SF Election Wrap: Peskin, Hennessy Win Supe, Sheriff Seats; Props F And I Defeated
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- Aaron Peskin appears to have come out ahead of Julie Christensen in the San Francisco race for District 3 supervisor in Tuesday's election, according to complete unofficial election results.
Peskin was previously elected as District 3 supervisor in 2000 and served two terms. He was twice elected as president of the Board of Supervisors. He received about 53 percent of the vote, with Christensen receiving about 43 percent. Wilma Pang finished third with nearly 4 percent.
District 3 includes San Francisco's North Beach and Chinatown neighborhoods. The term of office for the person elected to fill this vacancy will be one year, which is the remainder of the current four-year term.
Mayor Ed Lee appointed Christensen after former Supervisor David Chiu won a seat in the state Assembly last year.
Peskin's platform included an emphasis on affordable housing. He said he hoped to increase private developers of market-rate housing and offices' obligation to contribute to affordable housing in the city.
• Latest Bay Area Election Results
San Francisco supervisors Eric Mar, Norman Yee, David Campos, John Avalos and Jane Kim expressed support for Peskin leading up to the election.
Kim said on Twitter that she volunteered during her lunch break Tuesday by calling voters and encouraging them to vote for Peskin.
Supervisor Campos said via Twitter at about 11:35 p.m., "Celebrating w @AaronPeskin, our newest member of the Board of Supes. Welcome aboard Aaron!"
San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi, plagued by scandals from the start of his term, appears to have been defeated by former Chief Deputy and one-time interim sheriff Vicki Hennessy.
Hennessy, who will be San Francisco's first elected femalesheriff, received about 61 percent of the vote, compared to nearly 33 percentfor Mirkarimi. Another challenger, former sheriff's Lt. John Robinson, finished with about 6 percent.
Hennessy joined the sheriff's department in 1975 and moved up the ranks to chief deputy in 1997. In 2008, then-Mayor Gavin Newsom appointed her as the director of the city's Department of Emergency Management.
Mirkarimi, who previously served for seven years on the Board of Supervisors, has faced a series of problems since taking office as sheriff in 2012, starting with domestic violence allegations stemming from an incident in which he grabbed his wife's arm during an argument just days before being sworn in.
Mayor Ed Lee suspended Mirkarimi on official misconduct charges as a result of the allegations and appointed Hennessy as interim sheriff.
Mirkarimi eventually pleaded guilty to misdemeanor false imprisonment in March 2012 and was sentenced to probation and ordered to undergo counseling.
He was reinstated as sheriff that October when the 11-member Board of Supervisors did not reach the nine votes necessary under the city charter to remove him from office on the official misconduct charges.
The sheriff's department during Mirkarimi's term has also drawn scrutiny and criticism, most notably following the fatal shooting in July of
Kate Steinle, a woman walking on the city's waterfront with her family. Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, an undocumented immigrant who had previously been deported five times and has seven prior felony convictions, was arrested and charged with killing Steinle.
The case spurred a national debate on San Francisco's sanctuary city policy and how the sheriff's department should cooperate with federal immigration authorities.
Earlier this year, the FBI launched an investigation into allegations that San Francisco sheriff's deputies forced county jail inmates to fight "gladiator-style" while deputies placed bets on the outcomes.
The department was also criticized in 2013 after deputies failedto find a missing San Francisco General Hospital patient who was found dead more than two weeks later on a hospital stairwell.
Mirkarimi during the campaign touted his progressive credentials, including the introduction of several policies seeking to reduce San Francisco's inmate population and recidivism rate, including being the first sheriff in the nation to integrate the Affordable Care Act into inmate discharge planning.
Hennessy, who kept a low profile in the sheriff's race, said on her campaign website that San Francisco "deserves experienced law enforcement leadership that serves with integrity."
Mayor Ed Lee appears to have won re-election after defeating a diverse group of candidates Tuesday, according to election results.
Lee, the 43rd mayor of San Francisco, received nearly 57 percent of the vote.
No other experienced politicians were on the ballot, but a few challengers combined to get more than a third of the votes cast in the election.
The runner-up was musician and educator Francisco Herrera at nearly 15 percent. Amy Weiss, an activist and educator, finished with nearly 12 percent, while blogger Stuart Schuffman garnered more than 9 percent.
The trio had encouraged voters to pick them as a unified bloc with their three ranked-choice options on the ballot as part of the "Vote 1-2-3 to replace Ed Lee" campaign.
On the campaign's website, the trio said Lee "has allowed corporate interests to radically change our urban landscape and lifestyle."
Lee, the city's first Asian-American mayor, said in his candidate statement that since he was elected in 2011, the city's unemployment rate has fallen significantly and there has been significant job growth and
innovation.
"Now, with a better economy, my priority is to ensure everyone is able to share in this growing prosperity," Lee wrote in the candidate statement.
San Francisco voters on Tuesday rejected tighter restrictions on short-term housing rentals, as well as a moratorium on building market-rate housing in the Mission District, according to complete unofficial election results.
Proposition F, a ballot measure that would have placed stricter limitations on the short-term rental of residential units in the city, needed a simple majority to pass but had only about 45 percent approval.
San Francisco-based short-term rental company Airbnb fiercely opposed the ballot measure, spending an estimated $8 million campaigning against it.
Airbnb spokesman Christopher Nulty released a statement from the company about the result, calling it "a decisive victory for the middle class."
"Voters stood up for working class families' right to share their homes and opposed an extreme, hotel industry-backed measure," the statement said.
Proposition I, known as the Mission District Housing Moratorium, received nearly 43 percent of the vote, short of the majority approval needed to pass.
The measure aimed to impose an 18-month suspension of city permits on market-rate housing developments, as well as demolition of certain properties, and to create a neighborhood stabilization plan in an effort to limit the ongoing displacement of long-term residents from the Mission District.
Two other housing measures on the ballot appear to have passed. Proposition A, a $310 million affordable housing bond, received more than 73 percent of the vote, above the two-thirds majority needed to pass, while Proposition D, a measure allowing the Mission Rock mixed-use development near AT&T Park to move forward, also received about 73 percent of the vote.
Proposition D, which just needed a simple majority, proposes increasing building height limits on parts of the Mission Rock property and makes it city policy to support the development as long as it includes 33 percent affordable housing and eight acres of parks and open space.
While high-profile housing measures got most of the attention on Tuesday's ballot, San Francisco voters also decided on some other issues including paid parental leave for city employees and whether to require the city to broadcast all policy meetings live on the Internet.
Proposition B, which allows parents who are both city employees to each take the maximum amount of paid parental leave for which they qualify, received about 66 percent of the vote, well over the majority approval required, according to complete unofficial election results.
Proposition E, along with requiring the live broadcast of all city meetings, not just the Board of Supervisors and selected other bodies currently broadcast, would also have allowed members of the public to submit written, audio or video comments during meetings, among other requirements.
However, more than 66 percent of voters rejected the proposal, which city officials said would have been costly to upgrade and expand technology in meeting rooms.
Proposition C, which regulates expenditure lobbyists by requiring them to register with the Ethics Commission, received nearly 75 percent of the vote.
Propositions G and H, two competing measures concerning how CleanPowerSF defines clean energy, ended with Proposition H getting 79.5 percent approval compared to only 23 percent for Proposition G.
The backers of Proposition G, a PG&E employee union, withdrew their support for the proposal after Proposition H, a compromise measure, was placed on the ballot.
Proposition J, which establishes the Legacy Business Historic Preservation Fund to give grants to legacy businesses and owners who are at risk of displacement and meet certain requirements, received nearly 57 percent of the vote, above the simple majority required.
The final measure on the ballot, Proposition K, expands the allowable uses of surplus public property to include building affordable housing for a range of households, from the homeless to those with incomes of up to 120 percent of the area median, among other changes.
It received more than 73 percent, far above the simple majority required.
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