Goings-on in SF -- Week of May 15-21
Fellow Republicans –
This digest is back from hiatus and guess what? We’re only 22 days away from election day, June 7! If you’re not yet registered to vote in San Francisco, you must do so before May 23 to cast a ballot in June. All the information you need on how to vote can be found here.
Stuff you should know
Among other things, San Francisco voters will have the opportunity on this ballot to recall our city’s incompetent, decarceralist District Attorney, Chesa Boudin.
By now, we all know how Boudin has attempted to mislead voters by touting his record of “filing” and “taking action on” cases at higher rates than his predecessor George Gascon (who is now the LA District Attorney and is, coincidentally, also facing a recall effort), while assiduously avoiding any discussion of conviction rates. And we all know that he’s done this to hide the fact that just as soon as he charges a case, even if it’s a violent felony, he drops it, settles it, or sends it to diversion. Well, now, thanks to local investigative journalist Susan Reynolds, we have data on the results of those diversions – and, well, the picture is pretty grim.
This Tuesday, May 17, the Commonwealth Club will be hosting a debate between recall proponent (and former Assistant District Attorney under Boudin) Brooke Jenkins, and Boudin proxy Lara Bazelon (despite multiple opportunities over the last three months, our esteemed DA has never deigned to defend himself before the voters in person). It’s critical that everyday San Franciscans show up to this debate and make their presence known. Get your tickets here.
There’s still time to get out the vote for great local candidates in this election, including John Dennis for Congress (CD-11), Gus Mattammal for Congress (CD-15), Bill Shireman for State Assembly (AD-17), and Karsten Weide for State Assembly (AD-19). Contact the San Francisco Republican Party at volunteers@sfgop.org to learn more about volunteering efforts or how to contribute.
Also: check out the SFGOP voter guide here, and the CAGOP’s statewide endorsements here!
City Hall
Thursday, May 19 at 10am: Regularly scheduled meeting of the Government Audit and Oversight Committee (agenda and call-in instructions here)
I love the name of this committee because it cheekily implies that San Francisco actually has some sort of government oversight mechanism. Hilarious!
Item 4 this week is a hearing called by District 5 Supervisor Dean Preston on the financing gap for affordable housing relative to the city’s needs. The fact that Preston convened this hearing is rich, given that he’s probably the worst offender on the Board of Supervisors (next to Aaron Peskin) with respect to killing any and all proposals to build housing in San Francisco. A big part of why we don’t have enough affordable housing in our city is that Preston & co. insist on all new developments being 100% affordable. Since no private developer can make “negative profits forever” pencil out, that means only “social housing” (progressives’ attempt at rebranding public housing) can ever be built – except it can’t.
Other items of interest
The San Francisco Standard released poll results last week and the findings should come as no surprise to anyone: There is a large unheard and underserved majority of voters in San Francisco that are primarily motivated by kitchen table issues like clean streets, safe neighborhoods, good schools, and affordable housing. Some takeaways:
By relentlessly focusing on these issues, Republicans can win – even in the most unlikely places.
Political attitudes are dynamic. Democrats will vote for Democrats… until they don’t. Republicans don’t have to meet these voters halfway, but by at least signaling some openness to alternative perspectives, they can make Republican candidates more attractive to Democrats than even candidates from the latter’s own party!
Of course, we can also still blow it.
Regards,
Jay Donde
Political Affairs Vice Chair
San Francisco Republican Party