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November 2019 Endorsements
Written by John-Marc Chandonia | 
| 
| Hits: 72
These are the SF Green Party Endorsements for the November 2019 election.
SF Candidates:
Mayor - Joel Ventresca (sole endorsement)
District Attorney - Chesa Boudin (sole endorsement)
Public Defender - Mano Raju (sole endorsement)
Supervisor, D5 - Dean Preston (#1 endorsement), Vallie Brown (#2 endorsement)
School Board - no endorsement
College Board - no candidate sought our endorsement
Sheriff - no endorsement
City Attorney - no endorsement
Treasurer - no endorsement
SF Ballot Measures:
NO on A (housing bonds for mostly private housing)
no position on B (tiny changes to a commission name and appointments)
NO on C (JUUL ballot measure)
NO on D (Uber/Lyft ballot measure)
NO on E (allow private development on public open space in SF)
YES on F ("sunshine on dark money")
We submitted an official opponent's argument to the Department of Elections in opposition to Prop D. We lost the lottery to the Republicans, so we will not be the official opponents. However, our argument is posted below. We will release an expanded version of this argument in our Voter Guide, to be published after we finish making our endorsements.
SF Green Party Argument in Opposition to Prop D:
Uber and Lyft are responsible for the huge increase in traffic congestion in San Francisco. A 2019 study showed that these companies caused 2/3 of a 62% rise in congestion between 2010 and 2016. Traffic has only gotten worse since then. Traffic slows Muni buses and taxis and causes dangerous air quality, injuries and deaths for pedestrians and bicyclists, lost time, and increased stress.
To "mitigate" these impacts, Prop D would add a token 15 - 33 cent increase to the cost of a typical $10 Uber or Lyft ride. It is projected to raise $35 million per year, supposedly to relieve traffic congestion.
We oppose Prop D because the tax is far too small compared to the size of the problem. $35 million is tiny on the scale of our City budget, and will have almost no impact on traffic.
What is really needed? A USF report estimated that making Muni free to all riders would cost less than $200 million per year. A tax five to ten times higher than Prop D could pay for free Muni, along with increased service. Good, free public transit, along with a tax of a few bucks on each Uber and Lyft ride, might actually get some people out of cars.
Uber and Lyft run totally counter to San Francisco's strong labor and environmental values: not only do their drivers not have unions, labor rights, or normal employee benefits, but the companies create massive carbon emissions by incentivizing drivers to commute long distances. Revenue flows to their executives, while social and climate costs are passed on to us.
We can’t keep kicking the can down the road. If we want a viable future for our children, we need real change, not photo ops for politicians and their corporate buddies.
KPFA Elections
Greens who are KPFA members have asked us for recommendations for the Local Station Board elections. These elections are ongoing through October 15, and people who were already members before a couple of months ago should have gotten ballots by email. This is a ranked choice election in which voters can rank all the candidates.
The SF Green Party has endorsed the entire Rescue Pacifica slate, which includes two Greens:
Christine Pepin and Don Macleay. The other members of that slate are Marilyn Langlois, Mantra Helene Plonsey, Karina Stenquist, and Tom Voorhees. Finally, after ranking all members of Rescue Pacifica, we recommend that KPFA members also rank Aki Tanaka and Carol Wolfley on their ballots.
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November 2018 Endorsements
Written by John-Marc Chandonia | | | Hits: 3139
These are the SF Green Party Endorsements for the November 2018 election.
We are handing out postcard-sized copies like the one shown on the right (additional endorsements are on the back). If you can help distribute these, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. We are also mailing our endorsements to all our members. If you can donate to help cover our printing and mailing costs, please use the "donate" link to the left!
Our complete Green Voter Guide is now posted. Click "read more" to see full explanations of the reasons behind our endorsements.
Local Races:
D2 Supe: no endorsement
D4 Supe: #1 - Mike Murphy (Green Party member) #2 - Adam Kim (ranked endorsement)
D8 Supe: no candidate sought our endorsement this time, although we just endorsed Rafael Mandelman in June.
Community College Board: Brigitte Davila & John Rizzo
School Board: Gabriela López, Mia Satya, & Li Miao Lovett
Public Defender: Jeff Adachi
SF Ballot Measures:
NO on A (Seawall bond)
NO on B (Privacy rules that undermine our sunshine and public records laws)
YES on D (Cannabis tax)
NO on E (Hotel tax set-asides)
State Ballot Measures:
NO on 1 (Bond to buy private housing for veterans)
YES on 2 (Revenue bonds for permanent supportive housing for mentally ill homeless people)
NO on 3 (Bond for dams)
NO on 4 (Bonds for private children's hospitals)
NO on 5 (Realtor scam)
NO on 6 (Gas tax repeal)
YES on 7 (Daylight savings time repeal)
YES on 8 (Fair pricing for dialysis)
YES on 10 (Stronger rent control)
NO on 11 (Ambulance employee regulations)
YES on 12 (Prevent animal cruelty)
Click below to read our complete Green Voter Guide.
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November 2016 Endorsements
Written by John-Marc Chandonia | | | Hits: 12082
These are the SF Green Party's endorsements for November 2016.
We are handing out the bookmark shown to the right (propositions are on the back). If you can help distribute bookmarks, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. We will also mail our endorsements to all our members. If you can donate to help cover our printing and mailing costs, please use the "donate" link to the left!
A complete Green Voter Guide is now posted. Click "read more" to see full explanations of the reasons behind our endorsements.
Federal Candidates:
- President and VP - Jill Stein and Ajamu Baraka (Green Party) (website)
Local Candidates:
- Supervisor, D1 - Sandra Fewer
- Supervisor, D3 - no endorsement
- Supervisor, D5 - Dean Preston
- Supervisor, D7 - no consensus
- Supervisor, D9 - Hillary Ronen
- Supervisor, D11 - Francisco Herrera (Green Party) (website)
- School Board - Mark Sanchez and Matt Haney
- College Board - Rafael Mandelman, Tom Temprano, Shanell Williams
- Superior Court Judge - Victor Hwang
- BART Board, D9 - no endorsement
State Propositions:
- NO on 51 - limits on developer fees, masquerading as a school bond
- no endorsement on 52 - the CA legislature could extend the hospital fee in order to obtain federal Medi-Cal matching funds, without going to the voters
- NO on 53 - require voter approval for revenue bond-funded projects (although we still vehemently oppose Jerry Brown's Delta tunnels plan)
- YES on 54 - recording legislative sessions, allow time to read bills before voting
- YES on 55 - extend income taxes on rich people
- YES on 56 - increased tobacco taxes
- YES on 57 - increase parole opportunties (we don't think ANY kids should be tried as adults)
- YES on 58 - reform (and eventually repeal) Prop 227, California's English-only education law
- YES on 59 - advisory measure to repeal Citizens United (unlimited corporate political donations)
- NO on 60 - condoms in porn (we support better health care and testing regulations, and oppose criminalizing the sex industry)
- YES on 61 - make state agencies pay the same price as the US Dept of Veterans Affairs for drugs
- YES on 62 - ending the Death Penalty in California
- NO on 63 - restrictions on ammunition that don't apply to retired police
- YES on 64 - legalize recreational use of marijuana
- NO on 65 - attempt to undermine plastic bag ban
- NO on 66 - speeding up Death Penalty cases
- YES on 67 - upholding the statewide single-use plastic bag ban
Local Propositions:
- YES on A - school bond (although we have our usual reservations about bonds)
- YES on B - parcel tax to fund City College
- NO on C - $260 million bond to fund displacement of SF residents by private landlords
- YES on D - allow people to vote in special elections to fill vacant Supervisorial seats, rather than having them filled by the Mayor
- YES on E - City will maintain street trees, rather than property owners
- YES on F - allowing 16-17 yr olds to vote in local elections
- YES on G - an almost meaningless renaming of the Office of Citizens Complaints, that will at least make their budget independent of the SFPD's budget
- YES on H - decentralizing some of the Mayor's power into a new citywide elected Public Advocate position
- NO on I - set-aside of some of the SF City Budget to a Mayor-controlled agency that would provide services to seniors and adults with disabilities (although we support more funding for this purpose, the Supervisors can fund such programs without creating a new agency that's ripe for corruption and unaccountable to the voters)
- NO on J - set-aside of some of the SF City Budget to fund homeless services, housing, and transportation improvements (like Prop I, this would give more power to the Mayor, encourage corruption, and have less oversight by our elected Supervisors)
- NO on K - increase the regressive sales tax to 9.25%
- YES on L - gives the Board of Supervisors some appointments to the SFMTA, and allows them to reject the budget with 6 votes instead of 7
- YES on M - creates a Housing and Development Commission, which would decentralize Mayoral power and give the Board of Supervisors more input into development
- YES on N - allowing noncitizen parents/guardians of SFUSD kids to vote in school board elections
- NO on O - further gentrification of Bayview
- NO on P - a measure that encourage corruption by allowing the Mayor more opportunities to pick politically connected developers to build projects, with a lack of public transparency
- NO on Q - symbolic "open sidewalks" measure to encourage police to ignore serious crimes and instead push homeless people from one block to the next
- NO on R - misleading "safe neighborhoods" measure to create a full-time police unit specifically to push homeless people from one block to the next (it will create much more UNSAFE neighborhoods by taking police away from investigating serious crimes)
- NO on S - set aside hotel tax income to be used for arts and programs to help homeless families. As is the case with Props I and J, these programs are something the Supervisors could fund now if they wanted to, without going to the ballot
- YES on T - restricting gifts and contributions from lobbyists
- NO on U - changes the definition of "affordable housing" to "unaffordable to most residents who live here"
- no consensus on V - 1 cent per ounce soda tax, that would go into the SF General fund. We did not reach consensus on endorsing either yes or no on this proposition.
- YES on W - real estate transfer tax on $5 million+ properties
- YES on X - preserve space for arts, small business, and community services in Mission, SOMA
- YES on RR - $3.5 million bond to fund BART maintenance, with extreme reservations due to the BART board's near-perfect track record of mismanagement and boondoggles
Click below to read our complete Green Voter Guide:
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June 2018 Endorsements
Written by John-Marc Chandonia | | | Hits: 5692
These are the SF Green Party Endorsements for the June 2018 election.
We are handing out a bookmark version of our voter guide. If you can help distribute bookmarks, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. We are also mailing our endorsements to all our members. If you can donate to help cover our printing and mailing costs, please use the "donate" link to the left!
Our complete Green Voter Guide is now posted. Click "read more" to see full explanations of the reasons behind our endorsements.
Update, May 14: All Greens involved in making our original endorsements have reached unanimous consensus to withdraw our endorsement of Angela Alioto, after she filed a ballot initiative that would result in undocumented immigrants who are arrested under suspicion of committing a felony to be turned over to ICE, without giving the person a chance to contest the accusation. This act is contrary to Alioto's stated positions in response to our candidate questionnaire, and we cannot support any candidate who denies an accused person's right to due process.
Local candidates
All candidates we endorsed for Mayor and D8 Supe answered our election questionnaires. You can read their answers here.
- Mayor: We have dual-endorsed (without ranking) two candidates: Mark Leno and Jane Kim. We encourage all voters to rank both of these candidates in your preferred order, in order to end more than two decades of rule by the Willie Brown machine.
- Supervisor, D8: Rafael Mandelman
- Congress, CD12: Barry Hermanson (Green Party)
- Judges: No endorsements (although we discuss candidates below)
Statewide candidates
- Governor: We have endorsed multiple Greens running for Governor: Josh Jones, Chris Carlson, and Veronika Fimbres (write-in).
- Lt. Governor: Gayle McLaughlin
- Secretary of State: We have dual-endorsed two Greens, Mike Feinstein and Erik Rydberg
- US Senate: John Thompson Parker
- Controller: Mary Lou Finley
- Treasurer: Kevin Akin
- Insurance Commissioner: Nathalie Hrizi
Local propositions
- YES on A: Public utility bonds
- YES on B: Prohibit appointed commissioners from running for office without resigning first
- YES on C: Tax on Commercial Rents to fund Childhood Education
- NO on D: Tax on Commercial Rents to fund Homelessness Services (because it would kill Prop C)
- YES on E: Ban on sales of flavored tobacco products
- YES on F: Right to an attorney for tenants facing evictions.
- YES on G: Parcel tax to give SF teachers a pay raise.
- NO on H: Tasers for SFPD.
- NO on I: Advisory measure about the Warriors that will have no effect other than to decrease voters' support for the ballot initiative process.
Regional proposition
- YES on RM-3: Raises bridge tolls to pay for more public transit (although some goes to highways, and we think all the money should go to public transit)
State propositions
- YES on 68: $4 billion bond that mostly goes to state parks and wildlife (with our usual bond reservations).
- YES on 69: Restrict vehicle fees to be used for transportation, with more money for transit (although we would like even more of this money to go to transit).
- NO on 70: Raid on "Cap & Trade" fund (although we want real effort to fight climate change, not Cap & Trade).
- YES on 71: Allows statewide ballot measures to have time delays.
- YES on 72: Tax breaks for rainwater capture systems.
Click below to read our complete Green Voter Guide
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June 2016 Endorsements
Written by John-Marc Chandonia | | | Hits: 7089
These are the SF Green Party Endorsements for the June 2016 election. We will be mailing a postcard like the one below to all our members, so if you can help, please click the "Donate" link to the left.
A complete Green Voter Guide is now posted. Click "read more" to see full explanations of the reasons behind our endorsements.
Five candidates are on our primary ballot in California, competing to be the Green Party nominee for President. (Note that we do not generally endorse in Green Party primaries). They are:
Local candidates:
Barry Hermanson for Congress, CD12
Victor Hwang and Sigrid Irias for Judge (dual endorsement)
Local propositions:
YES on A: bond for SF General Hospital
NO on B: Set-asides for corrupt Rec & Park department
YES on C: Charter Amendment for Affordable Housing
YES on D: Office of Citizen Complaints
YES on E: Paid Sick Leave
Other propositions:
No position on AA: Parcel tax for Bay restoration
No position on 50: Legislative suspension process
Early endorsement for November:
Francisco Herrera for Supervisor, District 11
If you re-registered in order to vote in another party's primary, please re-join the Greens after June 7 to help us stay on the ballot!
Click below to read our complete Green Voter Guide:
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