Progressiver Slate and Voting Guide

SF FRONTLINES PROGRESSIVE SLATE AND VOTER GUIDE


Click here to read and print the guide (Take it to the polls with you)
http://www.sf-frontlines.com/images/election2004issue/progressiveslate.pdf

ot go yo our page: http://www.sf-frontlines.com


PRESIDENT: LEONARD PELTIER
Vote Against the War and For Civil Rights, vote for Leonard Peltier, Peace and Freedom Party Candidate. "And I am living in the United States penitentiary, which is the swiftest growing Indian reservation in the country."~ Leonard Peltier
http://www.leonardpeltier.org

12th CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT: PAT GRAY
12th U.S. Congressional District vote for PAT GRAY, Green Party Candidate. Drop Lantos, the warmonger and supporter of the Patriot Act
http://www.patgrayforcongress.org

DISTRICT 9: LUCRECIA BERMUDEZ

The candidate of the New Progressive Left Movement and Mission District 9 Greens, an immigrant rights, Community, labor activist and registered Green. She is running against 10 year incumbent Tom Ammiano who is running - using a loophole in the District Elections law - for a fourth term to fix the things he did not fix in his last decade in office. Time to move on. Other challengers: Miguel Bustos, the apprentice of the political machine who evicted members of his own family to have an address in District 9, funded with money from Arlington, Virginia! And with no track record on most pressing District 9 issues. Renee Saucedo, a person given $2 million in no-bid contracts by the City and a decade to resolve ONE problem (the plight of Cesar Chavez day laborers ~ which she failed to do. Also running (but not quite) labor activist Steve Zeltzer and one James Boris Perez, of whom we only know one thing: he loves cops and is a registered Republican.
http://www.lucreciabermudez.com

DISTRICT 5: ROSS MIRKARIMI

He has very few of Matt Gonzalez's good qualities and most of his Defects. In one of the two most left-leaning districts, he insists on painting himself as a "moderate", thus risking the loss of the left vote…and the election. Beneath the surface, however he is trapped in the struggle by the local Democratic Party machine to recover a seat they lost to the Greens four years ago. Since this is a leftist district, the Democrats are running Robert Haaland as their candidate, but in anyone’s analysis, Haaland is no leftist but a tool and a prisoner of the machine.

Brett Wheeler was our second choice…

With 22 candidates running and a series of freak shows passing as candidates forums, Wheeler has had a hard time finding the opportunity to show how smart he is and to distance himself from the pack. He changed his registration to "decline to state" at a meeting with the New Progressive Left Movement and he provides a platform with revenue proposals to fulfill progressive objectives when most candidates do not. Please don’t even consider giving a vote to Newsom overweight clone Francis Somsel or Andrew Sullivan, a guy who, if this were Germany, circa 1933, would be a "Brown Shirt".

http://www.rossforsupervisor.org

District 1: NO ENDORSEMENT Incumbent Supervisor Jake McGoldrick is a wishy washy semi-liberal Democrat who happened to support Ammiano in the first round of the last Mayoral Election and Green Matt Gonzalez in the runoff against Newsom. Terrorized about the possibility of attracting the ire of Newsom, he turned right and voted no on a few pro-tenant initiatives and championed the privatization of Golden Gate Park. Downtown provocateurs from SFSOS are after him. Maybe he will grow a spine now. We’ll see. Challengers: Leanna Dawydiak, a cop now being investigated by the SFPD for whistle-blowing during Fajitagate,. Unfortunately she denied the charge and defended the "blue code of silence". A right winger for all that matters; Judge "Dread" Lillian Sing, a dangerous anti-tenant drone of the machine and Mayor Newsom; Rose Tsai – the nicest right-winger, anti-abortion, and anti-union candidate.

DISTRICT 2: NO ENDORSEMENT Incumbent supervisor Michela Alioto-Pier was recently appointed by Newsom to replace himself after he won the Mayoral race. Since then, she has demonstrated three things: a) she is a pawn of Newsom and the machine; b) She is "content free" and her latest and probably only idea is to prohibit smoking in public…or anywhere else and c) Her appointment was part of the payoff to her aunt, Angela Alioto for supporting Newsom in the runoff. David Pascal is the only liberal, more intelligent challenger.

DISTRICT 3: NO ENDORSEMENT Incumbent Supervisor Aaron "Napoleon" Peskin is sailing through almost unopposed to victory, and if Newsom has his way, to the Presidency of the Board of Supervisors (BOS).

DISTRICT 7: NO ENDORSEMENT Incumbent Supervisor Sean "Who?" Elsbernd is the latest addition to Newsom’s team, who was appointed only days before the deadline to run for office last August. Newsom is pouring tons of money into his campaign and working hard to push him down the throats of D7’s voters. But the voters barely know of his existence. Challengers: "Captain" Greg Corrales, a bully and a corrupt cop recently pushed out of Mission Station and presently being investigated on more than 70 counts of corruption and cover-up; Svetlana Kaff, a recent Russian émigré who holds a mixture of conservative and progressive ideas, but has yet to find her way into the left milieu. Maybe she will, some day; Pat Lakey, a labor bureaucrat who supported Newsom to the hilt and is now furious the Mayor did not endorse him; Christine Linnenback who opposes and campaigns against business taxes and immigrant rights such as Proposition F; Rennie O’ Brien who is spending tens of thousands of his own money to see his name on signs, TV ads and flown behind airplanes…


DISTRICT 11: NO ENDORSEMENT Incumbent Supervisor Gerardo Sandoval is an even more wishy washy Democrat than Jake McGoldrick. He isn’t principled most of the time and sometimes he upsets people from all sides of the political spectrum with his empty suit politics. Challengers: Rolando Bonilla – a former special assistant to the machine who lost favor when accusations of his wife beating surfaced; Dr. Anita Grier and Myrna Viray Lim, two women of color running on right wing platforms…weird. Lime even filled the Excelsior with anti-immigrant signs opposing Prop F; Jose Medina, whom we forced off the BOS years ago for trying to privatize Dolores Park and cut down the trees on 24th Street. He went to work at Caltrans and the Governor who appointed him (Gray Davis) fired him for incompetence shortly afterward. Now he is appearing in the Excelsior trying to have a new, well-paid job, after Governor Arnold told him that his other well-paid, patronage state Commission job was at risk; Rebecca Silverberg…beware…This District made the mistake a couple decades ago of electing Dan White as supervisor who then ended up killing Harvey Milk and Mayor Moscone. They have a lot of atoning to do, so soften up those conservative ideas, folks!


SCHOOL BOARD:

Mark Sanchez
Green Incumbent and a teacher, weak on some issues like the Edison charter schools and endorses non-Greens in Supervisorial races. We endorse him because of his opposition to the rule of the Superintendent and his support for Sunshine in the District.

http://www.marksanchez.org

Jim Ferrigno

Teacher, Green and consistent. Will make a good addition in the battle for a progressive Board of Education. Endorsed by Frontlines and the New Progressive Left Movement.

http://www.jimferrigno.com

Jane Kim

An Educator and supported by many youth in the Asian community. A Green, a progressive and endorsed by the New Progressive Left, Frontlines, Matt Gonzalez and the Green Party, among others.
http://www.janekim.org

DO NOT VOTE FOR Jill Wynns and Heather Hiles, the candidates of the political machine and the essential forces behind the failed policies of the Superintendent.

COLLEGE BOARD ELECTIONS: No Endorsements.

LOCAL PROPOSITIONS:

YES, YES, YES ON PROPOSITION F - Noncitizen Voting in School Board Elections
Allows all parents with children in public schools to participate in the election of the members of the School Board. Immigrant rights, civil rights and voting rights all combined in one, together with empowering all parents and increasing the self-esteem of immigrant children by treating their parents fairly. Isn’t it telling that only one Democratic right wing public official, Fiona Ma, a right wing millionaires’ club (SFSOS) and fringe Republican opposes this proposition?

NO on Proposition A: Affordable Housing Bonds, sort of.
We generally oppose bonds but we would have considered supporting a stand alone bond to build housing for the homeless But we will never support raising working class homeowners' taxes and rents for working class tenants to subsidize housing for the upper middle class, included in this proposition

NO on Proposition B: Historical Preservation Bonds
$60 million to renovate buildings which were covered by previously passed bonds need state grants? What happened with that money? More regressive taxation on working class homeowners and passthroughs to tenants? No way. Big businesses should pay for this through progressive taxation. The SF Tenants Union also opposes this bond measure.

Proposition C: No Position

YES on Proposition D
Some of the changes in how the City commissions and the Board of Supervisors work are needed. Not an earthshaking proposition, though.

NO on Proposition E
Another scam by the Police Officers Association to increase their political clout and their privileged position in relation to other City employees. Survivors of police officers already receive the best survivor pensions and other prerogatives. Spend that extra money reforming the SFPD.

Yes on Proposition G
Should the City authorize the Health Service Board to establish health plans for City residents? Why not?

Yes on Proposition H
We have enough corporate logos and signs, billboards and blight around. Who needs more?

Proposition 1: No Position
Economic Analysis of Legislation

NO on Proposition J - Increase of Sales Tax
Why should working class families pay more for their food, clothes, and other necessities to cover the budget deficit provoked by the local ruling class and its representatives in the Mayor's Office and the BOS? We oppose ad regressive taxation, and this is one of its worst forms.

Proposition K - Business Tax YES, YES, YES to the miserly 0.1% Business Tax
We would have preferred a 3% tax on businesses with gross receipts over $1 million and without a sunset clause. That tax proposal is not on the ballot. Now, we can't figure out why businesses with $500,000 gross receipts will balk at paying $500 per year in business tax… wait a minute, the mailings opposing this measure are paid for by big businesses making over $13 million per year, not small businesses.


STATE PROPOSITIONS (selection):

YES on Proposition 60: Election Rights of Political Parties

NO on Proposition 62: A crude and right wing attempt to eliminate third political parties.

YES on Proposition 63: Progressive taxation on incomes over $1 million to help defray costs of Mental Health care.

YES on Proposition 66: Softens somewhat the racist effects of the "Three Strikes Law" by defining that violent or serious felony cases should be used as definitions for strikes.

NO On Proposition 68: Forces Indian tribes to pay 25% taxes on their casino operations. AND allows the expansion of non-tribal casino operations. Double jeopardy for justice: impinges on the right of self-determination of Indian nations and increases the clout of Las Vegas’s lily white gambling operations.

NO on 69: Another violation of our Civil Rights by allowing DNA samples to be taken and kept in a state database from people arrested for minor traffic violations.

YES on 70: We shouldn't even be asked to vote on this, since it will only impact the lands that belong to belong to Indian tribes. "Civilization" condemned Native Americans to "Reservations" and "Rancherias", They have the right to self determination and to decide what is best for them on THEIR lands.

YESon 72: Requires large employers to provide health care coverage for workers. This is a referendum on a law that was already approved.

Read the latest issue of Frontlines with articles about candidates, issues and Propositions at: http://www.sf-frontlines.com
Local, National and International political news and commentaries.