Cheng pulls in fourth for District 3

Anna Rendall reports:

At 10 p.m., Claudine Cheng was in high spirits despite that the polls indicated she was in fourth for District 3 supervisor. With 8 percent of the vote she was far behind David Chui, who currently leads with 38 percent, according to the San Francisco Department of Elections Web site.

Surrounded by local residents, family, friends and a great food spread, Cheng, former deputy attorney for the city and Treasure Island Development Authority President, pointed out that the real results won’t be in until Friday. Besides, there was plenty of cheering in the room for Barack Obama, who had just won the presidency.

However, Cheng's campaign manager, Ryan Chamberlain, wasn’t so upbeat at the moment. He said that he knew a couple of weeks ago where her race for District 3 supervisor was headed.

“A few weeks ago it became a Joe Alioto versus David Chui race ... not so much about what they were doing or what they were saying but because of the negativ[ity],” said Chamberlain. “ The left started beating up on Joe ... the right started beating up on David. The name recognition was that you’re either on side or the other. When that happened I could tell we just started to get lost in the debate."

But Cheng said she enjoyed her candidacy, calling it a “personal journey.”

“It’s really quite an experience,” said Cheng. “[It was] an opportunity to meet so many residents in the neighborhood,” she said.

“It was a really fun campaign to work on,” said Stephanie Tucker, who worked on Cheng’s campaign as a "policy person". Tucker, who has worked with Mark Leno and the Late Night Coalition, said, “It’s been a very enlightening experience for me. Claudine would be perceived as a moderate although she has really progressive ideas on things.”

Cheng has a track record that shows her experience with housing rights and land use, and she said that for her current campaign, the main issue was bringing in revenue to the city in the middle of the financial crisis. "In San Francisco, it’s really magnified,” she said. “I would like to see a more business-friendly environment.” In addition, she ran on the issues of “quality of living, homelessness, clean streets and affordable housing.”

Unfortunately, the polls Monday night didn’t show the most ideal results, but Cheng wasn't miffed. Until those results come in, Cheng said she is “psychologically prepared” to wait out the week.

“I was really disappointed that there weren’t more female candidates and that there weren’t more endorsements of female candidates,” said Tucker.