Former California Senator Carole Migden.
Photo by Luke Thomas
By Luke Thomas
April 9, 2009
Former California Senator Carole Migden is “seriously looking” at throwing her hat into the 2010 race for San Francisco District 10 Supervisor, a Migden confidante relayed to Fog City Journal yesterday.
The reliable source said Migden, who currently resides in District 6, recently met with a real estate agent to help her find a new home in District 10. Migden had been previously rumored to be eyeing a possible run in Districts 6 or 8, but turned her attention to District 10 after Debra Walker declared her candidacy in District 6 and Rafael Mandelman declared his candidacy in District 8.
Migden declined to comment on the rumor but confirmed she is making plans to move to District 10.
District 10 encompasses Bayview Hunters Point, Portrero Hill, Dogpatch, Silver Terrace and Visitacion Valley.
Cedric Akbar, James M. Calloway, Espanola Jackson, La Vaughan Moore and Dianne Wesley Smith have so far filed papers with the Department of Elections declaring their intentions to run for the open seat that will be vacated by sitting two-term Supervisor Sophie Maxwell.
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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April 15, 2009 at 8:08 am
Name the Mayor who stood by while the African American population in SF was reduced from 18.8% all the way down to 5.6% of the population …….
April 12, 2009 at 10:49 am
A rep should like the people they represent?
Lets hope that Alan Keyes moves to dist 10 then.
April 10, 2009 at 5:15 pm
By far the best way to have an ethnic and gender diverse representative democracy is to use Choice Voting (a.k.a. single transferable voting) in elections. It recently was voted in for Minneapolis (along with IRV) and almost passed in Cincinnati.
http://www.fairvote.org/?page=407
April 10, 2009 at 3:17 pm
If you want to get down to the problem of representation, San Francisco’s African American population was decimated during the era of at-large supervisor elections.
Constitutional questions abound when it comes time to determine lengths of residency etc.
Any time you have a representative democracy, the translation from constituent into representative is going to be a lossy one, that is, one person cannot possibly represent the diversity of a district, and district elected supervisors often leave communities unrepresented.
We had a more ethnically “representative” Board back in the at large days, but their policies reduced diversity in San Francisco, especially amongst the African American communities.
Representative democracy is not the only model of democracy. I’d prefer that we investigaste sub-government, district and neighborhood councils that can disintermediate politics and bring average folks together. Once we get face-to-face, and the moneyed interests are overwhelmed in numbers, it turns out that we all have much more in common than divides us.
And that is most threatening to those who benefit from the imperfections in representative democracy.
-marc
April 10, 2009 at 12:41 pm
marc highlights one of the many problems with district elections; that is, they often split and separate minority voters.
For example, blacks in Bayview/Hunters Point and blacks in the Fillmore/Western Addition cannot join forces together and vote for the same black candidate. Likewise, district elections cut off Asian voters in Chinatown from those in the Richmond and Sunset districts. They could, however, all rally behind a black or an Asian candidate if he or she was running at-large.
I realize district elections are here to stay, but we can’t lose sight of their short-comings. We do have one African-American and two Chinese-American supervisors, so there’s hope.
Should we increase the amount of time a candidate has to live in a district before they can run for supervisor? What is it now?
I think even supervisorial aides (not clerical, but those immediate assistants) that work for a given district supervisor should be from that district.
April 10, 2009 at 10:07 am
Migden, the gift that just keeps on giving a/k/a zombie politico – but what do I know I’m just a one-eyed queen.
April 10, 2009 at 8:50 am
Representatives in government should look like their constituents. When that doesn’t happen, something is wrong.
How many D10 residents look like Carole Migden?
Migden brings much baggage to the table. One key determinant in this race is whether Camp Migden makes peace with Team Leno.
D10 is configured so that the white Potrerans determine the appropriate supervisor for Bayview and Hunters’ Point. The question is whether the white Potrerans will conjure up a candidate capable of countering Migden’s advantages?
In world where everyone is blind, the one eyed woman is queen.
-marc
April 10, 2009 at 5:11 am
Let’s see, Carole Migden and D10? Oh, right, she did include D10 as one site for a Board meeting outside City Hall when the Supes used to do that. And then she insisted that metal detectors be set at the doorways before D10 residents could enter the room — and only in D10. Wonder if she’ll insist on metal detectors at her campaign appearances now?
April 9, 2009 at 5:37 pm
“Jabber-wocky” – a poem of nonsense verse.
April 9, 2009 at 4:37 pm
By the way, I’ll add that when I mention minority representation, I’m not just talking about blacks. I’m including the growing southeast Asian population.
April 9, 2009 at 11:17 am
“Is she well-versed in the issues that District 10 faces?”
Yes I’m sure she is against the war in Iraq and opposes prop 8.
The of course letter writer would like a minority progressive be elected, a qualification for office is a persons skin color for SF “progressives”.
I once was stupid enough to believe liberals when they said they wanted a society free of racism.
April 9, 2009 at 10:43 am
I’ll admit that I’m a hypocrite for my disdain of carpetbagging while at the same time would be happy to see her elected. Is she well-versed in the issues that District 10 faces? That said, I would still prefer that a progressive minority with deep roots in the district gets elected.