Plus: How to vote in S.F. recall election, Assembly District 17 race
By by The Examiner Editorial Board • February 14, 2022 1:30 pm – Updated February 15, 2022 11:49 am (SFExaminer.com)
by the Examiner Editorial Board
The 2022 San Francisco special election will take place on Feb. 15, 2022. Click here to check your voter registration statusand click here to find your nearest polling location or ballot drop-off spot.
San Francisco voters will make several key decisions in the 2022 special election. They will decide whether to recall three members of the San Francisco Unified School District Board of Education. In addition, they will vote to pick a replacement for former Assembly District 17 representative David Chiu, who resigned to take the position of city attorney.
Here is a brief recap of The Examiner Editorial Board’s endorsements:
Yes on the recall: The Examiner Editorial Board recommends a yes vote to recall all three members of the SFUSD school board. In endorsing the school board recall the Editorial Board blasted commissioners Alison Collins, Gabriela López and Fauuga Moliga for helping to make the board into a national laughingstock.
“Facing a COVID pandemic, declining enrollment and a budget deficit that put the district at risk of a state takeover, school board commissioners embarked on a quixotic crusade to strip the names of leaders like Abraham Lincoln and Dianne Feinstein from schools,” wrote The Editorial Board. “Ignoring the basics of the job, they put political grandstanding ahead of progress for children. These antics garnered national attention, transforming the board into a caricature of comically backward priorities. Instead of tackling urgent problems, the board indulged in performative activism and other controversial projects, like ending merit-based admission at Lowell High School.”
The Editorial Board also noted that Collins exacerbated the situation with racist tweets about Asian Americans and with her $87 million lawsuit against the school district.
“The San Francisco Examiner Editorial Board urges a yes vote on the school board recall,” wrote The Editorial Board. “Hopefully, it will send a message to other local elected officials about the dangers of willfully neglecting core duties in favor of vainglorious ideological stunts.”
If the recall succeeds, Mayor London Breed will appoint replacements.
Read the entire editorial: San Francisco’s school board is a national laughingstock. Yes on the recall
Matt Haney for Assembly District 17: The Examiner Editorial Board endorsed Matt Haney for AD 17, calling him “a progressive who knows how to make progressive.”
“As the District 6 representative on the Board of Supervisors, Haney has distinguished himself as a leader who is willing to confront tough issues,” wrote The Editorial Board. “He also has proven himself to be someone who can get things done. This skill will be crucial in Sacramento, where building coalitions and moving legislation is the job.”
The endorsement applauded Supervisor Haney’s efforts to wade into the toughest issues confronting his district, including the addiction crisis, homelessness and income inequality.
“San Francisco needs a leader who possesses deep familiarity with the problems vexing our cities,” wrote the Editorial Board. “As both a resident and a representative of the Tenderloin — The City’s dismal showcase of California’s failures to address homelessness, mental health and drug addiction — Haney understands the urgency of the crisis on our streets. In Sacramento, he must persuade Gov. Gavin Newsom and state legislators to support the urgent solutions necessary to save lives.”
Haney is competing with David Campos, Bilal Mahmood and Thea Selby for the seat. If no candidate gets more than 50% of the vote, the race will head to a runoff in April.
Read the entire endorsement: Matt Haney is a progressive who knows how to make progress
