by Mark Aspillera
An empty Civic Center Plaza, while abandoned political signs ask for votes for canditate Ralph Nader, who only got 1 percent of the vote. (photo by Marvin J. Ramirez)
Nov. 4, 2008’s historic election night was marked with slightly more conventional results on the state and local level, but not without its own upsets.
In San Francisco County, Superior Court Judge Seat 12 was won by Gerardo Sandoval, a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Sandoval defeated current Superior Court Judge Thomas Mellon with 54.84 percent of the vote.
Of the seven races for seats on the county Board of Supervisors, only three were decided as as of Nov. 5, 2008. Districts 5 and 7 were carried with comfortable majorities by Ross Mirikami and Sean Elsbernd respectively. Carmen Chu won the seat for District 4 by a closer margin with 50.16 percent of the vote.
Districts 9 and 11 remain undecided, but led by Latino candidates David Campos and John Avalos respectively. Campos’ 6,065 votes represent 35.52 percent of the vote, while Avalos’ count of 4,371 is followed closely by 3,562 for Ahsha Safai.
The four Latino candidates out of seven for Board of Supervisors District 9 hold the top four ranks in terms of vote counts as of Nov. 5. Trailing Campos are Mark Sanchez, Eric Quezada and Eva Royale. Sánchez held 29.49 percent of the vote with 5,036. Quezada came in third with 21.26 percent, 3,631 votes. Royale, whose endorsers include Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, trails in fourth with 6.07 percent, 1,037 votes.
It might be a reason why Civic Center was empty. A loud party of Obama’s supporters took a fraction of Valencia St. as their own on election night to celebrate.
San Francisco Unified School Districts four new board members are Norman Yee, Sandra Fewer, Barbara Lopez and Rachael P. Norton. López was a guest speaker at Oct. 31, 2008’s anti-ICE protests in front of the San Francisco Immigration and Customs Enforcement building. Lopez claimed 8.94 percent with 47,101 votes in her name.
In Berkeley, Latino candidate and Rent Board Commissioner Jesse Arreguin leads the as-of-yet undecided race for District 4 councilmember with 49.47 percent of the vote.
Behind Arreguin, candidate Terry Doran trails with 36.1 percent.
In San Mateo County’s race for Colma City Council, Raquel “Rae” Gonzalez won one of three open council seats. Following Gonzalez into Colma’s council are Diana I. Colvin and Joseph A. Silva. Fourth candidate Charito A. Casanas fell short with 146 votes, 21.5 percent.
Carlos Romero and Laura Martínez, two of several Latino candidates for the City of East Palo Alto’s three open city council positions, carried the day alongside incumbent councilmember A. Peter Evans.
Latino candidates won all of the three board member positions open in the Hayward Unified School District. Newcomers Luis Reynoso and Maribel Heredia were voted in along with school board incumbent Sarah Gonzáles.
In San Leandro, Hermy B. Almonte gained the single open board member seat in Area 1 of San Leandro Unified School District with 58.41 percent.
Adding to the gains of Latino candidates in the Bay Area education sphere was Guillermo “Memo” Morantes, whose 65.2 percent won him the open position for Trustee Area #7 of the San Mateo Board of Education’s Board of Trustees.
Gerardo Sandoval
On the state level, the California State Assembly retains its Democratic majority with all 80 members having been up for reelection Assembly member and Majority Leader Alberto Torrico (D-Newark) was reelected to District 20 with 71.7 percent of the vote, beating Republican Jeffrey Ward.
In many of the State Assembly districts they ran in, Latino candidates have carried the vote with exceptions such as Fran Florez, who lost in District 30 to Republican candidate Danny Gillmore, and Manuel Cosme, the Republican candidate for District 8.
In the House of Representatives, incumbent Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, won the District 8 seat with 71.6 percent of the vote over San Francisco-based Independent Cindy Sheehan, who came in a distant second with 17 percent.
California’s controversial Proposition 8, which eliminates the right of same-sex couples to marry in the state, passed with 52.1 percent of voters in favor.
San Francisco local propositions had few close calls, with the exception of Proposition B. Prop B, which would have appropriated a portion of property tax to allocate towards affordable housing in the City of San Francisco, failed with 50.54 percent of voters against.
Proposition A, which would have the City and County of San Francisco issue $887.4 million in bonds across the length of several fiscal years to San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center to “ensure availability” in the case of a natural disaster, passed with 84.29 percent of voters in favor.
Proposition K, the move to decriminalize prostitution in San Francisco, lost with 57.56 percent of voters voting against it.
