Linda Colfax is going to win the open judicial seat without a runoff. She’s got 52 percent of the vote, and her lead is growing. Michael Nava and Richard ulmer appear headed for a fall runoff. Right now, the progressives have 17 votes on the DCCC, one short of what they need for a majority. Veronese is out, Haaland is in …. and with 70 percent of the votes counted, this may come down to election-day absentees.
SFBG Blogs
The impact of Prop. 14
Proposition 14 was the sleeper on the ballot; it’s only there because Abel Maldonado refused to vote for a state budget unless both parties agreed to put it before the voters. And it’s winning. The impact of open primaries could be dramatic; it could hurt progressive candidates, pretty much wipe out third parties and potentially change the shape of the state Legislature. Maldonado likes it because it shifts the balance of power toward “centrists” — which actually means people who can raise a lot of campaign money. It’s going to take a while to sort out the impacts of Prop. 14, but it doesn’t bode well.
Nail biters
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.
An interesting note: If this race is a preview of the fall, District 8 is going to be very close. Scott Wiener and Rafael Mandelman, both incumbents, are going to get re-elected, and then run against each other for supervisor. Wiener has 7875 votes; Mandelman has 7216.
From the progressive DCCC party
Alex Emslie gives this report from the progressive DCCC victory party:
As of 9 p.m., close to 100 people have gathered at the Project 1 art gallery and DJ lounge to celebrate the progressive slate for Democratic County Central Committee.
At this point, candidates are beginning to trickle into the dimly lit gallery, chatting with the crowd over the quiet din from a DJ booth in the back.
“It’s a beautiful array of San Francisco progressives,” Assembly District 13 candidate Alix Rosenthal said of the partygoers. She said the most important part of her platform is getting more women elected locally. She also wants to preserve the nightlife culture in San Francisco.
“I’m getting distracted because I can’t believe I’m winning,” Rosenthal added after checking election results behind the DJ booth.
David Cutler, a San Francisco resident since 1987, stood by the bar waiting for more candidates to arrive. “It’s nice to have this much accessibility to our local politicians,” he said.
The real question on everyone’s mind, though, is how the election will turn out; the progressives currently control the commitee, but only narrowly. “Right now, we have about 16 or 17 votes, and we need 18,” Sup. John Avalos said. “I think we’re going to catch a couple more.”
The GOP’s Wall Street ticket
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.
OMG Jerry Brown …
From Calitics:
Jerry Brown speaking now in LA. LA County Sheriff Lee Baca introduced him as the man who “implemented Prop 13.” Oh great. This campaign season is gonna suck. Back to the 1970s for Jerry Brown: we need “discipline, humility, live within our means.” Brown sounds like he’s going to run as the apostle of austerity.
A bit of good news from the East Bay
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.
Some scary stuff
The results on Prop. 14 — the open primaries law — are a bit alarming. This thing’s passing with 60 percent of the vote — and winning every single county that’s reported so far. And Prop. 15, the election-reform law, is losing big. I know that open primaries sound appealing (as long as you don’t stop to think about it), but why would people vote against a law that creates public financing for just one statewide office, at no cost to the taxpayers? I’m also a little disturbed that Prop. 16 is doing so well in Los Angeles. That’s where all of the Yes votes seem to be coming from. Cause for serious concern.
Kamala has won. So has Dave Jones
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. Tom Torlakson, who has the support of the teachers union, is close behind him – -and Gloria Romero, the fan of school privatization, is way behind.
San Francisco results — the absentees
The first results are in from San Francisco, and the typically conservative absentee votes include a few surprises. Linda Colfax, a lesbian public defender, is well ahead in the open judicial seat, with 47 percent of the vote. The next closest challenger, Harry Dorfman, has just 33 percent; I think it’s safe to say Linda’s going to win this one, quite possibly without a November runoff. The other judicial race is much closer — the incumbent, Richard Ulmer, has 46 percent and Michael Nava 41 percent. The third major candidate, Dan Dean, has 11 percent — so a majority of the voters are siding with the challengers, and since the absentees are probably the strongest pro-Ulmer votes out there, this one’s heading for a runoff.
PG&E and Mercury insurance are both getting hammered in San Francisco. PG&E is also losing badly in Sacramento. And since vote-rich Los Angeles is a public power city, PG&E’s in trouble.
The DCCC is still way too close to call, and it’s way too early to say who’s going to emerge on top. Stay tuned.
Prop. 17 — a bit futher ahead
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.
PG&E has an early lead, but …
PG&E has an early lead, with just a small fraction of a few counties reporting. Right now the Yes on 16 vote is 52.5 to 47.5, but there are no big cities reporting in yet. And in eight of the ten counties where there are results, the measure is losing. So I would say at this point, PG&E has a lot to worry about.
The news from back East
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. The bad news: The Republicans will probably pick up this seat in November.
Yes on 16 poaches supporters, No on 16 snags Pelosi, and SFPUC disputes Matier & Ross
On the brink of the June 8 election, the clock is ticking before the moment of truth on Proposition 16 — Pacific Gas & Electric Co.’s anti-competitive ballot initiative, which has earned widespread criticism for aiming to snuff out competitive community-choice aggregation programs to put a lock on its own power monopoly.
Over the weekend, Speaker of the House and San Francisco Democrat Nancy Pelosi came out against Prop 16. “I have long supported public power. Proposition 16 would make it more difficult for communities to choose more renewable energy through public power,” Pelosi said in a statement. “I join the environmental community, energy policy leaders, the California Democratic Party, the California Labor Federation and newspapers across the state in urging Californians to vote ‘NO ON 16!’”
Meanwhile, the PG&E-funded campaign supporting Prop 16 appears to have poached the online identities of some opponents in order to make their own flanks look stronger. Christy Michaels, who has advocated against Prop 16 through her work at the Corde Madera-based Sunshine Center in Marin Co., told the Guardian she was surprised when a Facebook ad featuring the photo of one of her fellow opponents popped up on her Facebook page, naming her ally as a supporter of Prop 16.
“I called her up because I thought she was confused,” Michaels explained. “I said, do you know you have an ad saying that you are Yes on 16? She said, ‘No! I’m a No!’”
The two said they believed that PG&E had utilized their photographs and information –without their permission — in online ads that were blasted to all of their Facebook contacts, stating that they were supporters of Prop 16. Michaels discovered, to her dismay, that an ad had also been created naming her as a yes on 16 supporter, and was being sent around to all of her Facebook friends.
Michaels said she snapped photos of the web pages, and reported the incident to the Attorney General and Facebook. Michaels believes the Yes on 16 campaign got a hold of their information and friend lists when one advocate signed on as a supporter of 16 in order to see what PG&E was saying to the consumer.
“It’s alerting people to how they do this manipulation to make it look like we’re yes, when really, we’re no,” Michaels said. “They’re able to identify who are the advocates, and then they’ve targeted our market. This is how the corporate media is learning how to use Facebook.”
Calls to PG&E and Yes on 16 weren’t returned by press time.
At the same time, it appears a contract for CleanPower SF, the CCA program that has already been designated official by the state, will finally be introduced to the Board of Supervisors tomorrow. In today’s Chronicle, columnists Phil Matier and Andrew Ross tell readers that “customers will be paying considerably more than what they fork over now to PG&E” under the new CCA. But the pair doesn’t name a source, and they do not appear to have contacted anyone who has advocated for CCA.
Tyrone Jue and Charles Sheehan, spokespeople for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, disputed the claim made in Matier & Ross’ column. “We’re still confident that we’re going to have a contract that’s competitive with PG&E,” he said. The pair said they had no idea who would’ve told Matier & Ross otherwise. “Tomorrow, Ross [Mirkarimi] is introducing a resolution at roll call, along with documents that will include the contract and the term sheet,” Sheehan said. From there, legislative review of the contract will begin.
“It’s pure speculation,” Sup. Ross Mirkarimi, the city’s greatest proponent of community choice, told the Guardian when asked about the Matier & Ross story. “The fact that Matier & Ross did not speak with any of us spotlights their bias.”
Meanwhile, if Matier & Ross’s source is onto something — which the SFPUC says they’re not — then the speculation only deals with the cost of electricity in the short-term. If San Francisco had ownership of renewable-energy sources, the city would be locked into a golden situation once those facilities were paid off. Power sources like wind and solar would be free, compared with PG&E’s charges for carbon-based fuels. This year, PG&E is asking for a $4 billion rate hike, which will amount to a 30 percent increase over the next three years – and who knows how much more beyond that. Any price increase for CCA would have to be taken in comparison with PG&E’s rising costs. And current electiricy prices today don’t factor in so-called externalities — oil spills, asthma, rising sea levels, coal-mining blasts, or any of the other problems associated with industries that process or burn fossil fuels.
It’s sort of like this: If a family drove an unsafe old clunker that got 12 miles to the gallon, and the parents knew they were driving their kids around in a death trap that was eating their paychecks away in gasoline, they’d have to pay a lot up front for a new Prius. But in the long term, once that Prius was paid for, that family — and the environment — would be better off.
PG&E is sort of like that old clunker. Its business model relies on the same old fossil fuels that it always used (even now, PG&E is proposing new power plants in Contra Costa County), with plans for renewable energy development that are modest in comparison with the city’s ambitious goal of offering 51 percent renewable power. And just as a clunker comes with safety issues and an undeniable expiration date, PG&E’s power mix only helps ensure that climate change will continue unabated. If Prop 16 passes, it’s broken fan belts and gas-guzzling from here on out.
“I’m hearing we have a chance,” Mirkarimi noted when asked if he’d heard anything more about how Prop 16 was faring in the polls. “But we could kill it with low voter turnout.”
Get out there and vote NO on Prop 16.
The Daily Blurgh: Mapping vice, talking smack
Curiosities, quirks, oddites, and items from around the Bay and beyond
Hope: Keep riding the good ride!
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Chow/Assholes: McDonald’s hates on Oakland melty cheese establishment.
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Maps/Crime: I have scaled the heights of vandalism but prostitution was a much more perilous climb.
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Parenting/LGBT: Lesbian moms rule, haters drool!
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WTF: Show about nothing earns $2.7 billion from re-runs.
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Californian beards are the best beards in the country
all photos by Simone Paddock
Glory upon ye, Californians, for your beards have triumphed! Yes, even without the competitive edge of Jack Passion (two time Full Natural Beard world champ and Bay resident, who sat this one out to emcee), the Golden State prospered with three out of four first places at the National Beard and Mustache Championships in Bend, Oregon this weekend. Per his promise, Jack Passion filled us in with what went down with the beardos.
“It was great, it was perfect,” Jack told me regarding the national champs, via his cellular device. “It was a party and everyone in Bend, Oregon was going nuts. It was very classy and on the level. I may have done a better job emceeing than I do with my beard.”
“There’s no question I would have done well in this competition,” he continued. Yes Jack, but… what about the beards that were actually vying for the prize?
Willi Chevalier, 1st place freestyle beard: “I think the German guy who came really showed everybody what can be done with a beard. It’s like he’s saying ‘hey Americans, this is it.’ ”
Aarne Bielefeldt, 1st place full beard: “I’d beat him anytime.”
Larry McClure, 1st place moustache: “It was his first time competing. He kind of took us by surprise.”
But enough with the rest of the field– when can we expect Jack back in the ring? “I love competing, which to me is always winning,” the ever-modest Passion said. “For the rest of the year, I’m just going to plaster my name in the record books.” He’s got two events this fall, in addition to the world championships in Austria. Stateside, you’re looking at the Petaluma Whiskerino (Oct 9), and Nevada Day in Carson City (Oct 29-31).
Which, by the way, sounds like it’s worth a stop if you find yourself still wandering the desert a month after Burning Man. “Have you ever heard of Nevada Day?” Passion asked me. “Everyone has loaded guns, and knives, and open containers. The parade will go; school marching band, brothel. My friend bought a beer off of a ten year old girl in the street. It’s the end of the world. It’s the best thing ever.” Sold!
SFBG Radio: Johnny and Tim on June 8 ballot props
Today, Johnny and Tim talk about the June 8th ballot props, why Republicans ought to vote No on 16 — and the monopoly power of PG&E and Comcast. You can listen after the jump.
sfbgradio6/7/2010 by sfbgradioThree words: Vote June 8
The problem with the June 8th ballot is that the Democrats aren’t fighting with each other.
I mean, it’s great that Jerry Brown and Barbara Boxer will emerge from the primary season unscathed, flush with money and ready to go after opponents who have been battered and beaten mercilessly in their own primaries. It’s great that Steve Poizner drove down Meg Whitman’s positives and made her look so bad that she’s now behind Jerry Brown (who isn’t even campaigning yet) in the polls. It’s great that Carly Fiorina was forced so far to the right that she had to endorse allowing people on the no-fly list to buy handguns. The expensive and ugly GOP primary battles may have saved Boxer’s job and put Brown in the governor’s office.
But around the state, Democrats don’t have as much reason to vote. Fiorina, Poizner, Whitman — they’re all spending millions to bring Republicans to the polls. There’s no similar statewide GOTV operation on the Democratic side. So the electorate could wind up skewing considerably to the right — and that’s going to hurt us on the ballot propositions.
Johnny Angel and I were talking on our radio show today about the fact that Republicans — those who aren’t complete idiots — ought to oppose Prop. 16 and Prop. 17. Those aren’t partisan measures; they’re just corporate scams. And nobody from any political party likes Pacific Gas and Electric Co. these days.
But the reality is, PG&E has aimed its Prop. 16 campaign directly at the heart of the more conservative electorate, with its anti-government message. And Mercury insurance has aimed its campaign at the better-off consumers who aren’t likely to drop their car insurance any time soon. I don’t see Prop. 16 winning big in any constituency — but it will do better among Republicans.
So Democrats have to get to the polls — and get their friends to the polls, and their families to the polls, and their neighbors to the polls, and a few dead people, too, if they can find them (just kidding, Arthur Evans, lighten up).
And in San Francisco, where there are no races for mayor or supervisor, it’s easy to want to sit this one out — but that would be a major mistake. The election for Democratic County Central Commitee alone is worth a trip to the polling place, since the makeup of that body will have a significant impact on the fall supervisorial races.
So you have to vote, folks. Here’s our endorsements.
Citizen Kane just got smaller
By Ryan Lattanzio
It should come as no surprise that Netflix has just previewed its new iPhone app. That’s right. Now you can stream unlimited movies for a small monthly fee on your cell phone. Writer Ramu Nagappan of Macworld says it will offer “the full Netflix experience: you can stream video (over Wi-Fi and 3G), view recommendations, browse genres, and access your queue.”
Though cellular-ized cinema is nothing less than a bastardization of the art form (empirically if you ask me — it’s almost oxymoronic), who can blame Netflix for not wanting to resist the demands of the digital age?
If seeing a movie once meant sitting in a dark room with a bunch of strangers, now it means sitting on the subway or waiting in an airport terminal. Just imagine trying to watch Citizen Kane on your cell phone. How do you cover the eyes of a kid who might look over your shoulder as you watch a Lars von Trier in a waiting room where the MPAA doesn’t exist?
And now, if you can watch widescreen epics on your little phone, it’s only a matter of time before you can make your own. There’s already a new wave of cell phone cinema out there dating back a few years, like New Love Meetings, a 93-minute update of a Pasolini documentary shot in the MPEG4 format. It’s a shitty-looking movie, but it’s out there.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lY5g-nRPCrk
Because I can’t say it any better myself, I leave you with David Lynch’s polemic against the iPhone-as-movie theater. The man’s a prophet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKiIroiCvZ0
World’s best (sharp-dressed) drummer?
You decide. (h/t Nick Larimer and Richard Bott)
The best worst I’ve ever had
By Sam Stander
There are few fandoms so charmingly enthusiastic as the hordes of video-hounds who treasure Troll 2 (1990), by many accounts the worst movie ever made. This past Saturday night, the East Bay took its turn in the publicity blitz for Best Worst Movie, a documentary about the Troll 2 phenomenon, directed by the ridiculous horror flick’s then-child star Michael Paul Stephenson. Stephenson appeared with his costar George Hardy in San Francisco on Friday, but only Hardy was on hand for the Saturday night screenings at Berkeley’s Shattuck Cinemas.
The theater wasn’t full, but many of its seats were filled with Troll 2 diehards — the woman seated to my right sported a green shirt bearing the legend “GOBLIN.” The uninitiated might be wondering what such a shirt has to do with a movie named for trolls; well, Troll 2 doesn’t feature any trolls, but rather a town (called Nilbog) filled with sap-thirsty vegetarian goblins. About ten minutes before the lights went down for Best Worst Movie, one guy in the audience loudly paraphrased Stephenson’s revelatory line from the film, shouting, “Oh no, Nilbog is ‘goblin’ spelled backwards!”
VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTfjb8Fgiyg
These were, by and large, not Troll 2 virgins, and their reactions to the documentary were warm and joyful. Even some of Best Worst ‘s most uncomfortable or sad moments drew laughter — Stephenson’s movie impeccably balances the camp-informed following of the film with tenderly observed portraits of the ordinary, extraordinary, and occasionally mad participants in the original film fiasco.
As the credits for Best Worst Movie rolled, George Hardy, who plays Troll 2 ’s father figure, Michael Waits, took to the front of the theater, mic in hand. He’s 55 now, a well-established dentist in Alexander City, Alabama, and after a first wave of engaging with his cultish fans that began a few years ago, he’s back on the road to promote the documentary. On Saturday he gave numerous shout-outs to his cousins and dentist friends in the audience at Shattuck Cinemas, often speaking directly to them.
VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tFgZ6DmXmw
Hardy answered questions about the experience with the mostly Italian crew of Troll 2 — “pretty unprofessional, really” — as well as participating in the documentary. For one part of Best Worst, where the core cast returned to the house where much of Troll 2 takes place, he indicated they paid $1500 to clean up the house just so they could enter it.
Hardy spoke in awed tones of a dental patient from 12 years back who had come out of the woodwork for the San Francisco screening the night before — she lived just down the street from the Lumiere Theatre. But the real emotion came when he started to talk about Michael Paul Stephenson, for whom he seems to have a great deal of admiration and love. His light, scatterbrained yet sincere approach to answering the audience’s questions might have been due to tipsiness. “I did have a glass of wine before I came over here,” he admitted.
VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OiD6IlBmtk
I asked Hardy if he’s received any other offers for film roles since the resurgence of Troll 2. He pointed out that he has appeared in one other film, Street Team Massacre (2007), but volunteered the fact that he can’t memorize lines.
Hardy said this was something like theater number 78 on the Best Worst Movie tour, but declared Shattuck Cinemas one of the nicest venues. Then it was back to number 77 again, the Lumiere in SF, to do another Q&A and introduce a midnight screening of the offending film itself, Troll 2. That screening was similarly attended by a small knot of fans, but for those in the audience who hadn’t had the pleasure, Hardy offered, “It’s a religious experience, I promise.”
VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KCct4RwLNM
If crime in San Francisco was shown as peaks and valleys
…it would look like this.
And what a revealing landscape the city suddenly becomes.
If you scroll down through the many crime visualization images that are posted at doug mccune’s blog, you’ll find a visual for prostitution, along with the following comments:
“My favorite map is the one for prostitution (maybe “favorite” is the wrong choice of words there). Nearly all the arrests for prostitution in San Francisco occur along what I’m calling the “Mission Mountain Ridge”, which runs up Mission St between 24th and 16th. I love the way the mountain range casts a shadow over much of the city. There’s also a second peak in the Tenderloin (which I’m dubbing Mt. Loin).”
Street Threads: Look of the Day
Today’s Look: Anna, Valencia and 19th Street
Tell us about your look: “Cheap and free.”