Election Results

CHRISTOPHER L. BOWMAN: Writing for LEO LACAYO, who is undergoing emergency oral surgery.

With currently 97% of the precincts statewide reporting (most of the remaining 3% from Orange County with as many as a million absentees and provisional ballots still being counted, Bill Simon is 356,000 votes behind Gray Davis -- 47.1% to 42.0%. McPherson is behind 49.8% to 41.4%, Olbert is behind 46.6% to 41.9%.

McClintock is behind by only one point -- 45.7% to 44.7%, Conlon is behind 49.7% to 40.1%, Ackerman is behind 51.7% to 40.0%, Mendoza is behind 46.8% to 41.3%, and Smith is behind 61.8% to 38.2%. It is very likely that McClintock will be elected once all the votes are counted in the next three weeks.

Simon carried every county except for Los Angeles., Imperial, and the coastal counties from the San Luis Obispo/Monterey to the Humboldt/Del Norte County Lines. Davis received over 50% in 12 counties; Simon carried 29 or half of the State's 58 counties.

We made some gains in the Assembly--at least two seats, and possibly three, so at best there will be 33 Republicans and 47 Democrats. Alan Nakanishi won in a walk in the 10th Assembly District with 59.8%. Guy Houston got 53.8% for Lynne Leach's seat, thus remaining the sole Republican legislator from the Bay Area. Dean Gardner in the 30th Assembly District is 834 votes behind--again with a number of absenteeballots to be counted.

In the State Senate, Denham is 226 votes behind Areias, again with a number of absentee ballots to be counted.

Our new Congressional delegation from California will be 20 Republicans and 33 Democrats. Monteith lost 52.0% to 42.9%; and Beth Rogers lost by a whopping 59.1% to 38.5%.

Prop. 49 passed handily with 56.7%, while Prop. 52 lost ingloriously by a 59.1% to 40.9% margin.

Locally, most of our candidates ran roughly at Republican registration. Districtwide, Mike Moloney got 24.9%, Mike German 12.2%, Dennis Zell 19.3%, Howard Epstein 16.0%, and Gail Neira 13.4%. These percentages will increase slightly in the next weeks with the counting of absentee ballots.

With all 632 precincts finally reporting (the last precinct votes were taken home by the poll worker from District 8, and the Sheriff's had to roust him from his home), there were 187,777 votes cast of early absentees and votes at the precincts. Another 25,000 absentees and provisionals are still outstanding, so the overall turnout will be about 47%. Again, the raw figures and percentages will improve for us as the late absentees and provisionals are counted.

Citywide, Bill Simon received 27,400 votes for 15.07% of the total. Camejo is currently at 15.82%, but Simon may regain second place by the end of the process.

Other statewide candidates received as follows: McPherson 16.15%, Olbert 12.73%, McClintock 22.03% , Conlon 15.54%, Ackerman 14.74%, Mendoza 15.04%, Bendick 16.73%, Mike German 12.20%, Mike Moloney 18.80% (in SF's portion of his district), Dennis Zell 15.51%, Howard Epstein 15.55%, Gail Neira 13.43%, and Katherine Smith 25.56%.

There were some big surprises in the non-partisan races. Green Party member Sarah Lipson came in second for School Board, receiving 33.15% of the vote. Appointed incumbent Guillory came in fourth--one out of the running. Our endorsed candidate, Alexandra Pastine, received 5.52% of the vote, coming in seventh of 10 candidates. The other surprise for most observers, but not for me, was that Chris Daly received 51.45% of the votes. I had suggested since April (after the gerrymander was fixed to help his re-election) that he would receive as much as 53% and not have to undergo a run-off election.

We'll see what effect the absentees have on his receiving over 50%. Should he get less than 50%, he would face either Burt Strunsky or Roger Gordon. In other races, Gavin Newsom received 78.04% to 16.38% for Lynne Newhouse Segal, Ron Dudum was edging Fiona Ma, 23.7% to 23.41%, but she should have the edge in the run-off should the Chinese community rally behind her (Andrew Lee could be the fly in the ointment there). And it's Eileen Hanson against Bevan Dufty in the 8th District, 36.79 to 31.88%. Radulovich got 19.22% and should he endorse Hanson, it's Hanson's election to lose.

Doris Ward was run-over by Mabel Teng, 58.70% to 40.46%. Time will tell when Mabel puts her hat in the ring to run for something else. Ron Chun's future at the Assessor's Office unfortunately is likely to be shortlived.

Sean Connolly, unfortunately, is about 5,000 votes behind Gail DeKreon, and it's unlikely that absentee ballots will put him over the top.

Finally, James Fang received 64.07% to be re-elected to an unprecedented fourth term as our only Republican officeholder.

Now for the good news. We won on most of the key propositions on which we took positions--the exceptions being Propositions A & R. Proposition A passed with 53.71%, and R lost 60.75% - 39.25%. Unfortunately, the latter measure was stillborn after Dennis Herrera's office had taken its licks in their title and summary and ballot simplification drafts of defining it as a condo conversion law.

Parenthetically, CNN was first in declaring Coleman the victor in Minnesoto over Mondale, which means we have at least 51 members of the new U.S. Senate--and if Strom Thurmond retires, we now have a Republican governor in South Carolina to appoint his successor.

Also problematic for most of the members of the Central Committee was that the Supervisors' salary measure was approved with 56.19% in favor.

Now for some especially good news: Care Not Cash won with 58.99%. Yes. Ammiano's rival version lost with 51.15% No votes. So there will be no court fights over which measure takes precedence. Thank God! On the other bond measures, all were defeated. Although the BART bonds passed strongly in SF, they did not get enough votes in Alameda and Contra Costa counties to reach the 2/3's threshold. Props. B & C each needed two-thirds of the vote, but received 56.65% and 55.63% Yes votes, respectively.

Additionally defeated were Propositions D & L, with each receiving 52.74% and 54.51% No votes, respectively. On the other measures, Prop. E passed with 55.78% Yes, F passed with 57.20% Yes, G passed with 72.77%.

Tom Ammiano's only win on an otherwise abysmal night for him, Prop. I passed 54.70% (another win for Daly), Props. K and M lost with 62.10% and 51.92% No, respectively, and Props. P, Q, and S passed with 56.24%, 66.61%, and 62.75%, respectively. (Let's hear it for the City not getting into the energy business, not taxing our realtors out of existence, but cultivating and distributing marijuana!)

Regarding the Supervisors' Salary, an unnamed source of the Civil Service Commission (not Don Casper) who will remained unnamed, indicated that it would be a long-time before that commissioner would approve a pay raise for the Sups. Time will tell.

Hope this is a more current, accurate, and interesting account of the results than you will see in this morning's SAN FRANCISCO RAGS!

Here's a good summary of the 2002 for those Freepers in the SF Bay Area. It is tough to find an objective view from November Fifth in the local papers, so Chronwatch.com has provided this analysis.

Personally, I am most excited about the passage of "Care, not cash." It is time we took our streets back.

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