Voters in San Francisco embrace two conservative ballot measures
Voters in San Francisco, a famously liberal stronghold, embraced unusually conservative policies this week as they passed a pair of ballot measures that take increasingly aggressive steps to curb the city’s intertwined troika of troubles: Homelessness, drug addiction and crime.
The initiatives require drug screening for welfare recipients and give police more surveillance power and less oversight, measures opponents have panned as right wing and dangerous. Ballots were still being counted after a dismally low turnout, but the measures, known as Propositions E and F, held a clear majority of support Thursday.
The city’s Democratic mayor, London Breed, who faces a tight reelection race in November, sponsored the initiatives and claimed victory on election night, saying they were “additional tools that are going to help us deliver some real results for San Francisco.”
“We are also sending a message that we are a city that offers help but not a city where you can just come and do whatever you want on our streets,” Breed said in a later statement.
The results reinforce a recent trend of more moderate forces prevailing in San Francisco elections, as voters continue to express alarm over the crises unfolding daily on city streets, where a record 806 people died of accidental overdoses last year.
Tuesday’s contest serves as another key marker in San Francisco’s recent shift toward the center, political analysts say, along with the separate 2022 recall elections of Chesa Boudin, the city’s liberal district attorney, and three school board members, who were blamed for failing to reopen schools during the coronavirus pandemic and for favoring diversity over merit in admissions to the city’s most prestigious public high school. Taken together, the analysts say, the outcomes are a measure of voters’ priorities and their frustration with the status quo.
“California is run lock, stock and barrel by Democrats,” said Garry South, a longtime Democratic campaign strategist in the state. “There are advantages to being the party in power — you get your way. The disadvantage is when significant problems develop, the gum’s on your shoe.”
While San Francisco is far from the hellscape Republicans make it out to be, South added, the results show voters are desperate for solutions, regardless of the political party that may have incubated them.
“Particularly with crime and homelessness, Democrats have to step up to the plate and deal with these things, which may challenge the orthodoxies they have long held,” he said.
In the national imagination, San Francisco is often cast as the pinnacle of blue state America. And while the city is overwhelmingly Democratic, residents have a long history of supporting more moderate policies and politicians, especially for mayor. Particularly on homelessness, San Francisco voters have backed a range of conservative approaches, from an anti-panhandling law to an ordinance preventing people from sitting or lying on a public street.
“San Francisco voters have been willing to put strong requirements, almost punitive measures, on people who are homeless — for decades,” said Jim Ross, a Bay Area political consultant who ran Gov. Gavin Newsom’s San Francisco mayoral campaign in 2003.
Like Tuesday’s results, that record undercuts the stereotype of the city as a liberal haven.
Still, the local Democratic Party’s far left flank suffered a series of setbacks in this week’s contest. In addition to the ballot measures, a slate of moderates appeared poised to take control of the local Democratic County Central Committee, an influential body whose endorsements can make or break a candidate. Liberals nearly swept the DCCC election four years ago.
The signals prompted the San Francisco Chronicle to declare Wednesday: “San Francisco can no longer be called a progressive city.”