San Francisco Berniecrats November 2020 Voter Guide

Donald Trump Must Be Defeated!

We must get Trump out of office – he has put us on the path to facism. He will make it much more difficult for us to organize as opposed to his opponent. We recommend folks volunteer and talk to your friends to help flip the Senate and defeat 45.

State Senate District 11:

Jackie Fielder

Jackie was the leader in the fight for public banking. She is a queer Native American who was involved with the Standing Rock protests. She will fight for social housing, a California Single Payer Bill, Rent Control, and a California Green New Deal. Help defeat her corporate real estate, POA, charter school backed, anti-union opponent.

Find out why Scott Wiener should not be re-elected at realscottwiener.com.

State Assembly AD17 & AD19:

No Recommendation

Leave it blank. We need a candidate that reflects Berniecrats values.

San Francisco Board of Supervisors

District 1 – Connie Chan

Connie Chan is a trilingual chinese-american immigrant dedicated to fighting for working families, our unhoused neighbors, and small businesses while aiming to make corporations and billionaires pay their fair share. After years of working behind the scenes as a legislative staffer Connie has answered the call to represent her community.

District 3 – Aaron Peskin

Peskin is running for his last term on the Board and has indicated he does not want to run for any other office. Although Peksin does some things we disagree with,he has been a leader in fighting for more affordable housing, passing good governance bills, protecting data privacy, and protecting our environment.

District 5 – Dean Preston

Dean Preston won his seat in a special election last November and is now running to serve a full term. Since winning his seat Dean has personally helped hundreds, if not thousands, of homeless individuals find shelter during COVID-19. He is also leading the fight to cancel rent, build social housing, defund SFPD, expand homeless services, and ensure the working class has a voice in City Hall.

District 7 #1 Vilaska Nguyen
#2 Myrna Melgar

Vilaska Nguyen is a public defender and the son of Vietnamese refugees running to represent one of the most conservative districts in the City. His perspective as a public defender will help him address injustices to every day San Franciscans.

Myrna Melgar has had a long history in San Francisco politics. Myrna is policy wonk and would be an exceptional voice for District 7.

District 9 – Hillary Ronen

Supervisor Ronen is running unopposed for her second term representing District 9. D9 is facing an unprecedented gentrification, displacement, homelessness, and now COVID-19 crisis. Ronen is responsible for numerous pieces of progressive legislation and represents what is the most progressive district in the city. Even if she had an opponent we would find it challenging to endorse anyone else for this race.

District 11 – John Avalos

Serving on the Board of Supervisors from 2008 – 2016, and serving as Budget Chair during the recession, John Avalos already has experience balancing the city budget through a social justice lens. John will continue to fight against inequality, gentrification, police racism, high housing costs and corporate greed. His track record proves that he will fight for the working class and the marginalized.

San Francisco Board of Education:

Mark Sanchez

Mark Sanchez is a longtime educator, serving San Francisco students and families since 1993, as a teacher, principal and commissioner on the SF Board of Education. He helped found Teachers 4 Social Justice, a grassroots non-profit teacher support and development organization that provides opportunities for self-transformation, leadership, and community building to educators. Mark is president of the San Francisco Board of Education, working to guide our schools through this pandemic. He centers his work on the most vulnerable students, ensuring that they are prioritized so they may succeed in a system steeped in racism. Mark is a proud teacher–he Is a proud public school teacher—he teaches 4th grade in Daly City.

Alida Fisher

As a former foster parent and transracial adoptive parent of four children, the issues of equity and social justice are very personal to Alida. She has spent the past 10 years advocating relentlessly for improved reading interventions, ability awareness training, and more robust social emotional support in our schools. Alida is currently the Advocacy Chair and past Chair of SFUSD’s Community Advisory Committee for Special Education as well as an active member of the district’s African American Parent Advisory Committee, LCAP Task Force, Equity Studies Task Force, and Charter School Oversight Committee. She uses her position on these committees to address the issues of historical discrimination in our educational institutions. As a member of the district’s Reopening Task Force, Alida is working to ensure rigorous learning opportunities for all students and prioritizing safety in the planning process for returning our students to their schools.

Kevine Bogges

For almost ten years, as Education Policy Director at Coleman Advocates for Children and Youth, Kevine has worked to address racial disparities in the public schools and build power for students, families and educators. He promises to work to ensure that these stakeholders are at the center of decision-making at San Francisco Unified School District, to collectively fight for the kind of schools that they want and deserve. As a Black graduate of SFUSD and the father of a child soon to enter the public schools, he is running for the School Board to protect the classroom, as tough budget decisions are deliberated; his core priority is to make sure our school sites come first, and are fully funded. For years he has been in the streets and at public comment supporting educator and community demands, and has led campaigns to address disparities in academic achievement and discipline policy. Now, he is running to ensure that our public schools provide an equitable foundation for self-sufficiency and self-determination for our students.

Matt Alexander

Matt Alexander has been an SFUSD teacher and school principal for 20 years. He helped found the nationally-recognized June Jordan School for Equity. Matt currently works with Faith in Action Bay Area, which has organized citywide campaigns to get immigrants released from ICE detention, for housing subsidies for low-income seniors who face eviction, and to protect our homeless neighbors during the COVID-19 crisis.

City College Board of Trustees:

Alan Wong

Alan Wong was born and raised in San Francisco. As a son of immigrants from Hong Kong, Alan and his family have all attended SF City College. As a legislative aide to Supervisor Gordon Mar’s office and worked to pass legislation to fund City College in the long term. He wants to keep CCSF as a community college to serve all San Franciscans, particularly low-income students.

Anita Martinez

Anita Martinez has been an instructor, union leader, and administrator at SF City College for 28 years. She has deep knowledge and experience of the issues facing City College. She is supported by both the faculty and the students at City College. We need another teacher on the College Board.

Aliya Chisti

Aliya Chisti was born and raised in San Francisco and is a graduate of SFUSD. She grew up in a low-income household and learned early on how education can transform lives. Her experiences as an educator sparked her interest in understanding how to improve our educational systems to better serve low-income and students of color. She pursued a MA in Education Policy, was nominated for Fulbright Scholarship, and has also served as a legislative aide. She currently oversees the Free City College Program at The Department of Children Youth and Their Families and conducts programmatic and fiscal oversight for the program. Aliya is committed to elevating student voices and to ensure that CCSF continues to serve the SF community and remains the people’s college. If elected, Aliya will be the first Muslim woman to be elected in the history of San Francisco.

Han Zhou

Han Zou has done a lot of progressive work in San Francisco such as working for the Matt Haney for Supervisor Campaign, serving as Executive Director for the SF Democratic Party, and now serves as a legislative aide for Supervisor Matt Haney. He would be a strong progressive voice on the College Board.

BART Board D7:

Lateefah Simon

BART Board D9

No Recommendation*

State Propositions:

Prop 14 – No Recommendation

Stem Cell Bond – a $5.5 billion bond measure for stem cells. There are questions about the necessity of this measure.

Prop 15 – Endorsed

Schools and Communities First – Help make corporations pay their fair share of property taxes and help raise up to $12 billion in revenue for schools and community services. It will not affect residential or small business property taxes.

Prop 16 – Endorsed

Ending the ban on affirmative action. Let’s do it!

Prop 17 – Endorsed

Restoring the right to vote to people on parole. It’s a no brainer!

Prop 18 – Endorsed

Letting 17 year-olds who will turn 18 by the general election to vote in the primary.

Prop 19 – No Recommendation

Changes to Prop 13 – Will create new rules around Prop 13 and generate additional funds for wildfire prevention, but the measure is really designed to benefit realtors more than anyone.

Prop 20 – Opposed

A Step Backward on Criminal Justice Reform – Prop 20 was designed to increase the number of people in our prison systems. It undoes years of work done to end mass incarceration. If you believe Black Lives Matters you’ll vote NO on Proposition 20.

Prop 21 – Endorsed

Expanded Rent Control – The rent is too damn high! Prop 21 will allow rent control to be expanded to buildings over 15 years old. This will help protect millions of Californians statewide!

Prop 22 – Opposed

Making rideshare and delivery service workers contractors instead of employees – Lyft, Uber and Doordash wrote this measure to deny their workers basic protections like paid sick leave, unemployment insurance, healthcare, workers comp, and a minimum wage. Lyft, Uber & other app companies have spent a record breaking $200 million in ads to deceive voters that drivers won’t have flexibility as employees – that is a lie.

Prop 23 – Endorsed

Dialysis Clinic Justice – will better regulate dialysis clinics to ensure they serve patients, not corporate profits.

Prop 24 – No recommendation

Questionable Privacy Protections – Prop 24 is a measure that would expand privacy laws statewide, but has questionable language that could help benefit corporations.

Prop 25 – No recommendation

Cash Bail Reform – While this measure will uphold the end to cash bail, it has questionable replacement mechanisms that could lead to other injustices. However if this passes there is room to amend the language later on.

Local Measures:

Measure A – Recommended

Health and Homelessness, Parks and Streets Bond – A bond measure that would raise $487.5 million for parks and city services. It isn’t perfect but will be helpful for the city which is why we are recommending it rather than endorsing it.

Measure B – Endorsed

Restructure Department of Public Works – This measure will create a Department of Sanitation and Streets to focus on street cleanliness while establishing an oversight committee to ensure taxpayer money is spent ethically.

Measure C – Endorsed

Commissions for All – Removing Citizenship Requirements for the City’s commissions

Measure D – Endorsed

Increase Sheriff Department’s Oversight with a new oversight commission.

Measure E – Endorsed

Remove the arbitrary minimum staffing requirements for 1,971 full-time officers at the SF Police Department.

Measure F – Endorsed

Business Tax Overhaul – will create a more progressive tax system that will unlock millions of dollars in corporate taxes.

Measure G – Endorsed

Allow 16 and 17 year-olds to vote in local elections

Measure H – Opposed

Streamlined Gentrification – this measure is being sold as a means to help small businesses, but in reality it opens up new avenues for corporations and wealthy businesses to gentrify San Francisco neighborhoods.

Measure I – Endorsed

Luxury Property Transfer Tax – This measure will raise the property transfer tax on multi million dollar properties to help fund rent forgiveness and social housing. It is the equitable recovery measure San Francisco needs.

Measure J – Endorsed

Parcel Tax for Teacher Pay – This measure will help generate revenue to ensure teachers get better pay. If you love teachers then vote YES!

Measure K – Endorsed

Affordable Housing Authorization – will approve 10,000 new units of social housing for San Francisco’s future. They’ll still need funding so let’s make sure we pass this and Measure I!

Measure L – Endorsed

If the CEO get’s paid way more than the employees they company gets taxed. A no brainer!

Measure RR – Endorsed

We don’t like regressive taxes, but this will raise much needed revenue to keep Caltrain operating and is a very minimal tax. Vote yes.

Congressional District 12

Shahid Buttar – Recommended

Pelosi still actively blocks Medicare for All and the Green New Deal. She doesn’t represent San Francisco values. Although he is far from perfect, we recommend that you vote for Shahid Buttar to send Pelosi a message.

East Bay Endorsements
(To see a full list of East Bay Progressives please check out Our Revolution East Bay)

Assembly District 25 – Alex Lee
Alameda County Board of Supervisors – Vinnie Bacon
Oakland City Council District 3 – Carroll Fife
AC Transit Board Ward 1 – Jovanka Beckles