San Francisco Bay Guardian

Prop. 16 is going to be close. It's wavering back and forth, with PG&E losing votes as Central Valley precincts report, but picking up votes in (gasp) L.A. That one's going to go on a while. So will the San Francisco DCCC race -- right now, some progressive incumbents, like Robert Gabriel Haaland, are missing the cut -- but only very narrowly. Haaland has 5925 votes, and Joe Alioto Veronese has 5980. Eric Quezada, another progressive, has 5462. On such tiny margins does the future of the San Francisco Democratic Party hang.Read more »

Steven T. Jones reports that the folks at the Newsom victory party aren't just celebrating Gavin's overwhelming win; they're looking forward to the fall. The Republicans have nominated two big-business executives for governor and senate -- and that's not a good political position to be in these days. "I think it's stunningly politically tone deaf to nominate two Wall Street CEOs at the top of the ticket," noted Dan Newman, a Newsom communications advisor.

It appears at this point as if Victoria Kolakowski, who is leading with 46 percent of the vote, may become the first transgender trial-court judge in the United States.

Kamala Harris is far ahead in the AG. primary, and we can call that one for her at this point. Chris Kelly spent a lot of money and got nowhere. Dave Jones is going to win the Dem insurance commish nod. The Supt. of Public Instruction is more interesting; Larry Acevas, a retired school superintendent who has the support of the L.A. Times but wasn't much on the political radar in a race involving two high-profile Dems from the state Legislature, is actually in the lead statewide. Read more »

Mercury Insurance, sad to say, is doing a bit better than PG&E; Prop. 17 has a 55-45 lead. But other than Marin, these are all fairly conservative counties reporting. In Marin, both PG&E and Mercury are getting hammered. If that pattern stays true in San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Jose and Sacramento, then these corporate scams may be in trouble.

One of the first telling primary races is over, and it appears that Blanche Lincoln has narrowly survived a primary challenge in Arkansas. The progressive Dems who fought hard to get rid of a senator who helped kill the public option and might as well be a Republican will be unhappy, but the fact that even with the (tepid) support of the president she only squeaked by with the narrowist of victories sends a signal to other fence-sitting Dems. Read more »