Candidate Hernandez brings novel ideas on how to govern

San Francisco political races are known for under-theradar candidates with, well, unusual ideas. Remember 2007 mayoral candidate George Davis, a nudist who wanted to make Golden Gate Park clothing-optional? In honor of that longtime tradition, we’ve got to hand it to Berta Hernandez for livening up the recent Chronicle Editorial Board meeting for District 11 supervisorial candidates.

She wants to become the city’s first socialist supervisor and says the progressive and moderate factions of the Democratic party have “failed to govern this city.” (Those factions are represented in the race by front-runners Kimberly Alvarenga and Ahsha Safai, respectively.)

Hernandez’s memorable ideas include abolishing the San Francisco Police Department, which she called “a bunch of killers — rotten to the core.” She would instead have the city police itself with unarmed community counselors.

She also wants to outlaw all evictions and make it illegal for landlords to charge more than 30 percent of a tenant’s salary in rent. And she considers the $15 minimum wage “insufficient” and believes it should be raised to $40 an hour.

“There is no way you can live with less,” she said. She also would expand the right to vote to undocumented immigrants, felons and children at least 14 years old. Advertising party: The California Democratic Party dropped a TV ad this week for East Bay Assembly candidate Cheryl Cook-Kallio ,a Democrat who is taking on incumbent GOP Assemblywoman Catharine Baker. It’s noteworthy because this the first party-funded Assembly ad in at least three election cycles in the Bay Area.

Then again, Baker is the only Republican in the politically deep-blue region, so it’s not like there have been a ton of opportunities to rain cash on the area.

But California Democratic Party spokesman Michael Soller told us that the party is funding the Cook-Kallio ad as well as one for Democratic challenger Abigail Medina, in the San Bernardino-area 40th Assembly District “because these are races we believe that we can win.” Assembly Speaker Anthony

Rendon has mentioned the Cook-Kallio race as one of his top pickup targets in November.

The challenge, Soller said, will be getting Cook-Kallio and Medina’s messages heard in the state’s two largest media markets — the Bay Area and Los Angeles — in a season dominated by a presidential race and 17 state ballot measures.

The hope is that the message implicit in the ad — which has Cook-Kallio campaigning door-to-door, answering questions from voters — inspires some grassroots help.

Even though there are more registered Democrats than Republicans in the district, which President Obama carried four years ago, Baker has won endorsements from The Chronicle and the East Bay Times editorial boards, praising her bipartisan record.

— Joe Garofoli

A tale of two polls: The South Bay congressional rematch between San Jose Rep. Mike Honda and Fremont attorney Ro Khanna now features dueling, though relatively elderly, polls.

In response to a mid-July internal poll from Honda’s campaign showing their guy leading in his uphill re-election battle, Team Khanna has now released its own internal poll, this one a late June survey putting the challenger on top.

The Khanna poll, taken from June 26-30, showed Khanna with a lead of 42 to 36 percent among likely voters in the November contest, up from his 39 to 37 percent victory over Honda in the June 7 primary.

Honda’s poll, taken three weeks later, July 17-21, gave him a 41 to 35 percent ratio. The percentage of undecided voters was nearly identical in both surveys.

There are a few takeaways from the polls.

First, the two 500-person telephone surveys were done by nationally respected Democratic pollsters (Celinda Lake for Honda and Paul Maslin for Khanna), not Pete’s House of Carpets and Robo-polling.

Second, any poll is a snapshot of voter opinion at a specific time. And a lot may have changed in the months since these polls were taken.

Finally, internal polls, which are used to make campaign decisions such as where and when to advertise, have to show the absolute truth about what’s happening in an election effort, warts and all. A poll that’s overly optimistic is far more dangerous to a campaign than one that’s too pessimistic.

Having said that, though, campaigns decide when — and if — they will release their internal polls. And you can be sure that if the poll weren’t good news, no one outside the campaign would ever see it. — John Wildermuth

Sticking up for Clinton: St. Helena Democrat Mike Thompson’s news conference with House military veterans who support Hillary Clinton erupted in comedy when a reporter asked the members about their “concern about Clinton’s health.”

Rep. Charlie Rangel ,DN.Y., grabbed the floor to say that “having a cold or pneumonia or a fever has never been something that I thought warranted a lot of inquiries,” as opposed to “a guy who says, I’m not giving you my income tax, I haven’t given you my background in charitable contributions, I’ve given you an insane doctor, or a guy that’s a fraud, he looks like something from outer space.

“And you find a woman who says she had pneumonia and people are asking her, ‘Why didn't you tell people that you had pneumonia? Don’t you think people have a right to know?’ ”

Thompson, a Vietnam veteran, held the news conference at the Democratic Party’s campaign headquarters in Washington. It followed three earlier events in his district featuring veterans calling Clinton “the only candidate qualified to be commander in chief.”

Thompson said Tuesday’s conference was long planned and was not a response to the uproar over Clinton’s health.

Clinton’s woozy and early exit from the 9/11 ceremony in New York on Sunday underlined weeks of insinuations from GOP nominee Donald Trump that she lacks the “stamina” to be president. She said she’d been diagnosed with pneumonia Friday but thought she could carry on.

— Carolyn Lochhead