Nail-Biter SF Races May Weaken San Francisco Board of Supervisors' Progressive Wing

Contested races in San Francisco may either maintain the strength of the Board of Supervisors’ progressive left, or help Mayor London Breed gain more allies to push her legislative priorities.

Six of the 11 seats on the Board of Supervisors were on the ballot Tuesday, with just two remaining tight races that were too close to call Tuesday night: a race in District 1, which includes the Richmond District of San Francisco, and a race in District 7, which includes southwestern neighborhoods like Parkmerced.

The board’s current political makeup includes enough progressive members to organize an eight-member supermajority, which have been able to block the mayor from vetoing legislation.

In District 1, candidate Marjan Philhour maintained a lead on Tuesday night of just 43 votes over candidate Connie Chan. Philhour is considered a political moderate and is a former senior advisor to Mayor Breed, and Chan is considered a progressive Democrat and is a former aide to Supervisor Aaron Peskin.

Philhour has touted the need to focus more help on small businesses, and Chan has said the city needs to build more affordable housing.

The race for San Francisco’s District 7 supervisor was also neck-and-neck Tuesday night. Candidate Myrna Melgar carried a lead of 7 percentage points over candidate Joel Engardio, but the dynamics of ranked-choice voting leave Engardio a path for victory. Engardio is a former journalist running on a law-and-order platform, generally considered conservative by San Francisco standards, and Melgar is president of the Planning Commission, a body she was appointed to by Breed. When asked by KQED Tuesday night, Melgar declined to declare victory.

Candidate Vilaska Nguyen, a favorite of progressives, was eliminated in ranked-choice voting tabulations but has a narrow chance to see a lead resurface in subsequent counts.

Broadly, centrist-leaning moderate Democrats are facing off against progressive candidates in San Francisco districts 1, 3, 5, 7 and 11.

Progressives and moderates in San Francisco largely share views supporting LGTBQ rights and other Democratic platforms but differ greatly in their approach to land use. Moderates like Mayor Breed, for example, generally favor market-rate housing as a solution to the rent crisis, while progressives generally push for more affordable housing funded by developers or the state.

In less contested races, candidates were leading by larger margins, with a greater chance to succeed in their races, poll-watchers said.

District 5 Supervisor Dean Preston, a progressive stalwart and democratic socialist, was leading Tuesday against former supervisor Vallie Brown in a district that encompasses Japantown, the Fillmore and the Haight Ashbury, among other neighborhoods.

In District 11, which includes southern neighborhoods like the Outer Mission and Ingleside, incumbent Supervisor Ahsha Safaí, a moderate Democrat, was nine points ahead Tuesday night of progressive John Avalos, a former two-term supervisor of the district.

Incumbent Supervisors Aaron Peskin in District 3, a progressive, was leading by a wide margin, and incumbent Supervisor Hillary Ronen in District 9, a progressive, was running uncontested.

The SF Department of Elections will release its next vote count on Wednesday, Nov. 4, at 4 p.m.

— Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez (@FitzTheReporter)