June 2026 Voter Guide
So I’ve started to think about this a bunch of times and haven’t gotten to it yet. Things are, not to put too fine a point on it, pretty grim these days, and even I am struggling a little. And maybe it’s me, and maybe it’s the times we’re living in, but I’m pretty uninspired by most of the fields of candidates for these offices. That said, here’s your June California (and San Francisco) voter guide. Since I’m back working for the City, I’ll not be making recommendations on San Francisco City candidates.
Local Ballot Measures
Prop A: Earthquake Bonds — Yes. There’s an argument that we should be including upkeep and renovation of our firefighting infrastructure in our regular budget. But for better or worse, we fund these kinds of major upgrades through bonds. And it is very likely that demands on our emergency infrastructure will increase, and we oughtta make sure it’s up to the task. I would be much happier about this bond if it didn’t include funds for police stations, but that portion is less than 15% of the total, so I am willing to bit that bullet.
Prop B: Lifetime Term Limits — No. This could reasonably be called the Screw You Aaron Peskin measure. Since term limits were instituted in San Francisco, only one person has served more than two terms (plus a portion of a term after they were appointed). That person is Aaron Peskin, and the billionaires want to keep him from running again. I’m not particularly in favor of him running again, but changing the city charter to spite one person is petty even by San Francisco standards.
Prop C: Decrease Business Taxes — No. San Francisco has a rich tradition of people putting items on the ballot to try to confuse voters about an existing ballot item. The conventional wisdom is that if voters are confused about how multiple items overlap they will vote no on both. I’d love to see some data on whether that’s actually true, but either way this proposition is an attempt to confuse people about and serve as a poison pill to Prop D. This would lower business taxes on small to medium sized businesses, and would cost the city $30–40 million in lost revenue, right when we are in a severe budget deficit.
Prop D: Increase Top Executive Pay Tax — Yes. A few years ago we passed a Top Executive Pay Tax to levy additional business or payroll taxes on businesses where the top executive makes more than 100 times the median compensation of their San Francisco Employees. Prop D would measure top executive pay against the median income of all the firm’s employees. IT would also sharply raise the rates of that tax. It would raise something like $250 million in additional revenue for the city.
Local Candidates
Congress, CA-11: Connie Chan. I’ll be honest here I’m not thrilled with any of the candidates. Scott Wiener is apparently the leading candidate, and while I think he’s someone who mostly believes what he says he believes, what he believes is often that we should cut rich people more slack. He has been good on transit, generally, and if you believe that getting rid of zoning is all we need to be showered with new housing, then he’s your guy. If you believe we also need to ensure we have housing for people who can’t afford fancy new apartments, then you should be significantly less enthusiastic. Saikat Chakrabarti is doing his best to make this election exclusively about national issues. This is not an entirely unreasonable approach; obviously congresspeople are responsible for voting on national issues. However, they are also responsible for representing us, and frankly nothing Chakrabarti has done or said has given any impression he knows anything about San Francisco. Connie Chan has generally fought for people who need fighting for, and has led the effort to keep drastic city budget cuts from falling disproportionately on the poor and working people. Like many West Side politicians she’s been someone squishy on transit, but on balance she’s the least objectionable choice here.
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Congress, CA-15, Assembly. Incumbents are sure to win.
Superior Court Judge — Alexandra Pray. When a candidate for judge gets endorsed by the Police Officers Association, it’s a pretty severe warning sign. When that candidate also gets major donations from right wing billionaires and Republican, the bright red lights start flashing and you can hear sirens. That’s where candidate Phoebe Maffei is getting her money. Alexandra Pray is a long-time public defender and isn’t beholden to repressive forces.
State Candidates
Governor — Tom Steyer. Look I’m not a big fan of billionaires, and were Steyer to win, we could end up with a mayor, governor, and president who are all worth in the hundreds of millions or billions. That does not feel like a sign of a healthy democracy. Maybe we can elect Chakrabarti too and it can be filthy rich guys all the way down. That all said, there is not a great field of candidates from which to choose for Governor. Because of California’s jungle primary, everyone’s trying to game the system and figure out how to vote strategically. As I understand where we are now, we are likely to end up with Republican Steve Hilton and either Xavier Becerra or Tom Steyer. The latter, despite being a zillionaire, has staked out much better positions than Becerra, including support for the billionaire tax coming up for a vote in November.
Lieutenant Governor — Michael Tubbs. Tubbs had a pretty good record as mayor of Stockton, overseeing a turnaround and piloting a basic income program.
Secretary of State — Shirley Webber. Likely to win, should win.
Treasurer — Eleni Kounalakis. I don’t feel strongly about this one, but her positions are better, and none of the other candidates present much reason to vote for them instead.
Attorney General — Rob Bonta. He seems to be confident enough that he will win that he didn’t bother to put a statement in the ballot handbook, but by all accounts he’s not wrong.
