It could be a clean sweep for the three school board members Mayor Breed appointed after the February recall, with only Ann Hsu’s election somewhat in doubt.
On one hand, San Francisco Mayor London Breed had a terrible night in term of local San Francisco ballot propositions: the moving of mayoral election years that she opposed won in a landslide, the Department of Homelessness oversight commission that she opposed also won handily; and her big one, the affordable housing measure Prop E is lagging under 50% (though still too close to call). But in terms of votes with people’s names on the ballot, her appointees DA Brooke Jenkins and District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey appear to clearly have victories in the bag — contrary to a previous trend in which mayoral appointees don't fair so well.
And similarly, her three appointed school board members whom she named after the February school board recall election had very good nights Tuesday. The Chronicle projects that two have definitely won, and her appointee Ann Hsu has a pretty solid grip on the third seat, though with thousands more ballots yet to be counted.
The school board race’s current results are seen above, and Breed appointees Lisa Weissman-Ward and Lainie Motamedi have insurmountable leads for the top two spots. They are presumably safe in their seats until the 2024 election (unless there’s another recall?).
But the third available seat is not yet determined. Breed appointee Ann Hsu currently holds the third spot, and by nearly 7,000 votes. On the slate of challengers to Breed’s appointees (which includes recalled member Gabriela Lopez in a distant fifth place), only Alida Fisher has a realistic chance of overtaking Hsu.
“For now let’s keep our fingers crossed and knock on some wood,” Hsu told the Chronicle Tuesday night. “But I think we know what the result is going to be.”
Hsu had faced calls for her resignation over a racist-comment scandal involving a campaign questionnaire in July, but paradoxically, she raised the most in campaign donations after being admonished by the board for the offending remarks. That extra campaign contribution money may have made a difference, but at this point, only holding that lead as more ballots are counted can save Hsu's seat.
Image: Joe Kukura, SFist
