Articles Posted in 2011
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Tourk Confirms Saturday Voting Dead
Tourk needed to raise $2.4 million from private donors by July 7 to fund the cost of adding Saturday, November 5, 2011 as an alternate day for voters to cast their ballots. As of Friday, the Saturday voting fund had a zero balance.
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Saturday Voting Initiative Dead? Herrera Downplays Connection to Consultant and Contributor
The WhyTuesdaySF initiative was the brainchild of political consultant Alex Tourk, who successfully tapped private venture capital from Silicon Valley angel investor Ronald C. Conway, tech maven David Jeske, Morgan Stanley partner Robert Lesko and other wealthy interests (some of whom, like Lesko, were from out of state) to fund the campaign to place Proposition I on the November 2010 ballot. Despite being drowned out by the hubbub of pension reform and hotly contested supervisorial races, voters overwhelmingly approved the WhyTuesdaySF initiative by almost 20 percentage points.
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Tony Hall Gets Some Necessary Conversation Love
Tony Hall is the target of Melissa Griffin and Beth Spotswood’s latest episode of Necessary Conversation, poking a little fun at the former District 7 Supervisor and mayoral candidate, best known for his stand against corruption on Treasure Island, successfully defending himself against trumped-up allegations of money laundering, and for his silky-smooth, swooner voice.
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Bock, Gascón, Onek Square Off at DA Candidates Forum
But judging strictly by the applause-meter, the clear winner was David Onek, a criminal justice expert and former San Francisco Police Commissioner who is the founding executive director of the UC Berkeley Center for Criminal Justice. Onek is running as a reformer and an “outsider,” yet he’s no stranger to the halls of power. His father was once senior counsel to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, and his father-in-law is Michael Dukakis, the former governor of Massachusetts and the 1988 Democratic nominee for president. He served in Mayor Newsom’s Office of Criminal Justice before being appointed by Newsom to the Police Commission. Still, his message that only an outsider can reform the criminal justice system, seemed to resonate with the audience.
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Wagging the Dog
Think about it. Just a week after submitting his budget and fresh off of negotiating a deal on pension reform; just days after revelations that a political consultant with close ties was staging an Astroturf campaign to draft him into the race; and at the very moment legislation authorizing the biggest demolition of rent-controlled housing in San Francisco history was being transmitted to his desk, Ed Lee was at my bar looking magnanimous—bearing gifts for one of his most vocal critics.
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NationBuilder: Increasing Grassroots Access
to the Voter FileToday I begin a new role as chief organizer for NationBuilder, a software platform that aims to equip grassroots activists, small businesses, NGOs and candidates with the kind of organizing tools that are usually reserved only for those with deep pockets. NationBuilder is the brainchild of Jim Gilliam, a progressive activist who co-founded Robert Greenwald’s Brave New Films. Jim is also creator of Act.ly and TweetProgress.
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Overheard in Fog City: Campos to Vote Against His Conscience?
Apparently the progressive supe is uncomfortable with his support for Turman, according to a reliable source, but remains committed to Turman despite damaging reports of Turman’s record absenteeism on the Human Rights Commission.
The Hunger Site
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