Tues Jan 8th: Cleaning it up with Tom Ammiano; reform with the CADem 17 slate

On the second Tuesday of the month (instead of our normal first Tuesday because of the holiday), our headliner is former State Assemblyman, Board of Supervisors president, and School Board president Tom Ammiano, role-model legislator for decades of SF political history.  Tom chairs the campaign committee for the Sunlight on Dark Money Initiative, seeking signatures to get on the November 2019 ballot.  It would force disclosures of corporate PAC money in campaigns and limit pay-to-play campaign contributions, and close corporate and lobbyist campaign contribution loopholes.  With the elections coming up, we need these reforms more than ever.

The new year also brings elections for local delegates to the California Democratic Party, sorely in need of reform after the scandal-triggered resignation of the party’s chair in late November.  At Tuesday’s meeting, we’ll meet some of the candidates on the Reform Democrats for Labor & Equity slate.  The election for this set of delegates is coming up fast: Saturday, January 12, at 10 am at the Women’s Building, 3271 18th Street.  All registered Democrats in Assembly DIstrict 17 are eligible to vote! For information about the Party and the delegate election (including all candidate statements) click here

We’ll also hear from PHDC member Kelly Dennehy-Schumann, board member of the Women’s March Bay Area, with information about the Saturday, January 19th rally & march, 11:30am at Civic Center Plaza.

Also: nominations are open for 2019 PHDC officers.

WHEN: Tuesday, January 8th, 7:00 pm
WHERE: Potrero Hill Neighborhood House, 953 De Haro St

Tues Oct 2: Behind the scenes with Real Candidates of Potrero Hill!

It’s Election Confidential time! Get the skinny on what it’s really like to campaign in a town where politics are deemed to be a blood sport. A conversation with Hill residents in the thick of it: Supervisor candidates Tony Kelly and Uzuri Pease-Greene, School Board candidate Monica Chinchilla, and Assessor-Recorder candidate Paul Bellar.

Hot gossip and surprises, reality-TV style? Um, maybe. Insights and illumination? Certainly.

Check it out on Tuesday. We will also preview our soon-to-be-printed endorsement door-hanger – and check back with some of our endorsed candidates and campaigns.

WHEN: Tuesday, October 2nd, 7:00 pm
WHERE: Potrero Hill Neighborhood House, 953 De Haro St

Tues Sept 18th: The Potrero Hill SF School Board Debate

Potrero Hill Democratic Club’s endorsement season concludes with an evening of lively debate with 10 of the candidates running for the San Francisco Board of Education in November.  PHDC endorsement ballots will be counted immediately after the debate.

Free on-site childcare will be provided. Spots are limited; reserve your spot here. (Thank you to PREFund for their help sponsoring this season’s debates.)

Get a preview of what values and beliefs these candidates stand for, and what qualifications and accomplishments they can claim, to help them achieve their goals for public education in San Francisco.

Candidates scheduled to join us:
Monica Chinchilla
Alison Collins
Alida Fisher
Phil Kim
Lex Leifheit
Li Miao Lovett
Faauuga Moliga
Michelle Parker
John Trasvina

Moderator: Sara O’Neill, SFUSD parent and PHDC member.

WHEN: Tuesday, September 18th, 6:30pm
WHERE: Potrero Hill Neighborhood House, 953 De Haro St

Tues Sept 4th: Endorsing local offices, local ballot measures

At Tuesday’s meeting, we’ll hear from candidates and representatives for local office campaigns and ballot measures, and vote on more endorsements. A little after 8 pm, we will have all the candidates for City College Board for a joint Q&A session.

On Tuesday’s endorsement ballot (click the links for more info):

SF Assessor: Carmen Chu* or Paul Bellar
SF Public Defender: Jeff Adachi*
City College of SF Board: Brigitte Davila,* John Rizzo,* Thea Selby,* Victor Olivieri

Proposition A (Seawall Improvement Bonds)
Proposition B (Personal Information Protection Policy)
Proposition C (Gross Receipts Tax for Homeless Services)
Proposition D (Marijuana Business Tax Increase)
Proposition E (Hotel Tax Allocation for Arts and Culture)

We also list “No Endorsement” as a choice on the ballot for candidate races, and “Why is This on the Ballot?” as a choice on the ballot for propositions.

*Incumbent

WHEN: Tuesday, September 4th, 7:00 pm
WHERE: Potrero Hill Neighborhood House, 953 De Haro St

Tues Aug 28: The Potrero District 10 Supervisor Debate & Endorsement Vote

 

This November, we choose a new District 10 Supervisor.

So, on August 28, please come and learn about four leading candidates’ visions for Potrero Hill, Dogpatch, the rest of District 10 and the City. Club members will vote on an endorsement the same evening.

You’ll meet: Theo Ellington, Tony Kelly, Uzuri Pease-Greene, and Shamann Walton. Click on their names to read their responses to our questionnaire.

This debate is brought to you with our co-sponsors, Potrero Boosters and PREFund.

Please RSVP here, and tell us you’re coming!

WHEN:Tuesday, August 28, 6:30pm – 8:30pm
WHERE: Potrero Hill Neighborhood House, 953 De Haro St @ Southern Hts

Tues Aug 7th: Endorsements of state offices & ballot measures

We’ll hear from representatives for state office campaigns and some ballot measures. PHDC board members will provide brief overviews of the rest of the measures. On the endorsement ballot (click the links for more info):

US Senate: Kevin de León or Dianne Feinstein
Governor: Gavin Newsom
Attorney General: Xavier Becerra
State Assembly, Dist. 17: David Chiu
Board of Equalization, Dist. 2: Malia Cohen

Proposition 1 (Veterans and Affordable Housing Bond)
Proposition 2 (Homeless Housing Funding)
Proposition 3 (Water and Watershed Infrastructure Bond)
Proposition 4 (Children’s Hospital Construction Bond)
Proposition 5 (Expanding Prop 13)
Proposition 6 (Repealing the Gas Tax)
Proposition 7 (Permanent Daylight Savings Time)
Proposition 8 (Regulating Kidney Dialysis Clinics)
Proposition 10 (Repealing Costa-Hawkins)
Proposition 11 (Ambulance Employees On Call During Breaks)
Proposition 12 (Cage Free Farm Animals)

In partisan races, we only consider Democrats for endorsements since we are a Democratic club. But we also list “No endorsement” as a choice on the ballot for candidate races, and “Why is this on the ballot?” as a choice on the ballot for propositions.

Our endorsements for November so far, continuing from the primary election in June:

U.S. Congress: Nancy Pelosi
Lieutenant Governor: Eleni Kounalakis
State Controller: Betty Yee
Insurance Commissioner: Ricardo Lara
Secretary of State: Alex Padilla
State Treasurer: Fiona Ma
Superintendent of Public Instruction: Tony Thurmond

Speak up! Vote on Tuesday!

All endorsements so far are here.

WHEN: Tuesday, August 7th, 7:00 pm
WHERE: Potrero Hill Neighborhood House, 953 De Haro St

Tuesday, April 3rd: more June endorsements: Mayor, ballot measures

First, a bit of Club biz: We’ll consider an amendment to our bylaws (introduced in March) to consider the possibility of a ranked-choice endorsement for ranked-choice elections, repeating the ranked-choice process of vote-counting after (and only if) a first choice has been determined.

Then we’ll hear from representatives for and against local ballot measures, and PHDC board members with brief overviews of state ballot measures. (We are not inviting mayor candidates to this meeting, since we already heard a lot from them at our widely praised debate in February – see the video below!)

On Tuesday’s ballot (click the links for more info):

Mayor: Angela Alioto, Michelle Bravo, London Breed, Jane Kim, Mark Leno, Amy Farah Weiss, Ellen Lee Zhou

 

Proposition 68 (Parks, Environment, Water Bond)

Proposition 69 (Transportation Taxes & Fees Lockbox)

Proposition 70 (Vote Requirement for Cap-and-Trade)

Proposition 71 (Effective Date of Ballot Measures)

Proposition 72 (Rainwater Systems Tax Exclusion)

Regional Measure 3 (Bay Area Toll)

 

Proposition A (Public Utilities Bond)

Proposition B (Commissioners not Running for Office)

Proposition C (Tax for Childcare & Education)

Proposition D (Tax for Housing & Services)

Proposition E (Banning Flavored Tobacco)

Proposition F (Representation for Evictions)

Proposition G (Tax for SFUSD)

Proposition H (SFPD Use of Tasers)

Proposition I (Relocation of Sports Teams)

We also list No Endorsement as a choice on the ballot for candidate races, and ‘Why is This on the Ballot?’ as a choice on the ballot for propositions.

WHEN: Tuesday, April 3, 7pm
WHERE: Potrero Hill Neighborhood House, 953 De Haro St @ Southern Hts

Complete endorsement list is here.

Tuesday March 6th: Endorsement voting begins

We’ve invited the candidates below to attend, using the roster of qualified candidates from the California Democratic Party (as a Democratic club, we cannot endorse non-Democrats in partisan races).

U.S. Senate: Kevin de León, Dianne Feinstein, Pat Harris U.S. Congress: Shahid Buttar, Stephen Jaffe, Ryan Kjohasteh, Nancy Pelosi
Governor: John Chiang, Delaine Eastin, Gavin Newsom, Antonio Villaraigosa
Lieutenant Governor: Jeff Bleich, Ed Hernandez, Eleni Kounalakis
Attorney General: Xavier Becerra, Dave Jones
State Controller: Betty Yee
Insurance Commissioner: Ricardo Lara, Asif Mahmood
Secretary of State: Ruben Major, Alex Padilla
State Treasurer: Fiona Ma
Superintendent of Public Instruction: Tony Thurmond, Marshall Tuck
State Assembly, Dist. 17: David Chiu
Board of Equalization, Dist. 2: Malia Cohen, Cathleen Galgiani
Superior Court Judge #4: Andrew Cheng, Phoenix Streets
Superior Court Judge #7: Curtis Karnow, Maria Elena Evangelista
Superior Court Judge #9: Cynthia Lee, Kwixuan Hart Maloof, Elizabeth Zareh
Superior Court Judge #11: Jeffrey Ross, Nicole Judith Solis
We list No Endorsement as a choice on the ballot for each race. Voting members’ ballots are due at the end of the meeting, and will be counted immediately.

Folks gathering signatures for a ballot measure to reform Prop 13 with the California Schools & Local Communities Funding Act of 2018 (previously endorsed by PHDC) will visit briefly.

We’ll also introduce an amendment to our bylaws to consider the possibility of a ranked-choice endorsement for ranked-choice elections.

In April, we will vote on endorsements for Mayor, and ballot measures.

WHEN: Tuesday, March 6th, 7:00 pm
WHERE: Potrero Hill Neighborhood House, 953 De Haro St

Tuesday, Feb. 6th: The Party and the Port

Peter Gallotta, recording Secretary of the SF DCCC, will share the Party’s thoughts about this year’s crucial elections, across the City, the state, and the country.

We’ll hear from the Port of San Francisco’s Seawall Resiliency Project, an effort to improve and/or replace a critical part of the City’s aging infrastructure. 

We’ll also approve PHDC’s budget for 2018, and close nominations and vote for Club officers.

WHEN: Tuesday, February 6th, 7:00 pm
WHERE: Potrero Hill Neighborhood House, 953 De Haro St

Tuesday, Jan 9 (2nd Tues, just this time): First 2018 meeting

Topics: What is really in the horrible Republican tax bill, and why that is Reason #1 to Take Congress Back in November; a new community-led effort to create a Public Bank in San Francisco; endorsement calendar for 2018’s super-important elections, including votes for Mayor, Governor, and District 10 Supervisor; officer nominations open (election in February).

WHEN: Tuesday, January 9th, 7:00 pm
WHERE: Potrero Hill Neighborhood House, 953 De Haro St