The San Francisco Women\’s Political Committee\’s Political Action Committee (PAC) recommendations for the June 2018 elections are as follows:
Mayor*
#1 London Breed
#2 Jane Kim
#3 Mark Leno
District 8 Supervisor
Rafael Mandelman
State Assembly, District 17
David Chiu
State Assembly, District 19
Phil Ting
San Francisco Superior Court Judge, Seat 4
Andrew Cheng
San Francisco Superior Court Judge, Seat 7
Maria Evangelista
San Francisco Superior Court Judge, Seat 9
Cynthia Lee
San Francisco Superior Court Judge, Seat 11
Niki Solis
Local Ballot Measures
Prop A, PUC Revenue Bonds – Yes
Prop B, Appointed Board Members and Commissioners Seeking Elective Office – Yes
Prop C, Universal Childcare and Commercial Rent Tax – Yes
Prop D, Additional Gross Receipts Tax on Commercial Rents – No recommendation*
Prop E, Repeal of Ordinance Banning the Sale of Flavored Tobacco Products – Yes
Prop F, City-Funded Legal Representation For All Residential Tenants in Eviction Lawsuits – Yes***
Prop G, Parcel Tax to Fund Teacher Salaries – Yes
Prop H, Use of Tasers by San Francisco Police Officers – No
Prop I, Relocation of Professional Sports Teams – No recommendation
Regional Ballot Measures
Regional Measure 3 – Transportation Funding Through Increased Tolls – Yes
Statewide Candidates
Board of Equalization, District 2
Malia Cohen
State Ballot Measures
Prop 68, Parks, Environment, and Water Bond – Yes
Prop 69, Transportation Taxes and Fees Lockbox and Appropriations Limit Exemption Amendment – Yes
Prop 70, Vote Requirement to Use Cap-and-Trade Revenue Amendment – No
Prop 71, Effective Date of Ballot Measures Amendment – Yes
Prop 72, Rainwater Capture Systems Excluded from Property Tax Assessments Amendment – Yes
* Statement on SFWPC\’s recommendations for Mayor:
SFWPC is proud to recommend (in ranked choice order) London Breed, Jane Kim, and Mark Leno as our endorsed candidates for Mayor. We’re honored to support two dynamic women of color and a strong male ally, who not only promote and fight for women in San Francisco, but who have proven track records of standing up for women’s issues.
As our first ranked choice, London Breed is a founding member of our club, and has been actively involved with SFWPC in the years since. London has accomplished much for women and families as a legislator, from authoring legislation prioritizing neighborhood residents for new affordable units in their community, securing $2 million to restore unused public housing units for 179 families, recently sponsoring legislation for the acquisition of a crime-ridden neighborhood hangout for the construction of 100% affordable housing, supporting San Francisco’s Equal Pay Ordinance at the Board of Supervisors and promoting neighborhood safety by increasing foot-patrols in our communities. Additionally, London has utilized her position as Board President to appoint women to positions of significant leadership in San Francisco government. London has consistently prioritized neighborhood and family needs and made nuts-and-bolts neighborhood legislation the hallmark of her tenure as Supervisor. We could not be more thrilled to recommend her as our first choice to be Mayor of San Francisco.
In our second ranked choice, Jane Kim has passed many instrumental policies in San Francisco that support women and families — from creating the first Sexual Assault Task Force to establishing the first woman-only floor in a single room occupancy hotel (SRO) for domestic violence survivors, she has been a creative problem solver and fighter for women in San Francisco. Jane also fought successfully for a dedicated shelter program for homeless women, with special services for homeless women who are pregnant. She has passed landmark legislation throughout her career, including the most progressive minimum wage increase in the country, $15/hour by 2018 which is especially significant for women, who make up 2/3 of minimum wage workers. In addition, Jane has been a champion for education, making City College of San Francisco free for all San Francisco residents — the first city in the country to make K-14 education free to all its residents, and is currently working to provide Early Education and childcare to the most vulnerable children and families in San Francisco. During her time on the Board of Supervisors she has supported and advocated for women candidates for office, and has voted to appoint women to serve on numerous City commissions, boards, and task forces so that the priorities of women in our City are not overlooked by our government.
Finally, as our third ranked choice, Mark Leno has worked alongside women in San Francisco as a passionate ally since his early years as a legislator, with an impressive list of legislative accomplishments and a focus on collaboration to achieve policy goals rarely seen in politics. While on the Board of Supervisors, Mark authored a resolution supporting the Commission on the Status of Women in their \”Ending Violence Against Women and Girls: A Comprehensive Campaign for San Francisco\” program. In the State Legislature, Mark authored legislation to address the critical issues of human trafficking, foster youth safety and education, SRO privacy, and domestic violence, was instrumental in raising the minimum wage to $15/hour statewide, served as the Assembly and Senate champion on Universal health care legislation, holds a lifetime achievement score of 100% from Planned Parenthood, and was recently named a privacy champion by the Electronic Frontier Foundation for his digital privacy law. While there are other female candidates in the race, Leno’s significant record of legislative accomplishments, proactive commitment to allyship, and collaborative, results-oriented politics stand out and have earned him our recommendation for endorsement.
SFWPC is honored to recommend these candidates for endorsement and looks forward to working with the future mayor to continue to address urgent issues facing San Francisco’s women, families, and children.
** Statement on SFWPC\’s recommendation for \”Yes\” on Prop C and \”No Endorsement\” on Prop D:
Prop C: Gross Receipts Tax for Childcare
The SFWPC PAC is recommending a \”yes\” vote on this measure. Through an additional gross receipts tax on leases of commercial spaces of 3.5%, passage of this measure could potentially eliminate SF\’s current wait list of 2,000 families. Reducing the cost of early childhood education programs has been a long time issue for the club, and San Francisco’s skyrocketing rent, cost of living, and long wait lists for child care are a huge burden for working women, particularly low-income women of color.
85% of the revenues collected through the tax would fund early childhood education for children (newborns through age five), services that support child development and growth for children (newborn through age five), and will raise the wages of people who provide child care and education for these children. Child care workers, who are disproportionately women of color, are often paid extremely low wages. The remaining 15% of funds would be directed to the General Fund, with the intent that it helps provide funding for our City\’s lowest paid workers — in home support services and airport and nonprofit workers.
Prop D: Gross Receipts Tax for Housing and Homeless Services
The SFWPC PAC is recommending \”no endorsement\” on this measure because if passed, it would effectively kill Prop C. While we agree with the measure’s efforts to fund navigation centers, rental subsidies, and affordable housing, we disagree with pitting two critical needs against each other. Both measures rely on the same funding source, and standard practice is that only one measure (whichever passes and gets the most votes) can prevail. In order for women and families to survive and thrive in San Francisco, both needs should and must be funded. The additional language placed into this measure to prioritize one need over another is a dishonest attempt to fund necessary services in San Francisco.
We have chosen to recommend Prop C since it was put on the ballot through the signature gathering process, demonstrating that it already has broad based support. It also requires a lower threshold in order to pass.
Finally, it is our understanding that there is already an effort to put together a housing and homeless funding measure for the November election, which negates the need to choose between two critical needs for women and families.
*** Statement on SFWPC\’s recommendation for \”Yes\” on Prop F:
Tenants protections are important to SFWPC, as the city of San Francisco is two-thirds renters, with a majority of women in SF are renters. Often we hear stories of young families being priced out of San Francisco as well, and one of our main goals is to keep young women and families in SF. With that, SFWPC recommends a yes vote on Prop F, which will require the city to provide an attorney to tenants facing eviction.
To that end, SFWPC has some concerns around the lack of funding mechanisms proposed. While attorney fees are expensive, with all renters (regardless of income) having a right to a lawyer under Prop F, we do not want the system to be taken advantage of by renters who can afford an attorney, consequently using up resources a lower-income renter may need in the future. SFWPC encourages the Board of Supervisors and Mayor, if passed, to consider the following:
1) Tenants provided with a lawyer should be based on an income-based approached, tied to AMI, or should have a tiered approach (ex. tenants who earn over x% AMI pay a certain percentage of lawyer fees).
2) Tenant outreach should be conducted so renters know their rights when faced with an eviction or landlord harassment.
3) The Board of Supervisors and Mayor should work with SFWPC and community-based organizations in crafting and implementing the policy.
Next Wednesday, members will come together to cast their votes for the official SFWPC endorsements for the June 2018 Primary Election.
Wednesday, March 21, 2018
6 – 8 pm
Oddjob – 1337 Mission Street
Endorsements process information is available on www.sfwpc.org/endorsements.
Reminder: only members in good standing can vote in the SFWPC endorsement process. Members in good standing are current on membership dues and have attended at least (3) qualifying events within the past 12 months. Members are responsible for signing into qualifying events.
Unsure of your membership standing? Email Christine at christine@sfwpc.org.
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