San Francisco Young Republicans announce endorsements for Mayor of San Francisco

 

The San Francisco Young Republicans (“SFYR”) met this month to issue the organization’s endorsements for the City and County of San Francisco’s Mayor’s race.  The three candidates endorsed by a supermajority were #1. Mark Farrell, #2. Ellen Lee Zhou, and #3. Aaron Peskin.  The race uses ranked-choice voting, so voters are encouraged to rank all 3 in that order.

The three core values of the Republican Party are law & order, prosperity, and beauty.  Each of these candidates’ campaign personifies one of those points.

First, our top endorsed candidate, former Mayor Mark Farrell is seen as the top law & order guy in the race.  Unlike the YIMBY Democrats who perpetually try to force San Francisco to bear the brunt of providing housing to vagrants, the Farrell campaign takes a different approach.

Our #1 choice, Mark Farrell calls for using city-owned property 100 miles away in Santa Cruz as the location for “treatment to help people suffering from addiction.”  This is the correct approach.  Providing treatment in an isolated area protects San Franciscans from the externalities caused by vagrants, and by bringing them far away from their urban drug dealers it gives them a fair chance to get reformed.  Farrell isn’t perfect, but on law and order issues, he is the top candidate running. Moreover, in a close race between Farrell and Breed, Farrell is the better choice. To wit, his hardline stance on deploying the National Guard to mitigate the drug markets operating with impunity in downtown San Francisco may be heavy-handed but necessary. Breed has had years to take such a strong position and has failed, while Farrell has publicly declared it as a viable option on the table. This election may come down to a few hundred votes, and we need a changing of the guard. We need a mayor that is friendlier to commerce, capital and small businesses, and much tougher on the armed gangs selling drugs to the homeless and organizing retail theft.

Number 2 pick, social conservative Ellen Lee Zhou makes waves in San Francisco as being the only Republican on the ballot for Mayor.  Democrat-run media outlets often lie to their readers, pretending that she is not in the race.  But she is, and she will make an impact on election day.  We would have liked to have ranked her higher, but SFYR wanted to see a candidate who showed the fundraising diligence needed to get past the election department’s matching funds threshold in our top spot.  For a Republican to win in San Francisco, they need to be serious about cultivating both volunteers and donors.

Ellen’s campaign has prosperity as a central issue: She promises to “[b]ring business back and create jobs”, and to “[c]reate a free market for landlords and tenants, win-win to help both parties.”  A former City worker, she understands that for San Francisco to have an efficient economy, our residents’ and business owners’ goals can’t be stalled forever in the permitting department.  Ellen promises “Full staff [for] each department [to] ensure the quality of life for San Franciscans.”

Our number 3 choice, District-3 Supervisor Aaron Peskin is the most experienced candidate in the race.  Peskin, for all his faults, does not seem beholden to developers and real-estate interests. He has publicly stated he wants to drive new construction but within reason, and without ignoring building restrictions that improve our quality of life. YIMBY Democrats (aka those who falsely call themselves “Moderates”) utterly loathe Peskin.  For decades Aaron has been a thorn in their bosses’ side, as Aaron champions the interests of his neighborhood’s homeowners, renters, workers, and small business owners.  Few things cause a meltdown in a YIMBY Democrat quite like saying positive words about their faction’s arch-nemesis Aaron Peskin.

Over 90% of our Young Republicans membership are renters.  We were relieved to see that Supervisor Aaron Peskin convinced the Board of Supervisors to push for ethical AI, banning landlords from using tools based upon non-public competitor rental data.  Landlords can still use AI, but now the data they use must be public, so as to put renters on a more fair bargaining position for negotiating contracts based upon free market conditions.  Peskin expressed that “[b]anning algorithmic price gouging is pro-housing policy . . . Let’s build housing for renters, not for real estate investors.”

A friend of the arts, our #3 choice Aaron believes in a beautiful San Francisco, and his policies over the decades have promoted that.  This is very important to us.  As we stated last month in our opposition to CA Assembly Bill 2580, Young Republicans believe in the importance of preserving San Francisco’s historical heritage and the unique and ornate styles that have inspired residents and attracted visitors.

The GOP is the party of physical fitness, so we appreciate Peskin’s athletic drive: his near-daily swims at Aquatic Park Cove in the icy Bay, and annual swims from Alcatraz to San Francisco.

Plus, we’re not going to forget that during the dark days of Mayor London Breed’s unconstitutional vaccine passport era, District-3 was the friendliest to groups like ours.  Venues in D-3 knew that Aaron would have their back against anything that Breed tried to throw at them.

Don’t get us wrong, we wouldn’t back either Farrell or Peskin for Congress, and we would have preferred to see a Republican run with sufficient coalition and organizational support to pass the matching-funds threshold and to achieve the fundraising needed to win city-wide.  But for this Mayor’s race, Farrell, Zhao, and Peskin are our picks.  To that point:  As the window to file as a write-in candidate has not yet closed, San Francisco Young Republicans further notes that if former Supervisor Tony Hall declares as a write-in candidate, voters are encouraged to write him in as #1, and rank the others as #2, #3, and #4.  Hall would be a more conservative choice than the other three endorsed candidates, but as of this time Supervisor Hall is not planning to run.

SFYR has issued the following endorsements for the November 2024 election.

U.S. President: Donald John Trump (endorsement issued before the VP was named–our statewide federation has endorsed Trump/Vance)

U.S. Congress District 11 (most of SF): Bruce Lou

U.S. Congress District 2 (Angel Island): Chris Coulombe

California State Senate District 11 (SF, Broadmoor, Colma, Daly City, and part of South SF): Yvette Corkrean

California Assembly District 17 (east SF): Manuel Noris-Barrera

SF Supervisor District 1 (Richmond District): Jeremiah Boehner

SF Supervisor District 3 (North Beach/Chinatown): Wendy Chau

SF Supervisor District 11 (Excelsior, Crocker-Amazon, Ingleside, & Ocean View): Oscar Flores

San Francisco Unified School District Board of Education (SFUSD School Board): Min Chang

San Francisco Mayor:
#1. Mark Farrell
#2. Ellen Lee Zhou
#3. Aaron Peskin

If Supervisor Tony Hall decides to run as a write in candidate we will at that time list him as an additional #1 endorsed candidate for Mayor.

Likely, more endorsements will be issued in the months leading up to the November general election.

The statewide California Young Republican Federation has issued endorsements for races outside of San Francisco County.  They periodically add to their recommendations.

June Edit: Addition of President Trump.
July Edit: Added a couple more local candidates.
August Edit: Added Mayor endorsements + March endorsements for candidates on November ballot.
October Edit: Added our final endorsement (D-3 race)

For the first time in six years, this is a year without an election in autumn!  But we are managing to be as busy as ever with a full speaker & event series.

• September: Our members heard from author & activist Clint Griess
• October 11th: Learn about SF media with Susan Dyer Reynolds, editor of the Marina Times
• October 28th: Halloween Picnic
• Late Oct/Early Nov: Beach Cleanup
• November 16th: Get insights into the world of TV, radio, and podcasts with former Producer & Writer of One America News Network (OANN), and former co-host of California Underground, Cynthia Kaui
• December: Christmas Fundraiser

If you want to stay up to date on SFYR’s upcoming events the best way to do so is to sign up for our e-mail list or to become a dues paying member and ask to join our Telegram group.

With all of our volunteering and our frequent event organizing, we do not update our website as frequently as we put out content to the e-mail list, Telegram, or our Instagram.

SFYR has issued the following endorsements for the March 2024 election.

U.S. Congress District 11 (most of SF): Jason Zeng

U.S. Congress District 2 (Angel Island): Chris Coulombe

California State Senate District 11 (SF, Broadmoor, Colma, Daly City, plus part of South San Francisco): Yvette Corkrean

California Assembly District 19 (north SF and west SF): Arjun Sodhani

Republican County Central Committees:

For the RCCC race in San Francisco, the only slate that SFYR has endorsed is the CITIZENS FOR A BETTER SAN FRANCISCO (CBSF)

San Francisco RCCC AD-17 (most of east SF):
* Min Chang (CBSF)
* Bruce Lou (CBSF)
* Manuel Noris-Barrera (CBSF)
* Jason Zeng (SFYR Officer)

San Francisco RCCC AD-19 (north SF and west SF):
PLEASE NOTE: The Board could not come to a final decision on 13.  We wound up endorsing 16.  In the ballot for RCCC AD-19 you can only vote for 13.  If you vote for more than 13 your vote will be discarded.  So please only vote for 13 of the below.

* Rudy Asercion (CBSF)
* Joseph Coyne Bleckman (CBSF) (SFYR Officer)
* Jeremiah Boehner (SFYR Officer)
* Jason Patrick Clark (CBSF) (former SFYR Officer)
* Yvette Corkrean (CBSF)
* John Dennis (CBSF)
* Howard Epstein (CBSF)
* Clint Griess
* Rodney Leong (CBSF)(former SFYR Officer)
* Dorothy Leone
* Lisa Remmer (CBSF)
* Bob Rintel (CBSF)
* Monika Rothenbuhler (CBSF)
* Thomas Sleckman (CBSF)
* Jacob Spangler (CBSF) (SFYR Officer)
* Philip Wing (CBSF)

PLEASE NOTE: To reiterate what was said above, because this is important.  The Board could not come to a final decision on 13.  We wound up endorsing 16.  In the ballot you can only vote for 13.  If you vote for more than 13 your vote will be discarded.  So please only vote for 13 of the above.

Napa County RCCC:
* Richard Maher (SFYR Officer)

Statewide Proposition:
Proposition 1 (Bonds for Substance Abuse Housing): Vote No

Local Propositions:
Prop. A (Housing Bonds): Vote No
Prop. B (Cop Tax): Vote No
Prop. C (Increasing Real Estate Tax Exemptions): Vote Yes
Prop. D (Ethics Bureaucracy): After a long discussion, we did not take a position.  We like ethics.  We don’t like bureaucracies that make it hard for small actors while the Corporate-wing of the Democrats easily jump through loopholes.
Prop. E (Expanding Police Powers): Vote Yes
Prop. F (Drug Test Those Getting Handouts): Vote Yes
Prop. G (Redirect School Funding to Algebra for the Smarter Kids): Vote Yes

Judges:
We did not take positions on the judge races.  The Corporate Democrats are trying their hardest to get rid of two judges (one of whom was appointed by a Republican Governor, the other by Gavin Newsom) accusing them of allegedly not being strong enough on crime), but we didn’t feel like it was a race that made sense for us to weigh in on either way.  The Republican judge (Begert) seems to be backed by a lot of Progressive money.  His doorhangers are everywhere.  The Democrat Judge (Thompson) doesn’t seem to have much of a campaign?  Would have expected it to be the opposite, but maybe its just because Begert was around for a long time and Thompson is new.  One of the groups pushing to remove the judges lists on their mailers the same address as the address on the mailers of one of the judges who they are trying to remove.  Its a -very- strange race.  Overall, something shady is going on, but we can’t tell which side is the shadier ones.  Our abstention is not due to a lack of monitoring the race, but rather that we don’t want to lead you astray.  We’d say do your own research, but good luck at finding non-biased sources…

U.S. Senate
We did not weigh in on either race.  (One is to fill the last few weeks of Diane Feinstein’s 2019-2025 term, the other is to fill the 2025-2031 term.  Same major candidates are in both.)  We didn’t want to step on the statewide CYRF’s toes, but by the time it was confirmed they were not getting involved in the race it was too late for us to make a careful decision.

U.S. President (Republican nomination):
We didn’t want to step on our nationals (YRNF’s) toes, so we have not endorsed in this race.

Check back at this page as the election draws closer.  We will likely make more endorsements.  [2/14 Edit–At this point we are finished with endorsements.]

Due to the new realities of California universal mail-in ballots–When ballots arrive in early February is the de facto new “election day”.  All political education is most effective if it is delivered a month earlier than it would have been under the old system: by the time the official election day in March rolls around, most voters will have already voted.

January Update: Added more candidate endorsements.  As two candidates we endorsed prior to the close of the filing period did not wind up running, we removed from from the above list.

February Update: Added endorsements on Prop 1, local propositions, and gave some details on races we made no endorsements in.  Done with endorsements!  See you in the Summer when we start endorsing for the super long November ballot.

March Update: Added final extra endorsement made before the election.

Tonight SFYR is hosting the former Chief Executive of the New York State Conservative Party, Shaun Marie as our speaker.

She’ll share her decades of experience as a political organizer and influencer on the national, state, and local level as well as having an effect on the shape and operations of the political system of New York State. It will be a thought provoking discussion about how to improve California.

If you want to stay up to date on SFYR’s upcoming events the best way to do so is to sign up for our e-mail list or to become a dues paying member and ask to join our Telegram group.

With all of the elections volunteering and our frequent event organizing, we do not update our website as frequently as we put out content to the e-mail list, Telegram, or our Instagram.

But for those of you curious about getting involved, here is a recap of the last year of events:

August 2022: Discussion on the Nov Election ballot issues + Speaker Jason Clark, CAGOP’s Bay Area Regional Vice Chairman & CAGOP Board of Directors Member (and former SFYR Issues Director) at Spark Social in Mission Bay

September 2022: Discussion on Housing Policy at Radhaus in Fort Mason

Autumn 2022: SFYR’s President Joseph Bleckman led a GOTV day for the November elections, and members had opportunities to get involved with campaigning locally and in Georgia for the US Senate runoff, phonebanks, and election integrity work.

October 2022: SFYR Halloween Fundraiser + Costume Contest

November 2022: Joined SFGOP for an election night watch event at The Blue Light in Cow Hollow

November 2022: SFYR Org. Election Discussion + Discussing how the national elections went, and the beginning of the 2024 primaries at the Final Final in the Marina

December 2022: SFYR Members attended the SFGOP Christmas Gala at Marines Memorial Club in Nob Hill

December 2022: SFYR Christmas Fundraiser

January 2023: Discussion Night on What Brought Us to Urban Conservatism at For the Record in the Marina

February 2023: Relationships, Marriage, and the Urban Milieu at Sacred Taco in Cow Hollow

March 2023: Speaker Night with Author Bill Shireman at Maybeck’s in the Marina

March 2023: SFYR Members had a table at the SFGOP Spring Dinner hearing from the speaker, political comedian “Primetime” Alex Stein at Far East Cafe in Chinatown

April 2023: Speaker Night with Author Tony Brasunas at Toy Soldier in the Financial District

May 2023: SFYR BBQ at Sunnyside Playground in West of Twin Peaks

June 2023:  SFYR Members had a table at the SFGOP Summer Dinner hearing from speakers Author Michael Shellenberger and RNC Committeewoman for California (and former SFYR Officer), Harmeet Dhillon at Marines Memorial Club in Nob Hill

June 2023: SFYR Social at Savoy Tivoli in North Beach

June 2023: SFYR Members took part in the Leadership Institute’s California Conservative Candidate Development School, a day long training held at the Marines Memorial Club in Nob Hill

It has been a busy year, and the above isn’t even all that we’ve been involved with.  We hope you join us for the next year, as the exciting primary season continues to heat up.

We’ve had the following educational events so far this Summer, with a few more on deck:

June: We held a discussion on law & order in San Francisco, including a debate about restorative justice.

July: A long-time SF police officer led a discussion on crime in San Francisco and on which Mayors have done a better job at letting the police do their job.  (Long story short: Willie Brown was good, while Frank Jordan wasn’t & the latest Democrat, London Breed hasn’t been.)

August: We will be having a discussion about the pros and cons of the candidates and ballot propositions on the November ballot.

We have also had a separate event series of book readings and discussions.  SFYR’s Culture Club spearheads educational discussions about works of literature from the 1800s and earlier. Drawing upon past classics helps ground modern conservative thinking upon solid deep rooted foundations. Past discussions have been about Milton’s Paradise Lost, Tolstoy’s Kreutzer Sonata, Voltaire’s short story Zadig, and this month we covered Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

California Races:

SFYR has endorsed the following California constitutional amendment, proposition & referendum positions:

Proposition 1: Would Permit 3rd Trimester Abortions: Vote No
Proposition 26: More Gambling on Certain Tribal Lands: Neutral Position
Proposition 27: Sports Gambling Outside of Tribal Lands: Vote No
Proposition 28: More of the Excessively-High State Budget Going to Public School Teachers: Vote No
Proposition 29: Biannual Dialysis Clinic Negotiating Tactic: Vote No
Proposition 30: New Tax to Subsidize Car Companies: Vote No
Proposition 31: Ban Certain Flavored Tobacco Products: Vote No

 

The following additional Republican candidates will be on the ballot for San Francisco voters this November:

Controller: Lanhee Chen (endorsed by SFYR and by California Young Republicans Federation “CYRF”)

Attorney General: Nathan Hochman (endorsed by SFYR)

Superintendent of Public Instruction: Lance Ray Christensen (endorsed by SFYR)

Governor: Brian Dahle (endorsed by SFYR)

Lt. Governor: Angela Underwood Jacobs (endorsed by SFYR)

Secretary of State: Rob Bernosky (endorsed by SFYR)

Insurance Commissioner: Robert Howell (endorsed by SFYR)

Treasurer: Jack Guerrero (endorsed by SFYR)

Board of Equalization Member District 2: Peter Coe Verbica (endorsed by SFYR)

U.S. Senate (special election): Mark Meuser (endorsed by CYRF and SFYR)

U.S. Senate (regular election): Mark Meuser (endorsed by CYRF and SFYR)

House of Representatives District 2 (Angel Island): Douglas Brower

House of Representatives District 11 (most of SF): John Dennis (endorsed by SFYR)

House of Representatives District 12 (Alameda Island): Stephen Slauson

California State Senate District 2 (Angel Island): Gene Yoon

California Assembly District 18 (Alameda Island): Mindy Pechenuk

California Assembly District 19 (west half of SF): Karsten Weide

Local Races:

SFYR has endorsed:

San Francisco Community College Board: Jason Zeng

San Francisco K-12 Board of Education: Ann Hsu

San Francisco District Attorney:
Rank #1 Joe Alioto Versonese
Rank #2 Brooke Jenkins

Proposition A: Retiree Supplemental Cost of Living Adjustment; Retirement Board Contract with Executive Director: Vote No

Proposition B: Merging City Depts: Vote Yes

Proposition C: Homeless Oversight Commission: Vote No

Proposition D: Housing: Vote Yes

Proposition E: Housing: Vote No

Proposition F: Locking in Funds for Libraries: Vote Yes

Proposition G: Locking in Even More Funds for Only Public Schools: Vote No

Proposition H: Giving Democrat Mayor London Breed an extra year in office: Vote No

Proposition I: Great Highway/Golden Gate Park Closing: Vote Yes

Proposition J: Golden Gate Park Opening: Vote No

Proposition K: Was removed from ballot.

Proposition: L: Transit Funding: Neutral Position

Proposition M: Broad Vacancy Tax: Vote No

Proposition N: Underground Museum Parking Garage: Neutral Position

Proposition O: Extra Parcel Tax for CCSF: Vote No

 

Judge Retention Elections:

California Supreme Court:
Martin Jenkins: Vote Yes

Patricia Guerrero: Vote No
Goodwin Liu: Vote No
Joshua Groban: Vote No
Therese Stewart: Vote No

California Court of Appeal, First District:
Ioana Petrou: Vote Yes

Alison Tucher: Vote No
Victor Rodriguez: Vote No
Carin Fujisaki: Vote No
Tracie Brown: Vote No
Jeremy Goldman: Vote No
Teri Jackson: Vote No
Gordon Burns: Vote No

 

Additional note:

SFYR also endorsed an additional candidate not listed above, however, shortly after they received our endorsement they announced that they were leaving the GOP.  As such, our Board has decided to not list them here.  We have not rescinded such endorsement.  We will assess based upon their campaign platform whether they are still in line with Republican values, and may list them at a later time.

This has been a busy Spring for SFYR:

Tomorrow we are going to learn about U.S. Senate candidate Mark Meuser’s vision for the United States: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/meet-mark-meuser-tickets-333223058137

In March we had an athletic/social event getting local conservatives together for a hike in Pacifica.

We also had a discussion about the local and state candidates and propositions.

In April we heard from conservative author Loretta Breuning about her books: https://innermammalinstitute.org/books/

We also heard from firefighter Stephen Martin-Pinto about the issues facing the fire department in San Francisco.

Additionally, we heard from Congressional candidate Gus Mattamal about his vision for the United States.

In May we will hear from Assembly candidate Karsten Weide about his vision for California.

SFYR has issued the following endorsements for the June 2022 election.

Yes on Prop A: This proposition is important funding for Public Transit.

No on Prop C: This would change rules regarding recall elections.

No on Prop D: This would create a new Democrat filled bureaucracy.

No on Prop E: This proposition would limit the Board of Supervisors’ flexibility regarding minimizing externalities of new construction.

No on Prop G: This proposition would make it less likely for mask mandates and social credit scores to ever be ended, by making emergency declarations into a new unfunded entitlement.

Yes on Prop H: Democrat politician Chesa Boudin is not the right fit for San Francisco’s law and order values.

Congressional District 11: We endorse John Dennis for Congress.

Congressional District 15: We endorse Gus Mattammal for Congress.

During April and May we are hosting speaker events with multiple candidates for local and statewide office for young republicans to learn about their voting options.

SFYR generally does not weigh in on statewide races.  California Young Republicans Federation has endorsed Lanhee Chen for Controller, and Mark Meuser for U.S. Senate.

Updated May 13, 2022 to reflect our endorsements of Gus Mattamal and in the Prop C and Prop D races.

Updated May 30, 2022 to reflect updated CYRF endorsement.

SFYR’s bylaws require that in partisan races we only endorse Republican candidates, so as to be in line with the policy priorities of our organization.

As a result, we did not make any endorsements in the April 2022 elections.  April 2022’s elections exclusively consisted of a special election’s “top 2” run-off between two Democrats, with no Republicans in the race.  (This was to fill a seat vacated by a Democrat assemblyman who resigned rather than complete his term in office.  It was the last race for AD-17 held under the old district lines, prior to the new district lines taking effect for the June 2022 AD-17 primary.)

As an educational organization, we did however discuss the April 2022 election with our members.  This presented a great opportunity for us to teach our members about the once-a-decade redistricting process, and about how “top 2” elections work in California.

Prior to the first round of the Feb 2022-April 2022 special AD-17 elections, our members did volunteer to try to help a Republican potential candidate who had been discussed as a likely prospect for AD-17.