The Club revisited and further explored three issues that we have examined in the past, ranging from within the district to statewide – and of course they’re all related.

In District 10, there has been ongoing concern about the environmental impacts of development in the Bayview. We continued that discussion, this time with members of POWER (People Organized to Win Employment Rights) Jaron Browne and Nyese Joshua.

The citizens of San Francisco are moving toward the ability to pool their purchasing power to buy electricity from more sustainable sources – unless PG&E succeeds in effectively wiping out all competition with the deceptive Prop 16. “Community Choice Aggregation” is now known as CleanPowerSF, and was described by Caroline Teng of SF LAFCo.

Then, following up on our panel discussion of the California water crisis, Adam Scow of Food & Water Watch gave reasons to flush the state water bond on the November ballot. however, it was to late to vote on an endorsement either way, so Adam will return June 1st.

At the beginning of the meeting, Alex Tourk from Why Tuesday introducing the idea of adding Saturday as an election day, and in the middle, Isaac Bowers and Rev. Nina Pickerrell, candidates for District 10 Supervisor, introduced themselves.

WHEN: Tuesday, May 4th, at 7:00PM
WHERE: Potrero Hill Neighborhood House, 953 De Haro @ Southern Heights

The members of Potrero Hill Democratic Club voted at the April 6th meeting to have the opportunity to hear all candidates for the SF Democratic County Central Committee in District 13, not just the ones who have never been elected to public office. All candidates were therefore invited to schedule an appearance. Twenty-three candidates were heard from, 21 in person and 2 through surrogates. The following candidates passed the 60% threshold and got the club’s endorsement: Keith Baraka, David Campos, David Chiu, Hope Johnson, Rafael Mandelman, Aaron Peskin, Debra Walker.

We thank all the candidates for taking the time to speak to us, and for their dedication to making a difference in San Francisco.

WHEN: Monday, April 19th, at 7:00PM
WHERE: Potrero Hill Neighborhood House, 953 De Haro @ Southern Heights

Speakers on local and state propositions included State Senator Leland Yee and SF Board of Supervisors President David Chiu, Sierra Club’s John Rizzo, and Planning Commission President Ron Miguel. We had appearances by candidate for Insurance Commissioner Hector De La Torre, candidate for Superintendent of Public Instruction Larry Aceves, and a campaign rep for Superintendent of Public Instruction candidate Tom Torlakson. Candidates for the SF Democratic Central Committee spoke to us, but the membership voted to postpone voting on that race to a later meeting, to which the Club will invite all 30 candidates. Here are our endorsements so far for the June 8, 2010 Statewide Direct Primary Election.