In addition to the two bigger primary fights on the ballot today in San Francisco, for governor and for Nancy Pelosi's Congressional seat, two moderate incumbent SF supervisors are fighting to hold on to their seats.

There are special elections today in Districts 2 and 4, where two mayoral appointees — one appointed by London Breed on her way out the door, and one appointed recently by Daniel Lurie following a gaffe over a different appointee — are hoping to stay on the board through the end of the year. (Both special elections are just to complete their predecessors' previous terms, and they'll be back on the ballot again in November to compete for full four-year terms.)

In District 2, Supervisor Stephen Sherrill hopes that some recent bad press relating to his appointment doesn't give a boost to a more progressive challenger, neighborhood activist Lori Brooke. Brooke has been the most vocally opposed to the controversial, 25-story proposed residential project on the Marina Safeway property — something that fits into Mayor Daniel Lurie's upzoning plan, but the scale of which is objectionable to many neighbors.

Lurie has spoken out against the specific design of the proposed project, and Sherrill has done the same, but both have tried to be careful not to anger the YIMBY crowd by dismissing the redevelopment proposal outright.

Supervisoral elections can swing by tiny margins of votes, particularly in low-turnout special elections like this one looks likely to be. So the recent revelations by former aides alleging that former Mayor London Breed only gave Sherrill the job in December 2024 as a favor to Michael Bloomberg — who in turn, allegedly, was supposed to set her up with a gig — could cost Sherrill just enough votes to matter. And just two weeks ago there were anonymous reports that the FBI was "making inquiries" into the matter, so there still could be more to come on that front.

Sherrill, while being a Breed appointee, has become a strong ally of Lurie, and is part of the currently dominant moderate bloc on the Board of Supervisors that includes supervisors Bilal Mahmood, Danny Sauter, Matt Dorsey, and often Myrna Melgar, Rafael Mandelman, and Chyanne Chen.

Also part of that bloc is District 4 Supervisor Alan Wong, whom Lurie appointed last fall following the embarassing kerfuffle over his first pick, Beya Alcaraz, who resigned after just seven days.

Wong, who is a vocal opponent of the closure of the Great Highway to create Sunset Dunes Park, is likely to benefit from the small margins of a special election like this, given the ongoing fervor among those in the district who hate the highway was closed. They are likely to get out the vote on this issue alone, even if a second citywide ballot measure on the closure is not likely to go their way, if it even qualifies for the November ballot.

Running against Wong with quite a bit of financial support behind her is progressive candidate Natalie Gee, who has neighborhood cred having attended Lowell High School and SF State and has worked in City Hall. Gee has not one but two of the top-spending independent committees backing her campaign, which together have spent nearly $700K.

And Gee also supports the part-time reopening of the Great Highway on weekdays, and she backs the November ballot measure that would codify this.

Should both Brooke and Gee prevail in today's election, the balance of power could shift on the Board of Supervisors back in the direction of progressives — or it would, at least, level the playing field.

The former progressive bloc on the board, which included Aaron Peskin, Connie Chan, Shamann Walton, Dean Preston, and Hillary Ronen was diminished when Peskin and Preston were both replaced by moderate-backed candidates Danny Sauter and Bilal Mahmood in 2024. Ronen, who was termed out, was replaced by the even more progressive Jackie Fielder representing the Mission District and Bernal Heights.

Up until 2024, progressives had enjoyed a solid majority on the board for many years, as the Chronicle documented last fall. These days, they need to rely on supervisors Melgar, Mandelman, and Chen who only sometimes vote with them, to get legislation passed.

Depending on how today goes, that could noticeably change.

Previously: Allegations Resurface That Supervisor Sherrill Got Appointed In Backroom Deal to Benefit London Breed

House candidate Saikat Chakrabarti is contending with being an outsider to the local political establishment by embracing creator-driven media and hosting other outside progressives at his rallies, including incendiary leftwing commentator Hasan Piker.

Former Stripe engineer and congressional candidate Saikat Chakrabarti, who has spent millions of his own money on his campaign, is leaning into his outsider status both locally and within the Democratic Party as he tries to build name recognition in San Francisco politics, as Mission Local reports.

Chakrabarti has spent heavily on field operations, hiring paid canvassers to build name recognition through door-to-door outreach, while also leaning into what his campaign calls “new media” by doing interviews with online creators as well as traditional reporters.

A central theme of his campaign has been sustained criticism of the Democratic Party’s direction and what he describes as its failure to effectively confront Trump. As previously reported, those tensions reportedly prompted House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi to pressure Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to fire Chakrabarti as her chief of staff, creating an awkward situation where AOC declined to endorse him in the race.

On Thursday, Former New York congressman Jamaal Bowman appeared at the event, alongside progressive House candidates from New York City, Los Angeles, and Denver, all of whom are endorsed by Justice Democrats, a group Chakrabarti co-founded to help promote insurgent progressives in Democratic primaries, according to the Chronicle.

The biggest draw of the night though was Muslim content creator, Hasan Piker, whose commentary on Israel, US foreign policy, and other issues has drawn backlash from Jewish organizations and moderate Democrats. Chakrabarti and Piker have recently collaborated on campaign videos and policy discussions online, with Thursday marking their first public event together.

Piker, who has a large online following and streams for hours daily, compared Chakrabarti to New York Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani and invoked a Maoist slogan about inspiring “a thousand Zohrans” to emerge, per Mission Local. Chakrabarti told the crowd, “We ruffled some feathers with the Democratic establishment. And I’m glad we did.”

Posts from the hasan_piker
community on Reddit

In anticipation of Piker’s appearance, Supervisor Matt Dorsey reportedly introduced a resolution this week calling on the San Francisco Democratic Party to formally condemn Piker and reject what it describes as efforts to reshape the party around his political views.

Dorsey, who has described himself as a “self-proclaimed Zionist,” per Mission Local, has focused his criticism on Piker’s public comments about Israel, as well as other past remarks that have circulated widely online, including statements about 9/11 and a video in which Piker lashed out at a Vietnamese refugee supporting Donald Trump.

Piker has pushed back on those characterizations, saying his comments have been taken out of context and pointing to the pace and volume of his hours-long live streams.

Additionally, a counter-protest over Piker’s appearance was also planned Thursday, but Piker pointed out that not a single person showed up, as Mission Local reports. “They have the money and interest, but we have the people,” he said.

Per the Chronicle, Tiffaney Bradley, spokesperson for Chakrabarti’s campaign, responded to Dorsey’s resolution in a statement, arguing that the Democratic party is failing its constituents, citing dismal polling numbers and pointing to rising costs, global conflict, and what she described as an erosion of civil rights under an “authoritarian government.”

“The only option we have left is to use the democratic process to change our party, so if you see a rally of Democrats trying to inspire people to get involved as a threat — then you’re part of the problem,” Bradley said.

Related: Former Pelosi Staffer Says Chakrabarti Was Fired From AOC's Staff

Image: Hasan Piker attends the 2026 Vanity Fair Oscar Party hosted by Mark  Guiducci at Los Angeles County Museum of Art on March 15, 2026 in Los  Angeles, California. (Photo by Taylor Hill/FilmMagic)

Longtime San Francisco civil rights activist and Black community leader Rev. Amos Brown, who also served on the Board of Supervisors from 1996 to 2001, sat down for a recent interview with the Chronicle — and he minced no words about the city's history when it comes to the treatment of Black people.

Brown is the pastor of the Fillmore District's Third Baptist Church, and has watched the transformation of that neighborhood since much of it was razed under the auspices of redevelopment in the mid-1960s. It wouldn't be until the 1980s that many of the buildings were replaced, and by then much of the Black community that made the place the Harlem of the West had left.

Prior to becoming pastor at the church in 1976, Brown worked as a youth activist in Mississippi, and met Medgar Evers at the age of 14. At 15, in 1956, Brown founded the first NAACP Youth Council in Jackson, MS, and later was arrested alongside Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. during an Atlanta lunch counter sit-in.

Brown says he doesn't believe in bitterness, and he believes in moving forward. But there's no doubt that there is intergenerational bitterness about the atrocity and displacement that "urban renewal" wrought in the Fillmore.

When asked in the interview if he "believe[s] that the Bay Area is a safe haven for Black people and other people of color," Brown is quick to answer "no." But much of his continued outrage is directed at San Francisco.

"The Bay Area and specifically San Francisco has been living a lie," Brown says. "The city does not deserve the brand and image that it has of being liberal and progressive. The only thing San Francisco is liberal and progressive on is sex. That’s it. And there should be no restrictions on persons on how they express their sexuality, but there’s a problem for Black people to get quality education in San Francisco. [And] Since 1970, we have lost Black people who were pushed out of this city."

As KQED explained in a piece last year about the disappearance of the Fillmore Jazz District, 10% of San Francisco's population identified as Black in the 1970s (it was the same in 1960 according to the U.S. Census). The Black population is now half that, as confirmed by 2019 Census data, which found 5.2% of the city was Black.

The writer James Baldwin famously referred to "urban renewal" as "Negro removal," and that was very much what happened with the redevelopment of the Fillmore. Baldwin was the center of a KQED-produced documentary in 1963 in which he visited San Francisco.

And in those days before the Summer of Love and SF's newfound reputation as a magnet for flower children and anti-war activism, Baldwin echoed some of what Rev. Amos Brown is still saying.

"I imagine it’d be easy for any white person walking through San Francisco to imagine everything was at peace," Baldwin said. "Because it certainly looks that way on the surface. You’ve got the San Francisco legend too which is that it's a cosmopolitan and forward looking [city]. But it’s another American city."

Brown's interview with the Chronicle is part of a series that's being published across the Hearst family of publications, timed to coincide with Juneteenth. "Lift Every Voice connects young Black journalists with Black elders in their communities to celebrate and learn from their life experiences — deepening connections with the past to position us all for a better future."

Photo: Library of Congress

Mayor London Breed has gotten a fair amount of national attention since the beginning of the pandemic, most of it positive given the fact that — up until recently — San Francisco has succeeded in avoiding rapidly rising COVID numbers and an out-of-control outbreak. And last week, just as she was grappling with possible COVID exposure herself, Vogue published an interview with her in which she was her often candid self, speaking about the extraordinary moment she finds herself in.

The interview covers a range of topics, including the needs of the Black community in San Francisco, her frustration with the mostly white progressives she encounters in local politics, and handling the ongoing pandemic in San Francisco and its large homeless population.

Below, a few takeaways:

Regarding the vast number of white people participating in Black Lives Matter protests across the country: "I feel like there were people who didn’t understand it before, but finally are waking up to what is happening and saying, 'There’s a problem here.' That is mind-blowing to me... It gives me hope. It’s like, finally, you guys understand what we’re talking about! When you’re having conversations about what happens to Black people and [non-Blacks] sometimes will ask, 'Well, what did he do?' What do you mean, 'What did he do?' There’s a lack of respect and understanding sometimes with these issues."

Regarding the efforts of white progressives to tackle Black issues in SF: "What’s happening in San Francisco now, and has for so many years, is you have a progressive movement made up of people who are mostly white and feel that they know what’s in the best interest of Black people. I’m over that. I think it’s important that we support and respect the Black people here enough to know that we have a mind of our own. Because half the policies pushed in San Francisco are 'progressive policies' that don’t work for Black people."

She's still mad about those (mostly white) BLM protesters who came to her house on May 30 and lit fireworks: "I think part of the problem, again, goes back to privilege. Because the people who came out to my home last time, they were all white and wearing masks and walking with these 'firework sticks' down the street chanting 'Black Lives Matter!' But then they get to my house and start shooting these fireworks off and aiming them at my window and banging on the gate and calling me names to come outside. It was like, what? In the projects, when you come to somebody’s house, you are coming to get your butt beat. Because I will come out and throw some grits on you if you don’t back up!" (Previously, Breed said of the protesters outside her apartment, "You can disagree with my policies, you can not like me, you can protest me at City Hall all day every day. But don’t come for me like that. Don’t come to my house. Because at the end of the day, what’s more, disrespectful is the fact that we have people who are not Black chanting ‘Black Lives Matter’ and don’t mean it.")

Regarding criticism she receives from the Black community, which she says mostly does not come from locals (many of whom she grew up with): "It’s not about me doing enough for Black people. It’s about they don’t like me and I’m not doing what they’re telling me to do. The Black mayor is not going to be a slave to nobody. I want to be clear about that... there is an expectation that I should do what I am told. When you’re mayor, you’re not going to be able to please everybody."

On the subject of housing the homeless during the pandemic, after an April outbreak at a shelter in which 70 people were infected: "I will say that we were in trouble for a second when we had that happen. But we acted quickly. We’ve cleared the shelters and moved people into hotels, educated people out on the streets, and established safe camping sites. We have not seen things get as bad as they could’ve gotten."

Regarding why not every homeless person can get housed in a hotel room: "We can always do more. But one of the challenges we continue to run into is people who struggle with mental illness and substance use disorder. For some of those people you might still see on the street, it’s because one guy in particular who hangs out in a location regularly, he will become agitated when you try to help him. So we have some real challenges. And it’s not as simple as putting everyone in a room and testing them."

[Vogue]

We've all compared real-life events to those in fiction — hell, I did it today, when I mentioned an episode of a TV show that a BART collision evoked. But at what point does an insistence on making parallels between the world in which we live and the imaginary world veer from making issues accessible to making the speaker sound a little troubled? Has outgoing District 11 Supervisor John Avalos crossed that line?

It was early December when Avalos began comparing the goings-on in San Francsico's city hall to Game of Thrones, a popular series of sci-fi/fantasy books adapted into an even more popular television series on the Home Box Office network. The property, which takes place in a fictional universe, contains dragons, giants, prophetic dreams, astral projection, and reanimated dead people. San Francsico's city hall has none of those things, unless Aaron's Peskin's second stint as D3 Supervisor counts as reanimation.

And yet Avalos, who did not respond to a text requesting comment at publication time, continues to insist that the gold-domed palace across from that park that smells like pee is the stuff of Thrones author George R. R. Martin, not (as others suspect) Parks and Recreation.

In an interview with temporary Chron columnist David Talbot, Avalos continues to beat the dead Dornish sand steed he started flogging last month when he told the Ex that "I expect the Lannisters [the moderates and the mayor] have a good shot at holding on to the Iron Throne. About a million dollars of tech, real estate and POA [Police Officers Association] money went into giving Cousin Lancel [Ahsha Safai] a seat on the small council. I’m sure they’ll be calling in the chits."

But it wasn't all GoT/San Francisco shippery in today's Talbot! Avalos, whose last day as Supe is Friday, is ready to dish all the dirt. Here are some of my favorite quotes from his most recent vent session:

On Ed Lee:

Ed has totally checked out from the daily business of governing the city. He’s a puppet king, like Tommen in ‘Game of Thrones’ — his strings are pulled by those who wield the real power, the corporate lords of tech and real estate.

...who Avalos fondly remembers as the guy who didn't even want the job of mayor:

He didn’t even call me back when I phoned him. Later, when I saw him, he started waving his hands in the air and saying, "I don’t want to do it, I don’t want to do it!" He was almost shouting. I said, "Don’t worry about it, Ed."

On Lee chief of staff Steve "Tyrion Lannister" Kawa:

He’s zealous about maintaining the city’s fiscal solvency and keeping big business happy. But he just doesn’t care much about urgent social issues like displacement and affordability.

In fact, it's when it was rumored that another possible mayor might replace Kawa that Lee was appointed, Avalos claims:

I still felt that Ed didn’t really want the job, but it was all arranged and he just went along with it. It was all about keeping the status quo in power.

On London "Cersi Lannister but 'a lot more savvy'" Breed, who Avalos suspects will be Lee's successor:

If London decides to run, she’ll wipe the floor with (Supervisor) Mark Farrell...[she]has a compelling personal story that gives her a unique perspective on the lives of African American families and low-income people. She has evolved into a shrewd and charismatic politician, but I’ve always seen her as someone who has lifted herself up on the rungs provided by the corporate establishment. She is very likable, but is flawed by pride and vindictiveness and a lack of consistent vision for social justice. At this point in her career, she has the ability to sell out completely, or to broaden her vision. She has to decide what kind of leader she wants to be.

But before we get there, there's the matter of Lee's legacy:

He kept the lights on, that’s about his only accomplishment. He’ll be known as the mayor of displacement, when thousands of San Franciscans lost their homes. He never stood up to power — he just doesn’t have a backbone.

Sadly, the current version of the Dothraki dictionary does not contain animal sounds, so I'll have to resort to onomatopoetic English for this one: Meeeeee-ow, Supervisor! Meow!

Related: John Avalos Likens Current Board Of Supervisors Intrigue To 'Game Of Thrones'

Call it Daly's Law: Every time something outrageous happens in San Francisco's City Hall, you can basically count the seconds until a member of the local commentariat mentions controversial former Supervisor Chris Daly's name in vain. It's a given, like gravity or the sunrise. But now, it appears that a passing reminiscence is the most Daly SF will get, as the once-towering progressive poster child has moved to Las Vegas.

Daly, who as District 6 Supervisor provided SFist with page after page of fodder in our early days as a publication, had a, ahem, bumpy two terms in City Hall (kids, ask your parents) then followed his time in politics with the proprietorship of a failed Market Street bar and a similarly failed stint as political director for SEIU Local 1021. All while his family lived in Fairfield, and he reportedly shuttled between there and his Stevenson Street condo in SF's District 6.

When termed-out D3 Supe Aaron Peskin announced his run to reclaim his former seat, I know that more than one local politico wondered if Daly might try the same tactic. After all, he reportedly considered it back in 2011. And he could basically run on a platform of "I warned you guys about Ed Lee! But you didn't listen!" But a report published this week in San Francisco Magazine crushes that possibility, at least for now, as Daly has embraced Sin City over The City That Knows How.

According to SF Mag, Daly is now the political director of the Nevada State Education Association, a union representing the state's teachers and school staffers. Though his family remains in Fairfield (he visits them “as often as possible," he says) he's living in North Las Vegas for the foreseeable future.

"California was starting to feel a little small to me, so this is good," he tells SF Mag, saying that he doesn't miss SF politics.

It was back in 2014, after Daly abruptly parted ways with the SEIU, that he told SFist that how much time he would spend in SF "depends on what ends up being next for me."

"Hopefully in the meantime," he said at the time, "I get to spend more time in SF socially." But now, SF Mag reports, Daly is looking at Vegas apartments in the $500-800 range and occupies a "smoke-filled hotel room that sets him back $21 a night (not counting video poker)."

“I see real power in communities and everyday people," Daly tells SF Mag of this change in his circumstances. "I feel very comfortable with my trajectory back into labor.”

Update: Daly texted me this afternoon with a few quibbles with either SF Mag's report or this here post (you pick!). He texts:

Failed bar in that I lost my lease. Otherwise, it was pretty successful and fun. My 3 years as Political Director for 1021 was hardly a failure, unless you are against raising the minimum wage. Also, my place in Vegas is in Paradise (east of the strip). My departure from 1021 only seemed abrupt if you weren't around 1021 (I had given 6 months notice!).

Previously: Chris Daly Breaks Up With Union, Pro-Car Measure Apparently Not To Blame

Quick, everyone, freak out! Sarah Lacy's PandoDaily article ("And you thought SF cabs were bad? BART strike is crippling fledgling mid-market tech corridor") is the online version of a drunk Missionite who stumbles into Aunt Charlie's Lounge and shrieks, "Oh my god, this place is pathetic! How is it still even open?!" This isn't to say that Lacy doesn't have thought-provoking or even semi-accurate tidbits to spit out; it's more that the article's tone could win a Tony Award in a revival of Children of a Lesser God. Let's begin.

Lacy begins by (unfairly) trashing the Tenderloin. "In case you have never had to joys of wandering through the Tenderloin, it’s pretty much the mouth of hell," she says. "It makes the 16th and Mission BART station--which was once so clogged with human feces the escalator broke down--look like Shangri La. "

Charmed. (We should point out that the feces-laced escalator wasn't in the Mission. It was at Civic Center, right by PandoDaily's office.)

Among other issues, Lacy is livid that the BART strike has affected her (and scores of other tech sheeps') arrival time at their MidMarket offices. She then goes on to point out how the BART strike has crippled the MidMarket tech industry--the most important thing in San Francisco, ever. "Mayor Lee has to be even more annoyed than I or any of the other thousands of tech workers struggling to get to the office this week," Lacy writes. "Just when it was starting to look like something near impossible was working, San Francisco’s new tech corridor has been brought to its knees in the last 48 hours as the city has been locked in a full-on transit and traffic nightmare."

Now would be a good time to point out that BART isn't the only form of public transportation in San Francisco. We also have Muni. The 38 Geary alone carries 50K a day! Further, there's the new Twitter bus from Muni, the 83x launched by the SFMTA especially for tech folks who work down there.

Then there's something about libertarians and progressives:

This is why it’s not easy being Mayor of a town like this. You preside between a warring brew of libertarians who have no regard for laws and progressives who want to dictate whether your Happy Meal comes with a toy; mashed up with a vocal contingent who wants to “Keep San Francisco weird” alongside newly minted hacker millionaires who want to change their reality in every conceivable way. All of these intense parties are in constant collision in a small geographically bound patch of land.

And finally, our favorite part: "As much as progressives might like the idea, the entire city won’t bike to work everyday. There need to be real options if you want people to ditch cars ... Put simply: You can't expect people to live like New Yorkers in a city that refuses to allow itself to evolve into a West Coast New York."

Popcorn, anyone?

Julian Davis is running for supervisor of District 5. He's also a longtime fixture of San Francisco's admittedly bro-lopsided progressive community. In an email sent to supporters today, Davis has denied allegations that he sexually assaulted a staffer a few years ago. This all stems from a heated piece SF Weekly published on Monday wherein a former staffer for Chris Daly accused Davis of assaulting her during a campaign bar-crawl.

[...] Six years ago, when [Kay Vasilyeva] was a staffer on Supervisor Chris Daly's re-election campaign and Davis was a volunteer, Vasilyeva says that Davis grew "handsy," and during a campaign bar-crawl, he then touched her beneath her clothing in an unwelcome physical advance. "It was such a shock to me he would do that to a colleague," she says. "I was so appalled and really humiliated. I didn't want to tell people."

Though Davis denies touching her (which we'll get to in a bit), he does admit to a messy encounter with her. He says that he apologized to Vasilyeva — a rather vocal member of the progressive community — and another unidentified woman for what he calls "youthful indiscretion."

Davis denies this type of encounter. "With some youthful indiscretion, I was too forward in a way that made two women feel uncomfortable," he says. One of those women is Vasilyeva, and the other has declined to speak with SF Weekly. "This is something I apologized for," he said regarding both instances. "I have matured a lot since then." Davis claimed he did no more with Vasilyeva than flirt with her in front of a person he did not know to be her boyfriend. He characterized his past behavior as "overly flirtatious" and "overly persistent conversation," stressing that "there was no physical advance." He adds that "no one pressed charges. We're not talking about anything criminal here."

Obviously, the timing of the allegations will make many wonder if this is yet another attempt by the Lee machine to take down the city's more left-of-center politicos. (Political columnist Melissa Griffin has described Davis as "downtown’s nightmare," and that probably doesn't sit well with the aggressive Lee-Pak-Brown trilogy of uninspired-condo-terror.) However, it is important to point out that, according to the SF Weekly piece, Vasilyeva tried to bring up the Davis incident before election season with progressive leaders. After the Bay Guardian gave Davis their endorsement, even after allegedly knowing about the molestation accusations, she came out publicly with details.

This morning, Davis sent out the following letter if denial to his supporters and local media:

Yesterday, the SF Weekly published an allegation made by a staffer in Mayor Ed Lee's administration that I made unwelcome physical advances towards her six years ago.

The allegation in the SF Weekly piece is completely untrue, but the story is out.

The overwhelming majority of commentators see this for exactly what it is: an 11th-hour 'October Surprise.' The words of support that people have been sending me have only reaffirmed what I've known all along: this campaign continues to have the most passionate, loyal, and energetic people behind it.

As for the Guardian, they are taking the allegations very seriously. "Yes, we are reconsidering our endorsement," the local alt-weekly wrote soon after the Weekly's piece went live.

Update: The Guardian's editor/publisher Tim Redmond contacted SFist to explain how much they knew. Turns out very little. "[F]or the record, we did NOT know about Kay's allegations before we endorsed Julian. If we had known, we never would have endorsed him," Redmond said. This statement stands in direct contrast to SF Weekly's claim that Todd Vogt, co-owner of the Examiner and Guardian, knew about them prior to the endorsement. Further, the Guardian has now asked for Davis to drop out of the race. Which, yes, he probably should at this point — especially since the doomed candidate has gone so far as to retain an attorney to threaten Vasilyeva with legal action.

[...] And more than the incident itself, the response we've seen from Davis is highly disturbing. He's utterly denying that it ever happened, and retained a lawyer to send Vasilyeva a letter threatening her with legal action if she continues to talk.

We can best sum up what's happening here with a line plucked from last night's Real Housewives of New York reunion. As Carole Radziwill pointed out to Luann regarding her maybe-affair with French pirate Tomas in St. Barts — while expertly tipping her hat to Watergate — "It's never about the crime, it's always about the cover up."

True words, Carole. True words.

Despite a domestic-abuse conviction, Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi gets to keep his job after the board of Supervisors refused allow Mayor Ed Lee to use official misconduct charges to get the embattled elected sheriff out of office. Voting against removal were supervisors John Avalos, David Campos, Jane Kim, and Christina Olague. Yesterday's meeting went well into the night, with scores of Mirkarimi supporters speaking in favor of the former D5 supervisor (with a few of them ridiculing domestic violence workers).

Among the supporters were former SF Mayor Art Agnos who chided the Lee regime, saying, "As a former mayor, I know extraordinary power ... During the Loma Prieta earthquake, I used the state of emergency to close neighborhoods, hold people without charges, put the army on the streets of our city. But I never had this kind of power — and no one should."

On the flip side, Katharine Berg of La Casa de las Madres, a domestic violence organization, told the BoS that retaining Mirkarimi would "send a frightening message to survivors of violence and an empowering one to perpetrators across the city."

Mayor Lee lambasted the decision for reinstatement. He also spent last night at the Metreon Target store opening, posing for pictures next to an unhappy dog during, in lieu of participating in the brouhaha at city hall.

Read SFist's comprehensive coverage of last night's hearing.

[SF Examiner]
[Appeal]

It's time for your requisite Ross Mirkarimi update for the week: The embattled sheriff, who has been suspended without pay since this past winter and who faces the permanent loss of the job if he can not get the votes of three members of the Board of Supervisors against his dismissal, has launched a media campaign to try to get more support for his cause.

His supporters have put together a sheet of talking points (see them below) that they've been passing around to supporters and supportive members of the media. (We imagine that Rose Pak and Willie Brown did the something similar for Ed Lee during his campaign.) The Examiner's Melissa Griffin takes a look at the flier and concludes that the "Mirkaloonies" are particularly concerned with winning the support of either Eric Mar or David Campos, and making sure that people know that Ross got more first-choice votes than Ed Lee in last November's election — some 86,000 anyway, because turnout for that particular election was extraordinarily low. It is assumed that Mirkarimi has the votes of fellow progressive John Avalos, and interim Supervisor Christina Olague, who serves in his former district. The third vote (because there will need to be nine of eleven supervisors voting to remove him) could come from Campos or Mar, though both are facing reelection and may not want to be associated with this mess.

Also, his legal team on Monday petitioned the Ethics Commission to delay the vote by the Board of Supervisors until after this November's election, because as we discussed the other week, people's feelings about domestic abuse and Mirkarimi himself could end up being used against incumbent Supervisors who are hoping to be re-elected. This also comes in reaction to a poll in late August that showed that 61 percent of San Franciscans agree with the Ethics Commission that Mirkarimi should be removed from office.

As you well know, he pleaded guilty in March to a misdemeanor count of false imprisonment when he faced the possibility of a domestic abuse trial stemming from an incident on New Year's Eve in which he grabbed and bruised the arm of his wife during an argument. Supporters have, in general, liked to downplay the incident as a simple misdemeanor, a "private matter," and certainly not worthy of killing the man's career over.

[Examiner]

All previous Mirkarimi coverage on SFist.

Oh boy. The wacky kids at the Harvey Milk Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Democratic Club will hold a District 5 Supervisor candidates’ debate tonight from 7 - 8:30 p.m. And you have got to be there. Seeing as how it's steeped in progressive fun, some crazy-ass shit will surely go down.

The debate will be moderated by "transgender performer, artist, and social commentator" Ben McCoy and totally rad SF Bay Guardian managing editor Marke Bieschke. And, according to Milk Club leader and Miss Trannyshack winner Glendon Anna Conda Hyde, "The Milk Board is proud to bring you debates that will help us choose the person who is willing to fight the hardest for true social justice. We look forward to hearing how the candidates will move drug policy, nightlife concerns, public space, Queer seniors’ issues, Sex Worker rights and the housing crisis into a future that is all inclusive. We are looking for that voice that represents best the core values of the Milk Club and San Francisco."

Okay?

This could turn into a bunch on wonks screaming into a bag of sand, especially if D5 goes the way of the artisan coffee nerd, but you should consider attending if you live in the district. Or not. It all goes down from 7-8:30 p.m. at the Eric Quezada Center on 518 Valencia (oddly enough not in D5, but the Mission). This evening's event will be catered by Bi-Rite. (Ha, not really! Keep dreaming.)

Oh, and SFist's Andrew Dalton will live tweet the festivities. (Bring him a Ritter Sport "corn flake" or "marzipan" treat to get him to talk to you. He's like a kitten that way.)

Sheriff-elect Ross Mirkarimi, who's being sworn in to his new post Sunday, is currently under investigation by the SFPD after an incident of alleged domestic abuse involving his wife over New Year's weekend. Mirkarimi's wife, former Venezuelan telenovela star Eliana Lopez, reportedly hid out in a neighbor's apartment after a physical fight with Mirkarimi, and the neighbor subsequently called police, according to Matier and Ross. Police have now interviewed the neighbor, but Mirkarimi and Lopez are maintaining that this has all been blown out of proportion. Lopez made an official statement last night saying, "I have absolutely no complaint against my husband. My husband has never been abusive to me. Ross and I are committed to our marriage, our son and our family."

In trying to question Lopez, police say she has been reluctant to speak about the incident. Mirkarimi has declined to comment. The DA's office has now been brought in on the case, but no charges have been filed.

Darling of S.F. progressives, Mirkarimi met Lopez in 2008 while at an environmental conference in Brazil. She later moved to San Francisco and gave birth to their son in 2009.

Wanna go on a date with an elected progressive? Well, the city's left-of-left-of-center ilk will pimp out their leaders at tomorrow night's Smokin' Hot Progressives 2nd Annual Auction. San Francisco mayoral candidates Dennis Herrera, Bevan Dufty, Leeland Yee, David Chiu, and Phil Ting will be auctioned off during a live bidding war at Public Works (161 Erie) in the Mission district. Supervisor Jane Kim and Senior Advisor to the Mayor's Office Paul Henderson will also work it for your dollars.

We think most of the stable here are partnered up with significant others, so don't expect any slap and tickle. Word of wisdom, if you will, will be the only fluid exchange.

Money will go to support the New Leaders Council (NLC) of San Francisco, "a national nonprofit whose mission is to train and support the next generation of progressive political entrepreneurs - those who are leading industries, setting trends, and building institutions that support robust civic and political life in a global America."

Find out more at Smokin' Hot Progressives 2nd Annual Auction.

As the Board's Budget and Finance committee gets set to review the Twitter Tax Break (neé "Payroll Expense Tax Exclusion in Central Market Street and Tenderloin Area") this Wednesday, rumblings are afoot. A tax exemption that would have repulsed last year's progressive sect could pass with this most recent crop of left-of-center supervisors. As the Chronicle points out today, previously progressive President Chiu and D6's replacement Jane Kim have been instrumental in supporting the tax break, which probably would have been deemed "welfare for the wealthy" a year ago.

However, politicians' ire (former or otherwise) might not hold nearly as much weight as the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). At least not in this instance. KCBS notes: "the city’s biggest public employee union, the SEIU, said the city can’t afford to offer Twitter such a tax break when jobs and basic services are being cut."

This right here, if anything, could ruin the deal. The SEIU officially opposing it could ruin Twitter's dreams of tax relief. How so? Well, their opposition will not only mean public opinion could be swayed (they buy loads of ads, do tons of lobbying), but if it gets on the November ballot, they could kill it.

[Chronicle]
[KCBS]