In the wake of four days getting out the vote for John Avalos for Mayor, I'm in the familiar condition of a campaign worker after the election: I feel like I've been run over by a truck.
We haven't won and most likely will not as the Byzantine process of counting the votes through San Francisco's ranked choice process goes on this week. It is very likely we won't know the end of this until Thursday afternoon or even later.
But the campaign was a signal "win" for progressive San Francisco:
- Supervisor John Avalos made himself a solid, attractive candidate with a plausible progressive program including defense of city-provided health care for low income folks and a proposed city bank to wrench the town away from Wall Street's clutches;
- Once again it has been shown that the city won't allow citywide candidates to run for office from the mushy middle. A gaggle of seemingly plausible candidates tried it (City Attorney Herrera, Supervisor Chiu, State Senator Yee, Public Defender Jeff Adachi). But despite our idiotic voting system that aims to prevent sharp definition of candidates, the electorate polarized between incumbent Ed Lee as the candidate of the monied interests and Supervisor Avalos from the left. There's no technical fix to this divide. We will continue to slug it out.
- After a slightly rocky start, the progressive forces in the city got themselves together and worked their butts off for Avalos. Skills were acquired and alliances forged that will serve the city well for years to come!
Thank you Jan! Well said. And thanks to you and Rebecca for hosting District 9 so well.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on a job well done. Now see if you can just sleep for three days.
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