The Fog City Journal cited a new poll of District 6 voters which shows Chris Daly ahead with 60 percent of the vote.The article included the polling firm's name, location, and numbers -- perhaps its more accurate than the others lauded by the Black campaign and commissioned by his supporters.

By Tim Redmond

My friend Ken Neill, the publisher of the Memphis Flyer, sent me what may be the ugliest political photo of the year. The story's pretty gnarly, too.

Any better nominations?

By Sarah Phelan

Say what you will about Clinton, but when it comes to raising morale, the 42nd President still has what it takes.
"One side says stay the course, the other says, 'We can do better,'"said Clinton, as he urged us all to vote Yes in Prop. 87, which raises $4 billion by taxing oil, and uses those funds for alternative energy research and development, including incentives for buying alternative-fuel vehicles. Too bad Big Oil didn't spend $100 million on improving air quality, reducing asthma and lung cancer, instead of on all those misleading ads that try to frighten people into voting no.
"They can't deny climate change, the national security implications, that too many of us, especially children, are breathing air that doesn't meet minimum requirements, so they're just spending $100 million to defeat Prop. 87," said Clinton. "They're really just saying, 'We're against any positive change."

By Sarah Phelan

Is San Francisco going to let a handful of gang bangers shut down Halloween?
Er, wouldn't that be like "letting the terrorists win," to quote our not so favorite president.
And how can San Francisco seriously expect to win the Olympic bid if the city spends the next week blabbing on about how we don't know how to control a large crowd or successfully manage a parade?
Because a parade could have turned Halloween 2006 into a peaceful success, instead of a violent disaster.
Instead, Sup. Bevan Dufty's last-minute effort to reap political mileage out of the 'law and order" theme seriously backfired when things turned nasty the MINUTE THE POLICE ANNOUNCED THE PARTY WAS ENDING EARLY.
Wiith meaningful planning, beginning NOW, the community can figure out cool ways to keep Halloween alive.
As District 8 supervisorial challenger Alix Rosenthal told the press, the city's security and safety preparation "was badly conceived, badly executed--and preventable. We should spend at least 6 months planning this. Instead Dufty waited until the end of July to start doing anything and the city says, 'We did our best.' It's time for new leadership."

By Steven T. Jones
There's a fascinating mix of videos about Sup. Chris Daly on You Tube these days. You can hear Chris speak or people speak about him, or you can watch political ads with stark contrasts between the Daly lovers and haters. The ads for him are funny and whimsical, the ones hitting him are dark, scary, misleading, and in one case, racist. They say Daly "never passed a single law to combat crime," even though he chaired the committees that passed two budgets filled with crime-fighting measures, as well as placing the crime-fighting Proposition A on the June ballot, which narrowly failed because it was opposed by Mayor Gavin Newsom, opponent Rob Black, and the pro-Black Police Officers Association (which was loathe to spend $10 million on violence prevention programs instead of just more cops and overtime, which is the Newsom/Black strategy). But the funniest accusation is how Daly is now in the pocket of downtown interests, with one video showing Daly morphing into former Mayor Willie Brown, who Daly has a storied history of fighting on behalf of the anti-downtown forces. Yes, it's true that Daly has gotten some developer money in this election, but that's only because he's made himself the go-to person for facilitating projects by developers who are willing to provide the maximum community benefits and affordable housing payments -- which is what progressives demand of developers. Even downtown interests like SPUR have said this is true (the whole story is here). The bottom line: Black and his downtown buddies (from mentor Jim Sutton to SFSOS to BOMA) know D6 voters want someone to stand up to downtown, so they're throwing a bunch of smoke and misinformation up in the air to confuse the issue. Don't be fooled...but enjoy the show.

By Steven T. Jones
Re-reading the article I linked to in my last post reminded me to remind y'all about an event from earlier this year that goes to the heart of Rob Black's close ties to downtown developers and why he can't be trusted. In the incident described in this article, Black was the Alioto-Pier board aide who worked with those five developer attorneys to craft legislation designed to kill the downtown parking limitations sought by livable city advocates and Planning Director Dean Macris, all at the demand of Don Fisher, the Republican who founded the Gap and uses his money to bankroll SFSOS and the attacks on Chris Daly. My article doesn't mention Black by name, but I have the e-mails in which he discusses the legislation and its wording with these developer attorneys. And if you want to hear Rob Black fumble to address the issue, listen to his endorsement interview here.

By Steven T. Jones
I spoke recently with Warren Hellman, the San Francisco investment banker that Business Week called “the Warren Buffet of the West Coast.” He’s a fascinating guy, someone who has drawn the ire of progressives by founding the downtown groups Committee on Jobs and SFSOS, but who has also joined with progressives to support the Healthy Saturdays closures in Golden Gate Park and other measures.
Among other topics, Hellman talked about SFSOS, which is leading the nasty and deceptive attacks on Sup. Chris Daly, just as it did on supervisors Jake McGoldrick and Gerardo Sandoval a couple years ago using mailers so heinous that both Hellman and Sen. Dianne Feinstein walked away from the group, leaving the Gap’s Don Fisher as its primary funder.
“SFSOS started doing the opposite of what I thought they would be doing, so it was fairly easy for me to part company with them. What I thought we were doing is trying to figure out ways to make the city better, not just being an antagonistic, nay-saying, attack organization. I’m not a huge fan of Gerardo Sandoval, but I thought the attacks on him were beyond anything I could imagine ever being in favor of myself. And it was a series of things like that and I said I don’t want anything more to do with this,” Hellman told the Guardian.
Hellman is still friends with Fisher, even though “there’s stuff that we just disagree on.” He considers Fisher a “very charitable man,” but Hellman has less than charitable things to say about SFSOS frontman Wade Randlett.
“If all things were equal, I’d just as soon that SFSOS went away,” Hellman said.
Hellman likes authentic, passionate people and has friends across the political spectrum, such as SEIU’s Josie Mooney. As for Daly, Hellman said, “I admire Chris Daly. I disagree with Chris on a lot of things he believes, but there are also probably a lot of things I would agree with Chris on. And I respect him.”

By Tim Redmond
I'm usually not much for political speeches, but Chris Daly has a really nice riff on quality of life in this video of his recent rally at 16th and Mission. His point: It's easy for people living in million-dollar condos to attack him and complain about the "quality of life" in District 6 (which is downtown shorthand for cracking down on the homeless). But what about the quality of life of all the people who live in residential hotels, who struggle every day, who live on the economic edge? Worth a listen, because it says a lot about why re-electing Daly is such a huge priority.

By Tim Redmond

Late on a Friday, at the slowest possible time in the news cycle, when politicians make moves that they hope will get very little media attention, Mayor Gavin Newsom vetoed a plan to require police foot patrols in high-crime areas. That marks a dramatic shift in his position. Just a few days ago, he was prepared to sign the bill.
The veto sets up a fascinating showdown: Are there eight votes on the board to override the mayor? The measure passed 7-3 on its first round, with only Supervisors Aaron Peskin, Michela Alioto-Pier and Sean Elsbernd in opposition and Jake McGoldrick absent. Willl eight votes hold?

By Steven T. Jones
Jimmy Carter said something truly remarkable on National Public Radio last night. The segment was about how the former U.S. president and his Carter Center are monitoring the elections in Nicaragua, just as they have in 67 other elections around the world over the last two decades.
For her final question, NPR’s Debbie Elliott asked about repeated voting irregularities here in the U.S. and whether maybe we should have international monitors to ensure our elections are free and fair. Carter agreed that “the United States electoral system is severely troubled and has many faults in it. It would not qualify at all for instance for participation by the Carter Center in observing.”
Among other things, the Carter Center requires uniform voting procedures through the country, roughly equal access to the media by major candidates, some kind of federal agency to ensure sound democratic standards, and the poor having equal access to polling places as the rich – none of which exists in the United States.
Think about this for a second: just as our current president is starting wars in the name of spreading democracy, a former president who is widely recognized as the premier international expert on democratic standards says that our system is worse that most others in place around the world. And that statement doesn’t even warrant a headline in the major newspapers on the day before a national election.

By Tim Redmond

Everyone's having fun with this story: Apparently, the Rob Black campaign in District 6 is paying people $15 an hour to act like volunteers. There's a great photo on Sfist that sets the scene. Then KPFA sent a reporter to interview Black "volunteers" and got some great stuff. Here's a partial transcript, thanks to leftinsf.

REPORTER JOSHUA SMITH: On a busy street corner in District 6, campaigners are out in full force. Eric Wilson is wearing an I Black Back Button and standing next to a large poster endorsing the candidate. He says he got involved with the campaign through the Glide Church. But from a glance you would never guess his political stance.

ERIC WILSON: “Allegedly I’m going to be paid fifteen dollars an hour cash. I support Chris Daly, but I’m doing this for Rob Black for the cash. And it’s an oxymoron, but well, you gotta do what you gotta do to eat in this city.”

In other words, Black doesn't actually have a lot of volunteers, so he's trying to buy them.

By Steven T. Jones
I just got another call from Warren Hellman, who said he was saddened to see a group he founded but later disavowed -- the sleazy conservative attack organization SFSOS -- is one of the only groups in town to oppose the school bond measure Proposition A, which Hellman actively supports (his band will even be playing the campaign's election night party at Slim's tonight).
"For once, there is goodwill all around on something," Hellman said of the school bond, which business groups such Committee on Jobs and progressives such as the SF People's Organization enthusiastically support.
But he's ashamed to see SFSOS opposing it, sending messages of concern to the group's leader, Wade Randlett, and funder, Don Fisher, asking the group to send a message to its list noting that most business groups support it.
"It's a personal vendetta on the part of the guy who runs SFSOS," Hellman said.
That guy, Randlett, suddenly started attacking the school district last year when the superintendent was at odds with the school board. Randlett was secretly having an extramarital affair at the time with the superintendent's spokesperson Lorna Ho (Randlett has since left his wife, Tamsin Randlett, and is still with Ho), which seemed to have been what prompted SFSOS to flip its focus from parks and potholes to the schools. And apparently, Randlett holds a grudge like few others, so he's urging voters to deny needed school facilities to the kids. It's a telling testament to the guy and the group that is leading the attacks on Chris Daly and openly supporting challenger Rob Black. It's not too late to grab a Daly sign from his 16th and Mission HQ and do everything you can to keep this kind of sleaze out of City Hall.

By Steven T. Jones
I just got another call from Warren Hellman, who said he was saddened to see a group he founded but later disavowed -- the sleazy conservative attack organization SFSOS -- is one of the only groups in town to oppose the school bond measure Proposition A, which Hellman actively supports (his band will even be playing the campaign's election night party at Slim's tonight).
"For once, there is goodwill all around on something," Hellman said of the school bond, which business groups such Committee on Jobs and progressives such as the SF People's Organization enthusiastically support.
But he's ashamed to see SFSOS opposing it, sending messages of concern to the group's leader, Wade Randlett, and funder, Don Fisher, asking the group to send a message to its list noting that most business groups support it.
"It's a personal vendetta on the part of the guy who runs SFSOS," Hellman said.
That guy, Randlett, suddenly started attacking the school district last year when the superintendent was at odds with the school board. Randlett was secretly having an extramarital affair at the time with the superintendent's spokesperson Lorna Ho (Randlett has since left his wife, Tamsin Randlett, and is still with Ho), which seemed to have been what prompted SFSOS to flip its focus from parks and potholes to the schools. And apparently, Randlett holds a grudge like few others, so he's urging voters to deny needed school facilities to the kids. It's a telling testament to the guy and the group that is leading the attacks on Chris Daly and openly supporting challenger Rob Black. It's not too late to grab a Daly sign from his 16th and Mission HQ and do everything you can to keep this kind of sleaze out of City Hall.

By Tim Redmond

Well, my friends, once again it's election day, and once again, our site is under attack. It looks like a serious, well-orchestrated effort aimed at shutting us down just when readers look to us the most for ballot recommendations.

The attack started around 10 last night, and continues to this minute. Fortunately, we were well prepared this time, and with our IT director, Joe Pennant, our web designer, John Adams at eline.com, and our host, Ronnie Enriquez at Infraswitch, all doing heroic work, we're still up and running.

We have backup plans, so we should be available all day no matter what. But if the site goes down briefly, don't panic -- just check back a few minutes later.

By G.W. Schulz

For locals familiar with the small town of Pacifica, nestled quietly off Highway 1 a few miles south of the city, major commercial development isn't the first thing that comes to mind. It's mostly a residential town with a Safeway, a Taco Bell, and not much else comprising its business community as far as chains go.

Over the years, various developers have targeted a patch of empty land near the beach that once served as an 87-acre rock quarry (known as Rockaway Quarry) until its owner grew old and Pacificans began using the now naturally outgrown tract as a network of unmarked trails.

An East Coast developer named R. Donahue Peebles bought the quarry last summer for $7.5 million and has pledged to build 350 exclusive hotel suites, 130 single-family homes, more than 200 town houses, live-work lofts and apartments, and an untold number of stores, such as the Gap and Trader Joe's.

But Peebles is up against one thing that has stopped developers in the past: a 1983 city ordinance that requires any developer to receive voter approval before including a housing element in the quarry's future. Pacifica has so much residential property as it stands that its early hope was to attract some commercial businesses to help fortify city coffers with new tax revenue. But Peebles stands to make a hefty chunk of change if housing is included in the development; he's told the business press in the past that single-family homes on the property could range anywhere from $3 million to $8 million.

Peebles has so far shrewdly declined to submit an official plan to the city, but through a series of public meetings has been promising a mixture of housing and commercial elements, both designed with New Urbanism concepts.

When we first reported this story a few months ago, records we'd obtained from Pacifica's City Hall showed Peebles had already spent $163,000 attempting to overcome the 1983 law with Measure L, which Pacifica residents will vote on today. Since then, we've learned that Peebles has spent $1.3 million, and critics are now complaining about two push polls residents have received in recent months. (One reported question: "Would you prefer this project or the big-box store it's currently zoned for?")

We noted that Peebles had hired a costly public relations firm (two staffers worked as communications hacks for both the Democratic AND Republican parties; only big money consulting gigs can truly ease partisan woes) and a group of Sacramento lawyers known for their success at carrying ballot measures. Tens of thousands more went to professional petition circulators. Peebles is no virgin to development battles. He's played a role in erecting major hotels and commercial office buildings inside cities on the East Coast where cronyism and pay-to-play politics are a fact of everyday life.

And Peebles isn't the first developer to take on Pacifica's 1983 law. Just a few years ago, a publicly traded Texas developer named Trammell Crow spent nearly $300,000 in an attempt to build 165,000 square feet of retail space, over 300 apartments and townhouses and a town center. The effort was easily defeated by voters. Some concern over how development at the quarry would impact the area ecologically still exists today.

Rain or shine, opponents of Measure L say they'll be taking a walk along the quarry this evening after an election party.

By Tim Redmond

It's a beautiful day, no rain in sight. I was driving my kids to school this morning through the Castro, and Alix Rosenthal was winning the battle of the people with street signs, if that matters. Polling places in Bernal Heights, where there is no supervisorial race, were pretty busy, which means turnout in D6, D4 and D8 should be high, too.

Robert Haaland is predicting Daly 51, Black 39, which would be nice. The reality is that there are more Daly voters than Black voters in the district, and if the Daly campaign can get them to the polls, he'll win handily.

The Chris Daly campaign just issued the following statement:

Almost 20 percent of the polling places in San Francisco’s District 6 are experiencing problems and irregularities in the early hours of Election Day, according to Supervisor Chris Daly’s campaign.

According to the Daly campaign, at least 10 out of 52 precincts have experienced problems ranging from late openings to voting machine failures to incomplete ballots. In one case, a precinct did not open until almost 90 minutes after the official 7 AM opening time, preventing many voters from casting their ballots. At the same time, the Department of Elections was telling the Daly campaign that the precinct was open. In another instance, witnesses saw a voting machine that was not turned on.

The Daly campaign encourages all media outlets to remind voters that the polls are open until 8 p.m. The campaign encourages all voters within District 6 to vote throughout the day.

By Tim Redmond

So, the folks at sfist posted an item earlier today about the door-hangers with the Guardian logo and the Guardian slate on them. Sfist got it wrong, then apologized, but I want to clear up any confusion here:

The Guardian doesn't do slate cards.

We do endorsements, based on our own independent analysis of what's best for the city, the state and the country. When we're done, some of the candidates inevitably decide to quote from our endorsements or use our headlines or our logo to promote their campaigns. That's fine with me -- political campaigns use newspaper quotes, headlines and logos all the time. Even if it wasn't fine with me, I don't think there's anything we could do to stop it.

A few years ago, some of the progressive campaigns got together and decided to reprint the entire list of Guardian endorsements as a door hanger "slate card." Again: Fine with me. Again: Nothing I could do if it wasn't. Once or twice since then, as a matter of courtesy, the campaigns have called to let me know what they're doing. I always say the same thing: Please, out of courtesy, make it clear that the card you produce is neither paid for by nor produced by the Bay Guardian. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.

In this case, I guess, there was some confusion, leading some to wonder if we "sold" our endorsements. We take our endorsments more seriously than anything else we do; just ask anyone who's been through the process or anyone who's ever worked here. We don't control what individual campaigns do with our endorsements. But we aren't involved, make no money off it, don't control content, don't decide where the doorhangers go and many times (like this year) didn't even know it was happening.

Hope that clears things up.

By Tim Redmond

Well, so far, with East Coast results trickling in, the Democrats have picked up three seats in the Senate. The GOP has picked up nothing. Nada. Looking good for the Democrats.

The House is a little slower going. So far, the Democrats are up two.

live report by Jon Beckhardt

The energy at Harry Ha's restaurant on Irving isn't exactly captiviting. Janry Mak's core campaign has yet to show at the election night party being held there. "It's hard to know," one supporter, who refuses to give his name, says of Mak's chances of becoming a Supervisor. "They say we won't know the results until Friday. That's San Francisco politics."

By Tim Redmond

Not a whole lot going on here yet, no results yet and it will be a while. But nationally, the Democrats have picked up nine in the house. Good news so far.

The race that I find the most interesting is the Rhose Island Senate contest, where Lincoln Chaffee, a popular liberal Republican who opposed the war, lost anyway. People were so mad at Bush and the GOP that they voted against a Republican who had soaring popularity ratings.

Says something.

By Tim Redmond

Well, the very, very early results are in and it looks surprisingly good for Chris Daly. Daly didn't even run an absentee voters campaign, and the absentees are always conservative, but Black leads Daly just 784 to 700.

Bevan Dufty is well ahead of Alix Rosenthal, 1571 to 513.

By the way, the Dems just took the House.

By Tim Redmond

Still very early, but it looks like this:

The leaders in the race for school board are Hydra Mendoza, Jane Kim and Dan Kelly. Interesting that Kelly, an incumbent, is in third for three slots, and that's just the early votes. This bears watching. For now, though, good news for Jane Kim.

All the incumbents are way ahead in the Community College Board race. That will change, I think.

Big surprises in district four: So far, Ed Jew, who wasn't even on my radar for this race, is ahead, but it's very close: Ron Dudum is right behind him. Jaynry Mak and Doug Chan are well behind.

The only proposition that is behind (an d not far behind) is the tenant protection measure, H. It's trailing 51-48. That's not bad for early absentees.

Still no more results from here, but Chris Bowman, a Republican political consultant with a knack for calling races early, says Daly, Dufty and Alioto-Pier are headed for re-election. District 4, he says, is a "wild card"; with Ed Jew, Ron Dudum, Jaynry Mak and Doug Chan all neck and neck, it's anybody's to win or lose.

By G.W. Schulz

District 10 incumbent Sophie Maxwell was winning by a large margin when I showed up at the Fanatics Sports Bar near Third Street and Cesar Chavez. About 75 supporters were around at that time among tables spread with confetti and food.

A group of large TVs were showing results on the walls, with former mayor Willie Brown flapping his jaw as a commentator on one of them.

Live report from Sarah Phelan

Krissy Keefer, the candidate for Congress, District 8, rose amid a flurry of Peruvian pan pipes at Café Boheme, dressed in bright green, to address the crowd of her supporters. Her platform had been: US out of Iraq, impeach Bush, stop global warming. With Democrat Nancy Pelosi leading at 77 percent -- looks like she may be the next Speaker of the House – Keefer had this to say:

“The most important thing now is to see if measure J passes. Pelosi has to look at what her district wants -- impeachment for Bush. Her district was against the Iraq war from the start.

It’s time for Nancy Pelosi to take the interests of San Francisco and put them at the center rather than the margins. People from SF will be watching.”