By Luke Thomas
November 3, 2010
California Lt. Governor-Elect Gavin Newsom:
California Lt. Governor-Elect Gavin Newsom addresses his supporters at Tres Agaves in San Francisco. Photos by Luke Thomas.
“As only San Franciscans can appreciate, we learned what the word ‘torture’ meant in this election,” Lt. Governor-Elect Gavin Newsom said referring to the San Francisco Giants clinching of the World Series and the close race he ran against Republican Lt. Governor Abel Maldonado.
Newsom thanked his campaign supporters “for all your hard work, for your sacrifice, for your energy, for that extra effort.”
“When we get there [Sacramento], we’re going to hit the ground running because you guys all know this: we cannot afford to continue to play in the margins and I did not run to get up to Sacramento to fail more efficiently. We’ve got to get this State back on track and I’m confidant we can get California back on track,” Newsom said. “There’s absolutely nothing wrong with California that can’t be fixed.”
Newsom and wife, Jennifer Siebel-Newsom, take to the stage at Tres Agaves.
San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris:
San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris addresses campaign supporters at Delancey Street Foundation in her bid to be the next California Attorney General.
Harris, who maintains a slim lead over Republican Steve Cooley, began her speech thanking her supporters “for all of the hard work, all of the sacrifice, all of the dedication, all of the personal commitment and connection, to this campaign. I thank each and everyone of you.”
“We know that we can have a State that does not have to accept a failed system where seven out of ten known offenders re-offend within three years of their release,” Harris said. “We are a State that believes we can be smart on crime by investing in all that we should do to create public safety, not just by reacting to crime, but also prevention of crime.”
San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris.
Harris' election party drew a large crowd of supporters.
As attorney general, Harris said she would pursue the prosecution of polluters, defend the right of same-sex couples to marry, as well as prevent health insurance companies from treating the female sex “as a pre-existing condition.”
San Francisco Labor Council Executive Director Tim Paulson:
“I think the people of San Francisco really know how dedicated the city workers are of San Francisco and that Prop B did not do anything it said it was going to do,” Paulson said. “It was actually going to punish people in the healthcare. It had nothing to do with pension reform and I think the people really saw through that.”
How much money was spent to defeat Prop B?
“Tens of thousand of dollars were given by city employees to make sure this thing would go down,” Paulson said. “That’s why people join unions, to protect themselves, to make sure they have healthcare, to make sure they have a living wage and they pay dues to make sure that they’re protected.”
Paulson called Prop B “misguided” and a “horribly written bill.”
“Just because the economy collapses because Wall Street screws up and corporate America screws up, we are not going to give up anything,” Paulson added.
Tim Paulson.
Consultant Jim Stearns:
Political consultant Jim Stearns (center) discusses politics and the election results at the Great American Music Hall.
Political consultant Jim Stearns, who worked on Debra Walker’s campaign for District 6 Supervisor and the No on Prop B campaign, said he is “crossing his fingers” and hoping second place votes will help Walker win the contest.
Asked if he had any regrets going negative in the D6 race, Stearns said: “No, I don’t consider that going negative. I’ve seen a lot of negative, that’s not very negative. We tried to create a contrast with another candidate. You want to say this candidate is this, this candidate is that – you draw that difference. Negative is like hitting somebody when they don’t pay their taxes.”
Asked what he thought about the District 10 race, Stearns said: “I tell you what’s going to happen in D10, it is the going to be the end of Ranked Choice Voting. You’ve got five candidates with small amounts of votes, some weird mathematical formula between something like twenty candidates that are going to determine the winner. No one’s going to ever have heard of that person.”
Asked if Rafael Mandelman’s campaign properly identified voter issues in the race for District 8 Supervisor, Stearns said: “I don’t know that anybody made mistakes. I think people ran the campaigns they wanted to run and people are who they are. Rafael ran a campaign that was true to himself and you wouldn’t want anybody to do any different.”
On the upcoming mayor’s office vacancy and the opportunity for the current Board of Supervisors to elect a progressive to occupy Room 200 on an interim basis, Stearns said: “There’s a lot of different things people have to balance in that. It’s a very complicated decision.”
Board of Supervisor President Jane Kim:
Candidate for District 6 Supervisor Jane Kim flanked by her consulant, Enrique Pearce, and campaign coordinator Sunny Angulo outside Public Works in North Mission.
“I feel great,” Kim said. “I’m really proud of the campaign. We worked really hard. We brought 400 people out today and I’m just really grateful.”
Kim congratulated her fellow contestants in the race saying, “I really congratulate them for running a great campaign. It made me a better candidate because I ran against strong folks who care about our neighborhood and our community and I really look forward to working with them, win or lose.”
The secret to Kim’s campaign success?
“People,” Kim said. “We reached more voters. I think we talked to more voters than anybody else.”
Kim and School Board Commissioner-Reelect Hydra Mendoza hug outside Public Works.
Luke Thomas
Luke Thomas is a former software developer and computer consultant who proudly hails from London, England. In 2001, Thomas took a yearlong sabbatical to travel and develop a photographic portfolio. Upon his return to the US, Thomas studied photojournalism to pursue a career in journalism. In 2004, Thomas worked for several neighborhood newspapers in San Francisco before accepting a partnership agreement with the SanFranciscoSentinel.com, a news website formerly covering local, state and national politics. In September 2006, Thomas launched FogCityJournal.com. The BBC, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox News, New York Times, Der Spiegel, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Magazine, 7x7, San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco Bay Guardian and the San Francisco Weekly, among other publications and news outlets, have published his work. Thomas is a member of the Freelance Unit of the Pacific Media Workers Guild, TNG-CWA Local 39521 and is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
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The Hunger Site
November 5, 2010 at 8:28 am
Jerry,
That’s why we moved here. The old joke (?) used to be: “The country is tilted and all the loose nuts and bolts all slide down to California which is also tilted and all the nuts end up in San Francisco.”.
Hey guy, we all came to San Francisco because we were too weird where we were and here we’re average or boring.
Go Niners!
h.
November 4, 2010 at 8:39 pm
A city that approved prop L and turned down prop B is a city in trouble.
All I have got to say is where will those voters be when the shit hits the fan?
In a condemner of paying the bills. But then again how will they pay for it? Not through property tax. Prop 13 almost guernseys that. But the cuts in police, fire and transit will have to. I laugh my ass off. What a bunch of idiots have taken over the landscape of San Francisco.
November 3, 2010 at 9:31 pm
Yeah,
It was quite the night. I went with a couple of City Hall buddies and we drank our way from Sparks’ bash (she was very nice to me and we hugged and she said that she’d never run for anything again and I said lol – it does hurt to lose, he said after 6 divorces and 6 last place finishes in runs for SF offices) … talked at some length to Rob Black of the Chamber of Commerce (last Downtown sacrificial lamb to D-6) and to Kenny Cleaveland of BOMA whose group provides major funding to those candidates. Note to the Bay Guardian … these are not cold and distant people if you only approach them in a friendly manner.
We did the Great American gathering and Tony got his camera broken but retrieved the data and everyone was there but Princess Diana and I’m kinda glad she didn’t show.
As my masseur/colonist once said about a situation similar to our local political scene with so many major office holders giving up positions and the attendant rush to fill the vacancies: “The feces impacted on the walls of your colon for decades is breaking free and will soon be expelled. Eat right and you won’t have this problem again.”
Say, huh?
h.
November 3, 2010 at 5:14 pm
Good Riddance Gavin.
Our pompadoured problem child
Now becomes California’s conundrum.
We tried to warn you, but would you listen.