Election Alters Balance of Power at SF City Hall

Mayor Ed Lee coasted to victory Tuesday night, easily winning a second four-year term in Room 200 at City Hall.

But the moderate former bureaucrat awoke Wednesday to find the balance of power on the Board of Supervisors tipped toward the city's progressive political camp due to Aaron Peskin's commanding victory in the race for the District 3 supervisor seat.

Peskin, who previously served two terms as District 3 supervisor as well as president of the board, ousted Julie Christensen, Lee's appointee to fill the vacancy created by the election last fall of Assemblyman David Chiu (D-San Francisco).

More than $2 million was spent on the contest to represent the city's North Beach and Chinatown neighborhoods due to its deciding control of the board. With Christensen, moderates currently hold a 6-5 majority.

But that will flip come January to a 6-5 progressive majority after Peskin garnered 52.99 percent of the vote in the November 3 election, according to unofficial returns Wednesday morning. It was enough to avoid having the race be decided by the city's ranked-choice voting system.

"I have mellowed with age but am still passionate about the issues I have been hearing about from thousands of constituents," Peskin said in an election night interview with ABC 7.

Christensen, a longtime community activist in North Beach but a novice in terms of running for political office, came in second with 43.16 percent of the vote, unofficial returns showed. A third challenger in the race, Wilma Pang, netted 3.74 percent of the vote.

The campaign had divided the city's LGBT community, with the progressive Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club solidly behind Peskin's bid. The club was even accused of withholding its endorsement of scandal-plagued Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi for fear his being on its slate cards could damage Peskin's chances.

(Longtime Milk club members pushed through a revote on the endorsement in the sheriff's race. Mirkarimi ended up with the club's backing, but his image was still missing on Milk's slate cards mailed to voters and he was ousted from office Tuesday.)

"District 3 has a new Supervisor tonight. We did it!! Aaron Peskin will be (once again) an independent progressive voice for the people of San Francisco. This is a huge victory for us all," wrote Milk club Co-President Peter Gallotta in a Facebook post.

The more moderate Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club, along with the Bay Area Reporter, had endorsed Christensen in the race. Gay District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener, a member of the board's moderate bloc who has had his political fights with Peskin in the past, told the B.A.R. he believes the two can work together on the board.

"I am an optimist and I also have known Aaron Peskin for a long time. I believe Aaron is going to work very hard to collaborate with all of us and with the mayor to try to move forward with solutions for the problems facing the city," said Wiener. "I have had my political differences with Aaron, but we have always gotten along personally."

Peskin will need to run next year for a full four-year term.

As for Lee, he easily won re-election against the handful of little-known candidates who ran against him. He placed first with 56.7 percent of the vote.

His closest challenger was Latino community activist Francisco Herrera, who came in second with 14.68 percent. Amy Farah Weiss, a self-described YIMBY for Yes-In-My-Back-Yard, took third with 11.59 percent, while San Francisco Examiner writer Stuart Schuffman, better known as Broke Ass Stuart, landed in fourth with 9.48 percent of the vote.

The three other citywide electeds on Tuesday's ballot all cakewalked to victory, as none had an opponent. Gay San Francisco Treasurer Jose Cisneros, who has not faced an opponent in his last three elections, won a third full four-year term with 98.67 percent of the vote.

Cisneros, who recently marked his first wedding anniversary with his husband, Mark Kelleher, is the only LGBT person to hold one of the city's seven elected executive positions. The Latino politician has held the post, which is not term limited, since 2004 when then-Mayor Gavin Newsom appointed him to fill a vacancy.

In 2005 he was elected by the voters to a full four-year term and was re-elected in 2009. In 2013 he won election to a two-year term due to a voter-approved switch to the city's election timetable that aligned both the treasurer and city attorney elections with races for mayor, district attorney, and sheriff beginning in 2015.

The two other Latino citywide officeholders who sailed to re-election Tuesday were City Attorney Dennis Herrera, first elected in 2001, and District Attorney George Gasc�n, first elected in 2011 after being appointed in January that year by Newsom to fill a vacancy.

Herrera received 98.75 percent of the vote, while Gasc�n garnered 98.26 percent.