By Todd Swindell and Michael Petrelis
The Department of Elections has posted the sample ballot for District 8 voters and in the Supervisorial race we're at the top of the list.Until we looked at the sample ballot today, we had no idea the random lottery that determines the line up made us the first name out of all the candidates.
Let's hope this ranking gets us a few extra votes this election season.
All District 8 voters who are voting for Petrelis should consider this strategy to make their vote carry as much weight as possible in our ranked-choice voting system.
Make Petrelis your number one choice and leave your second and third choice columns completely blank, and you'll be giving an extra boost to us.
Given that the incumbent, barring a miraculous upset that is highly unlikely, will get 50% plus 1 of the first round of votes, the Department of Elections won't be counting second or third choices.
Whether voting by mail, at City Hall or at your local polling station, really make your vote for Petrelis count this election and vote only for us in the first column.
We'd appreciate it if you'd do us this important act of exercising your right to vote and using that vote to send a powerful message of dissatisfaction with the incumbent and his policies and legislative agenda.
425K Voter Guides Snail-Mailed by Elections Department
By Todd Swindell and Michael Petrelis
Now that paper version of the voter guide has been sent via the U.S. Postal Service by the Department of Elections, it truly feels like election season here. Early voting begins on Monday, October 6th at City Hall.
We're quite curious how many of the 425,000 pamphlets the department stated were sent this week, will be read by voters and what influence candidate statements have on how ballots are cast.
Needless to say, we hope our statement swings a robust number of ballots in our direction.
In the Merrigan-Petrelis household, we generally read the guide together one morning over breakfast and try not to get into too heavy a political discussion. Merrigan looks at it again when he fills out his mail-in ballot.
On the other hand, Petrelis clips the pages of most interest about ballot measures and takes them with him on election day when he votes at his polling station.
You can read the full 209-page voter information pamphlet here:http://tinyurl.com/SF-2014-voter-guide. And remember to #VotePetrelis!
Wiener Blows Off The Living Wage Coalition
By Todd Swindell and Michael Petrelis
The incumbent District 8 Supervisor has a campaign team of handsomely compensated political consultants and a key task for them is answering the many questionnaires that flood all candidates.
Our DIY Democracy team behind #VotePetrelis would welcome the resources to respond to all groups, political blogs and newspapers seeking our views on various concerns, but we believe we chose wisely which questionnaires to address or not.
The San Francisco Living Wage Coalition is one group we very much support and we made sure to get them a response by their deadline, and stick to their word-limit.
Yesterday, their voter guide arrived on paper via snail mail and we're proud to say ours was the only campaign to fully address all ten of the coalition's questions. The overwhelmingly number of replies were simple yes or no answers.
But the most surprising aspect was seeing that Scott Wiener just blew off the coalition's concerns and didn't respond. What does that say about his agenda to pay working folks a wage they can live on?
If you're pissed off, #VotePetrelis!
SFGovTV & League of Women Voters' Video
by Michael Petrelis
The five-minute candidate statement I taped last month as part of a joint voter engagement project of SF GovTV and the League of Women Voters is now on YouTube.
Seeing the finished tape, I feel I come across as a basically relaxed and rumpled younger brother of Harvey Fierstein, with just a tinge of nervousness reading off a teleprompter for the first time.
I told my social media guru Todd Swindell about learning to love my look on the tape, and he replied with this tale:
"Reminds me of a great scene from one of my fav films 'Broadcast News". William Hurt's character is trying to help Albert Brook's character to present better when doing the evening news report. Hurt tells Brooks to sit on the line of his coat but Brooks ignores him and keeps reading. Finally Hurt comes over and pulls it down. Brooks becomes all ruffled about being touched but, when he sees himself on the monitor, he says, 'Fantastic tip!'"
Let's go to the tape:
Follow Us & Our Fab Fotos on Twitter
By Todd Swindell and Michael Petrelis
Since Facebook does not allow for more than one photo to be shared in
each post, and we're not crazy about their album function, we're used
our Twitter feed to showcase various friends, voters and supporters posing with our #ILikeMikeSF sign
If you don't follow us at https://twitter.com/MichaelPetrelis, please cruise on over there now and start following us.
Even if you choose not follow us, check out our feed's great collection
of fabulous folks demonstrating their backing of our alternative
candidacy.
The feed is also where we opine about non-campaign issues from our unique activist perspective.
When you tweet about our campaign or the photos, please be sure to tag
everything with the #ILikeMikeSF and let's light up Twitter with
awareness for our candidacy.
Here's our good pal Larry, we go
back to our New Yawk days together in the 1980s, striking a pose and
showing a smile while holding up our sign.
Air-Kissing a Baby & Avoid Attacking the Incumbent
By Todd Swindell and Michael Petrelis
(Cross posted from our campaign site.)
Over the course of this alternative candidacy, we've played by a few
rules from the standard political playbook such as setting up social
media, raising funds, seeking endorsements and campaigning at the Harvey Milk Plaza transit hub.
Now, we are proud to add another item to that list. After having dinner
at our favorite sushi restaurant, which we will not name since it has a
small seating capacity and we don't want more folks learning about it
and making the waiting time longer, we air-kissed a baby.
The
photo below shows a proud grandfather visiting from Australia holding
his granddaughter Mavis, as I stood to the side holding an #ILikeMikeSF
sign. Mavis' grandmother was pleased as punch to snap several photos
with my camera, as the baby's beaming lesbian mothers waved at their
darling daughter getting her to look at the camera.
Sure do
hope the lesbian mothers, who live in the Duboce Triangle section of
District 8, take a look at this great photo and consider giving me their
votes.
Today we also received another email request pushing us
to go negative. Since we've been on the campaign trail, many D8 voters
and San Francisco folks outside the district have tried to make us a
vehicle for their anger at the incumbent, his legislative agenda and
wealthy real estate development backers.
The latest request
began thus: "So first off this is advice - take it or leave it. Why are
you not attacking him on all the failed issues he campaigned on?"
No thanks; we'll leave it. The note got progressively more aggressive
and shrill as it went it, and we didn't bother to respond. There is no
need to deal with such people and their thinking.
We'll continue to run an upbeat candidacy that stresses our accomplishments and our platform (http://www.ilikemikesf.org/missionstatement/),
asking D8 voters to cast ballots for us because they either approve of
our campaign and issues and/or also want to send a protest message to
the incumbent.
Thanks, Mavis, for striking a beautiful pose!
Wiener Waffles on SF Chron Endorsement Forum
By Todd Swindell and Michael Petrelis
(Cross-posted at our campaign site.)
The San Francisco Chronicle on Aug. 28th called out Gov. Jerry Brown
for long refusing then finally relenting to debate his GOP challenger
Neel Kashkari, and issued a few grand pronouncements about democracy and incumbents (tinyurl.com/Chron-Democracy-Needs-Debates):
"Face-to-face debates between candidates are central to a healthy
democracy. Politicians may want to avoid them - especially incumbents
with big leads and hefty war chests - but voters deserve to see a
side-by-side comparison between candidates who want to attain or retain
key public offices. [...] Voters should be wary of candidates who are
reluctant to subject themselves to real scrutiny."
On Monday,
we accepted the Chronicle's invitation to participate in an editorial
board forum scheduled for Sept. 25th with the District 8 Supervisor and
all of his challengers, and we told the paper about a stay-away order
that a judge has modified allowing for the incumbent to appear at
debates with Michael. The Chronicle didn't keep its promise to provide
us with layout and seating details by Tuesday, to present to the judge.
The Bay Area Reporter tonight notes the incumbent's stand on joining the Chronicle's forum (tinyurl.com/BAR-Wiener-Debates):
"Wiener has repeatedly said he will not participate in any forums that
include Petrelis. But when asked this week by the B.A.R. if he would
skip the Chronicle endorsement meeting should the judge allow Petrelis
to attend, Wiener was noncommittal. 'It's too soon to say,' he said.
'The Chronicle is aware of the situation.'"
Yes, we agree with
the Supervisor that the paper is aware of the sticky situation and may
now be trying to wiggle out of the invitation to us and the editorial
board forum, which is why the Chronicle has broken its promise to get
back to us yesterday.
Could it be that the Chronicle was
ignorant of their favorite Supervisor's adamant refusal to engage in the
democratic process of debates with all of his electoral opponents?
Permit us to state we also concur with the paper's contention that
voters should be skeptical of politicians unwilling to debate and be
scrutinized. It will be very interesting, to say the least, to hear what
the Chronicle has to say about the incumbent's reluctance to join a
forum with Michael at the table.
D8 Writer Mark Abramson Endorses Our Candidacy
By Todd Swindell and Michael Petrelis
(Cross-posted from our campaign site.)
It's a treat to announce we received an endorsement this week from
longtime District 8 resident, voter and writer Mark Abramson. As a gay
man, he lived through the worst years of
the AIDS epidemic working as a bartender and sharing his humor and
smile with many appreciative patrons.
Mark wrote the new book
"For My Brothers" about those plague years and also authored the
widely-read Beach Reading "Beach Reading" mysteries that take place in
the contemporary Castro gayborhood. Here's Mark's statement of support:
"I want to go on record as endorsing Michael Petrelis for the office of
Supervisor of San Francisco's District 8. As a resident of the Castro
for most of my nearly four decades in San Francisco, I believe it is
high time that our neighborhood is once again represented by a
progressive in the mold of Harvey Milk or Bevan Dufty.
"Michael
Petrelis is not afraid to fight for, among other things: (1) seniors
and members of the LGBT community, many of whom are facing profit-driven
evictions; (2) an increase in access to public officials; (3)
improvement in transit reliability; (4) reclaiming public plazas for all
citizens; (5) the needs of the residents over the needs of downtown,
developers and real estate tycoons.
"Please join me in voting for Michael Petrelis on November 4 and make a donation today if you can."
Thank you, Mark, for lending your name to our list of endorsers and supporting the #ILikeMikeSF team!
This is where you can find him online: https://www.facebook.com/mark.abramson.12?fref=ufi. Here's a great photo of Mark that was taken by David K. Bruner:
