevy, Dillon McNeil, Kayla Quintero, Cathrine Roque, Clara Rosandich, Josh Safier, Anna Schmid, Alexander Segovia, and Melanie Velasquez.
