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School Board Recall 2022 Endorsements
Written by John-Marc Chandonia | 
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| Hits: 2838
The School Board Recall Election is happening between now and Election Day, February 15. If you are voting by mail, your ballot must be postmarked on or before February 15. You can also vote in person on Election Day, or beforehand at City Hall.
Three members of the School Board, Alison Collins, Gabriela López, and Faauuga Moliga, are up for recall. Although López is the only one of the three who previously earned our endorsement, the SF Green Party has endorsed a "NO" vote on recalling all three of the Board members in this election (i.e., we support keeping them in office through the next regular election in November 2022).
If one or more of the Board members is recalled, the City Charter gives Mayor Breed the authority to fill each vacancy with one of her own hand-picked candidates. Greens don't want our public schools to be subject to the same corruption as we see at other City departments run by the Mayor, such as the Department of Building Inspection, Recreation and Parks, and the MTA (which operates Muni).
As we wrote in our School Board endorsements in 2020, concerning our non-endorsement of Jenny Lam:
Our biggest concern with Lam is not the policies she supports, but rather her close ties to the Mayor's office. The School Board is supposed to be an independent body from the rest of SF government, so having a Board member who directly reports to the Mayor is very problematic.
Having four such appointees would give the Mayor the majority of the seven seats on the School Board, allowing her to spend bond money and give out contracts to Machine-friendly companies without any public oversight.
Greens have long advocated for a charter amendment that would allow voters to choose replacements (using ranked choice voting) on the same ballot as the recall election. Until that happens, voters who the Mayor does not listen to can not meaningfully exercise our constitutional right to recall elected officials. Because the Mayor is the only person who gets to choose replacements for elected officials who are recalled, these elections (other than recalling the Mayor herself) can only benefit the Mayor and her supporters.
This is not to say that Greens are completely happy with the performance of the current members of the School Board. In 2020, we wrote in our endorsements:
The biggest issue facing the School Board over the next year will be when, and how, to safely reopen SF's public schools. Zoom classes don't work for young children, and keeping kids at home has had a serious impact on parents, especially on women, who disproportionately provide for childcare and homeschooling.
Based on research from UCSF that showed serious mental health impacts of Zoom school, and low in-school transmission risk, Greens advocated for reopening our elementary schools in the Fall of 2020. We also advocated for SFUSD support for "pods" of public school students in all grades (TK-12) as a bridge to full school reopening, noting that SF's summer camps that were organized into pods of 12 kids did not result in any COVID outbreaks.
Although SFUSD failed to reopen schools in a timely manner, and lost many students to private schools, Greens think the majority of the blame lies with the Superintendent rather than the Board. The Superintendent attempted to waste money on an outside consultant rather than taking free advice from experts at the Department of Public Health and UCSF. Although the SFUSD central administrative budget (i.e., money not spent in classrooms) has ballooned under Superintendent Matthews, the public (including SFUSD parents, students, and teachers) have yet to see any benefits.
Members of the School Board also deserve some blame for their failed attempt to rename a number of public schools. The centralized renaming committee, poorly managed and dominated by insiders, advocated renaming some schools based of inaccurate information, while being completely comfortable leaving "Willie Brown Middle School" in place. This was a stark contrast to the process used to rename (the former) Drake High School in Marin County, which empowered the students at the school to participate in the process and therefore became a learning opportunity.
On the other hand, our Board had a major success in reforming admissions standards at Lowell High School. For years, Lowell appears to have been in violation of the CA Education Code, which requires a "random, unbiased" process to determine which kids get to attend schools in high demand, and forbids admissions standards based on "academic or athletic performance."
Lowell's previous admission standards used a combination of GPA and standardized test (SBAC) scores to measure academic performance. Greens believe that standardized tests have significant racial and class biases, and are a poor measure of academic potential. We therefore applauded the School Board's change to change Lowell admissions to the lottery-based system used at other SF schools, which does not consider test scores.
With this change to admissions policy, racial diversity at Lowell improved dramatically, with the number of Black and Hispanic freshmen nearly double that of prior years. And despite the fears of those parents who opposed the change, academic standards at the school have remained high.
In summary, the current School Board has had some successes and some failures, which SF political groups should take into account when interviewing candidates for office in the next regular election in November 2022. If voters instead decide to turn control over to our corrupt Mayor, it will almost certainly make things worse for our students and for the City as a whole. Vote NO on all the recall questions.
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Gubernatorial Recall Endorsements 2021
Written by John-Marc Chandonia | | | Hits: 2114
The Gubernatorial Recall election is happening between now and Election Day, September 14. If you are voting by mail, your ballot must be postmarked on or before September 14. You can also vote in person on Election Day, or beforehand at City Hall.
Greens are endorsing NO on the recall, and Green Party member Dan Kapelovitz as a candidate to replace Governor Newsom should the recall vote pass.
SF Greens strongly disapprove of the job Gavin Newsom has done as Governor. Few officials in California have ever stood so consistently in opposition to the Greens' 10 Key Values. Here are just a few of the ways Governor Newsom has failed:
- COVID. As head of the 5th largest economy in the world, Newsom might have led the US in setting up an effective program for testing and contact tracing to stop the spread of COVID within the state. Newsom was unprepared to begin with: along with his predecessor, Governor Brown, he had previously ended Governor Schwarzenegger's pandemic emergency program. Newsom's state "lockdown" was based more on politics than science: he allowed construction and other Democrat-friendly businesses (including his own winery) to continue to stay open while others were closed. State Democrats also declined to use their authority to enact a rent and mortgage moratorium, or to keep locked-down small businesses afloat by paying them to keep their quarantined workers on the payroll (as was commonly done in Europe).
- PG&E and Wildfires. After fires caused by unmaintained PG&E equipment burned down the town of Paradise and killed 85 people in 2018, the investor-owned utility declared bankruptcy. This would have been a great opportunity for the state of California to take over the utility and address years of deferred maintenance of equipment. But Newsom, who received over $200,000 in bribes from PG&E during his 2018 campaign for Governor, did everything in his power to ensure that the utility would continue to be run as a for-profit private company. Newsom allowed PG&E to emerge from bankruptcy with the promise to pay fire victims out of a trust fund, which has paid almost nobody to date, other than the people who run the trust. Since emerging from bankruptcy, PG&E has gone on start more fires that have killed dozens of people, including the current Dixie Fire, the largest single wildfire in California history.
- The Climate Emergency. Newsom has continued to promote fracking and the gas and oil industry in California. Despite campaign promises to end the practice, Newsom has approved even more new fracking permits than his predecessor, Governor Brown, did. The California Democratic Party continues to take hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from the fossil fuel industry each year.
- Universal Health Care. Newsom campaigned in favor of establishing universal health care in California. When Arnold Schwarzenegger was governor, single payer bills landed on his desk twice. But since Governor Brown and Newsom took over the governor's office, the Democratic-supermajority legislature hasn't seriously tried to pass this legislation.
- High Speed Rail. In his 2019 State of the State address, Newsom announced he was suspending California's $77 billion attempt to link SF and LA by high speed rail. This allowed President Trump to take back nearly $1 billion that the federal government had committed to the project. Ever since voters approved bonds to fund high speed rail, Democratic Party officials have used the project to enrich politically connected contractors rather than actually trying to build it. A transition from air and road travel to rail is essential for mitigating the worst effects of the climate emergency.
- Democracy. Newsom vetoed a measure that would have allowed cities across California to use ranked choice voting in local elections. California should follow Maine in implementing ranked choice voting for all single-seat elections, including Presidential elections. California should be using ranked choice voting for this recall election, but Newsom and the Democrats have showed no interest in fixing a broken system - only complaining that Republicans are taking advantage of it. California should also use proportional representation for larger bodies such as the state legislature. The current system of "winner take all" elections gives no representation to members of any party other than the locally dominant one (Democrats in most cities, Republicans in rural areas).
- Rubber Stamp for the Real Estate Lobby. All of the above priorities have been sidelined by Newsom and the Democratic Party so they can focus on what they do best: passing laws to facilitate more market-rate real estate development (i.e., luxury condos). Newsom has shown no interest in building social housing or other types of development that will ameliorate displacement and gentrification of our cities. As a result of the Democrats' libertarian approach to planning, coastal cities have become havens for the wealthy professionals who are the base of the Democratic Party. The working poor who were displaced from these cities are now forced to drive long distances to work as gig economy servants of urban elites.
- Hypocrisy. At a time when public schools were closed (despite scientists from UCSF and other academic institutions providing guidelines for safe reopening), Newsom sent his own kids to private schools so they could benefit from in-person learning. While ordinary people were asked to stay home, Newsom attended a dinner hosted by a lobbyist at the French Laundry restaurant in Napa. Although indoor dining was illegal at the time, Newsom's party ate in a temporary building that was only technically "outdoors."
Despite all of Newsom's problems, the leading candidates to replace him on the recall ballot are as bad or worse. Therefore, this recall election is unlikely to result in a Governor who is more in alignment with our Green values. Even worse, the rules of the recall election do not require the winner to have majority support: there will be no runoff or ranked choice voting, so a winner could be elected with only a small fraction of the votes. Although the Democrats who are in complete control of government in California could have reformed this process, they have chosen not to do so.
Greens therefore urge a NO vote on the first ballot question of recalling Newsom.
The second ballot question asks voters who will replace Newsom if the recall succeeds. On this question, Greens have endorsed Dan Kapelovitz (https://kapelovitz.com/). Kapelovitz is a recent convert from the Bernie Sanders campaign to the Green Party. He is an attorney who also teaches law at the People’s College of Law in Los Angeles. His clients are mainly poor people caught up in the criminal justice system, as well as defenders of animal rights.
Kapelovitz' values are clearly aligned with the 10 Key Values of the Green Party, and the platform on his website is very similar to ours. Although he recently joined the Green Party, his long record of activism shows that he has shared our values and priorities for decades. Greens should therefore feel confident in voting for him to replace Governor Newsom should the recall vote pass.
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Endorsement against new KPFA bylaws
Written by John-Marc Chandonia | | | Hits: 2324
The San Francisco Green Party is endorsing a "no" vote on the New Day Pacifica by-laws referendum. If you are a member of our local Pacifica station, KPFA, you should get your ballot in June, by email.
We feel that with democratic media, in the case of listener sponsored radio,
a listener’s right to vote and to participate in an arena free of commercial
corporate influence is essential to struggle for Green values—social justice,
decentralization, environmental sustainability, grassroots democracy, and
nonviolence—and the proposed bylaws are fundamentally undemocratic. We are unsettled to see that they have no endorsers from Pacifica's East Coast stations, WBAI-New York City, and WPFW-Washington DC, which have the network's largest Black audience and staff. We are also disturbed by the bizarre Greenbaiting by proponents of the New Day bylaws, as described by Project Censored producer Anthony Fest in "March Madness: McCarthyism at KPFA". This seems to reflect the dangerous narrowing of permissible speech, opinion, and action in the US at this point in time.
More info is on the "Pacifica Democracy Project" website.
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KPFA Local Station Board Endorsements 2021
Written by John-Marc Chandonia | | | Hits: 1924
If you're a KPFA member, please be sure to vote for the Rescue Pacifica candidates in the Local Station Board (LSB) election. It is being conducted using ranked choice voting. Ballots were sent out by email on Aug 16, and voting goes through Oct 15. We have endorsed the nine Rescue Pacifica candidates, as listed below. (More info about Rescue Pacifica is here: https://rescuepacifica.net/ ).
This year's election is vital to preserve democracy at KPFA and Pacifica! Individuals involved with the opposing faction worked to gut the powers of the LSB and they've filed lawsuits to try to take control of KPFA and the Pacifica network. Please use your democratic voting rights to maintain and strengthen the LSB by voting for the Rescue Pacifica candidates as your top nine choices!
Please vote for all nine of the following candidates as your top choices (in any order):
Rich Stone *
Daniel Borgstrom *
Don Macleay *
James McFadden *
Adisa Armand
Donna Carter
Pete Farruggio
Amber Jayanti
Elizabeth Milos
* = Registered Greens; note that Rich Stone is a County Council member here in San Francisco.
Thank you for standing up for democracy and supporting progressive, independent radio!
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November 2020 Endorsements
Written by John-Marc Chandonia | | | Hits: 5704
These are the SF Green Party's final endorsements for the November 2020 election. We have mailed a postcard with 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.
President and Vice President: Howie Hawkins and Angela Walker (nominated at our national convention in July)
SF Board of Supervisors:
- D1: no endorsement
- D3: no endorsement
- D5: Dean Preston (#1 ranked choice), Daniel Landry (#2 ranked choice)
- D7: no endorsement
- D9: no endorsement
- D11: John Avalos
School Board: Matt Alexander, Kevine Boggess, Mark Sanchez
College Board: Aliya Chisti, Anita Martinez, Geramye Teeter
BART Board: no endorsement
Local Ballot Measures:
- NO on A: bond to fund Mayor's slush fund
- YES on B: split Sanitation and Streets department off from Public Works
- YES on C: Allow non-citizens to serve on City commissions
- YES on D: Sheriff oversight
- NO on E: ineffective police staffing proposal
- YES on F: makes business taxes more progressive
- YES on G: Youth voting (16 year olds in local elections)
- NO on H: Neighborhood gentrification districts
- YES on I: Increase real estate transfer tax on most expensive properties
- NO on J: repeal and replace parcel tax for SFUSD (we like the current parcel tax for teachers)
- YES on K: Permit 10,000 units of social housing
- YES on L: tax on companies where executives make 100x as much as workers
- NO on RR: regressive sales tax for Caltrain (should be free to riders, paid for by state or local budgets)
State Ballot Measures:
- NO on 14: regressive bonds for stem cell research (should be part of state budget)
- YES on 15: Split tax rolls for commercial and residential property
- YES on 16: Repeal prop 209; allow affirmative action
- YES on 17: Voting rights for people on parole
- YES on 18: Youth voting (17 year olds to vote in primaries if they will be 18 by the general election)
- no position on Prop 19: Allows transfer of property tax basis to all counties in CA, changes taxes on inherited properties
- NO on 20: fascist proposal to lock up more people and collect DNA from people convicted of misdemeanors
- YES on 21: More rent control
- NO on 22: Allows Uber and Lyft to continue classifying their drivers as "contractors" in order to avoid taxes and regulations
- YES on 23: dialysis regulation, to help SEIU-UHW West
- NO on 24: water down consumer privacy laws
- YES on 25: keep laws eliminating cash bail (but we call on Democrats in the CA legislature to do this in a less racist way)
Other Contests:
- US Congress: no endorsement
- State Senate: no endorsement
Click below to read our complete Green Voter Guide.
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