Before discussing the endorsements - a few important reminders: 

If you don't aready receive Vote-by-Mail ballots and you would like to, please click here to request online. You can also download the Vote-by-Mail form, fill out, print and either mail to or drop off at the Department of Elections in the basement of City Hall.  (1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, City Hall, Room 48, San Francisco, CA 94102) Mail your ballot by October 31 to ensure timely delivery or drop it off at City hall or any polling place by the close of the polls at 8:00pm.

And now on to the endorsement news....

Eboard makes recommendations to membership after 6 hour marathon of candidate and ballot measure presentations. 

August 22, 2015 - Eight of the nine eboard members spent 6 hours interviewing candidates, listening to presentations and asking a lot of questions. Although some recommendations were unanimous, some required considerable discussion and were by majority vote. We don't always agree, but we do have serious respectful discussions based on our own research, questionnaire responses, interviews and presentations.

Members will make the final decision regarding endorsements at our Membership Endorsement Meeting, on Wednesday, September 9, 2015, at 6:30 pm at Henry's Hunan Restaurant, 4753 Mission Street in the ♥ of  District 11.

RSVP HERE

This will be the Club's final endorsement positions for the November 3 election.  All continuing members in good standing are eligible to vote. All members of one month or more are also eligible to vote.

 Please feel free to comment on the endorsements, pro or con on our facebook page or to this posting. Without further ado, the following are the San Francisco District 11 Democratic Club eboard recommendations to the members:

SAVE THE DATE!!!!

Come join us on Wednesday, April 8, 2015 at 6:30pm for a Membership Meeting at the Ingleside Police Station Community Room in Balboa Park. Come on by for some snacks and political discussions on important issues facing our district. Click here for a map and to RSVP.

First on the agenda is a presentation of the Prop 13 Split Role Project. Evolve-CA, is a non-profit that seeks to address the political third rail of Prop 13. For anyone not alive in 1976, Proposition 13 was a so called tax relief initiative that helped the elderly stay in their homes despite rising home values and consequent property taxes. The problem is that it was not finely crafted or narrowly tailored to protect the homes of low-income or fixed income residents. Their plan for Proposition 13 is to split the residential tax relief from the corporate tax relief. Corporations have received the bulk of the tax savings, not elderly. The tax savings undercut funding for public schools, libraries and other public institutions. We all know the result of that. Evolve is collecting endorsements from as many elected officials as possible and speaking to local political clubs regarding their push for a Prop 13 split role.

Second, we have scheduled proponents and opponents of the anti-airbnb ballot initiative in San Francisco. A representative from sharebettersf.com and a representative from airbnb will discuss the initiative and take your questions. The proposition seeks to further regulate short-term residential rentals to tourists, like those offered by Airbnb beyond the Board of Supervisors regulations set forth in 2014. Cluck here for more information on the current regulations and the proposed regulations.

Third, we will have a representative from CA DISCLOSE to discuss the status of Senate Bill 52 and the current Assembly Bill 700. These bills will create transparency for political ads and require the top three funders of ballot measure ads to be shown clearly and unambiguously on the ads themselves.  Most importantly, it requires that the funders disclosed on ads be the original sources of the contributions to the committee that paid for the ad, even if funders try to hide behind multiple layers of committees or organizations. In other words, there will be no more "People for a Better Tomorrow" or other such deceptive euphemisms for committees to obfuscate the actual sources of funding. SB52 sailed through the senate and more than 400 organizations and 80,000 voters have endorsed this as fundamental to voter rights.

Last, but not least, Sheriff Mirkarimi will give us an update on his initiatives to combat recidivism and promote rehabilitation. His efforts, in the face of State mandated realignment, has conrtributed to the low jail population. The Sheriff's Department manages six county jails across San Francisco and the Peninsula. 

Please note the budget discussion is postponed until our September meeting.