Fresh faces in 3 districts could join incumbents
Mar, Haney, Walton leading; shift could come in final results
Five seats on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors were up for election Tuesday. With most votes tallied, the results showed Catherine Stefani leading in District Two, Gordon Mar leading in District Four, Matt Haney leading in District Six, Rafael Mandelman winning in District Eight and Shamann Walton leading in District 10.
San Francisco’s rankedchoice system, which allows voters to designate their second and third choices, had yet to be counted, so the final results could shift somewhat.
District Two
In District Two, incumbent Supervisor Stefani was leading with 42 percent of the vote to Nick Josefowitz’s 37 percent.
Stefani was appointed to the board by former Mayor Mark Farrell in January. She has worked in City Hall in various positions for about 12 years, mostly as a legislative aide, first to Michela Alioto-Pier, then to Farrell. She has signaled a moderate track record on the board. Her campaign to keep the District Two seat was endorsed by most of the board members, as well as Mayor London Breed.
Just after 9 p.m., as early results showed her leading Josefowitz, Stefani arrived to cheers and hoots from the crowd at her party at the Silver Cloud on Lombard Street.
“We have not yet won, but I like what I see,” Stefani said. “We’ve planned, we’ve focused, we’ve executed.”
District Four
Mar was leading against Jessica Ho for the open seat in District Four, which encompasses the Sunset District. Mar was up 35 percent to 26 percent.
This was the district’s first election without an incumbent since 2006. Whoever wins will take over from Supervisor Katy Tang, who decided not to run for re-election. The three main candidates were Mar, a longtime community activist; Ho, Tang’s legislative aide; and Trevor McNeil, a public school teacher.
Mar, 56, has a progressive track record. He is executive director of Jobs with Justice, a coalition of over more than 30 unions, and community and faith-based organizations. His run for supervisor received about $168,000 in third-party support from independent expenditure committees, including the San Francisco Labor Council Labor & Neighbor Independent Expenditure Political Action Committee.
Dozens of Mar supporters gathered at the Sunset’s United Irish Cultural Center as the results trickled in, people repeatedly checked their phones and the mood remained cautiously optimistic.
The race to represent the quiet, family-oriented neighborhood grew extremely contentious between Ho and Mar in the last few weeks of the campaign, as the two sparred over neighborhood ties and campaign contributions.
District Six
Haney was far in the lead in District Six with 57 percent of the early returns in the district that includes the Tenderloin, SoMa and Mission Bay. Trailing behind Haney was former Planning Commissioner Christine Johnson with 25 percent of the vote and housing activist Sonja Trauss in last place with 18 percent of the vote. Johnson and Trauss teamed up to take advantage of San Francisco’s ranked-choice voting system and urged voters to pick them as their first and second choices — an approach that did not appear to be successful as the first results came in.
As the night wore on, Trauss sat on a couch at her SoMa campaign headquarters, surrounded by family and supporters who checked their phones and tried to comfort her.
“I was surprised the polling was so wrong,” she said, noting that three separate polls had her in a “dead heat” with her competitors.
Meanwhile, the mood at Haney’s election party a few blocks away was celebratory: music, dancing and dimmed lights at the Calle-11 nightclub.
Compared to Trauss and Johnson, Haney was considered the progressive in the race. As supervisor, he said he plans to prioritize immediate solutions in District Six, such as providing more street cleaners, shelter beds, Navigation Centers and supportive housing and services for the mentally ill.
District Eight
Current District Eight Supervisor Rafael Mandelman won Tuesday night. He faced thin opposition from Lawrence “Stark” Dagesse, who said he agreed with Mandelman on most issues. Mandelman had more than 91 percent of the vote
This district includes the Castro, Glen Park and Noe Valley.
District 10
In District 10, Walton was well on track to take over for termed-out Supervisor Malia Cohen with 42 percent of the vote. The district — which includes Bayview-Hunters Point, Potrero Hill and Dogpatch — is in the midst of dramatic change, with a number of mixed-use development projects in the works. It also has the Shipyard development on the site of the former Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, which is mired in a scandal over residual radioactive contamination.
Walton, former school board president, was leading against Tony Kelly with 24 percent of the vote. Theo Ellington was trailing behind with 20 percent of the vote.