Supervisor Chris Daly’s seat in District 6 is open this November, and both moderates and progressives consider it a key swing district. That’s why, a veteran local politico told me several months ago, it would be approached with a careful game plan, a thoughtful slate of candidates, and a narrow, well-focused field.
With a little more than nine months to go, we’ve got candidates coming out of the flower planters on Market Street. If anyone else enters, we may have one candidate for each of the roughly 8,000 votes it will take to win.
For the progressives, the original idea, as I understood it, was to promote Tenderloin artist Debra Walker, a longtime Tenderloin resident voice of the left. I was told that Jane Kim, president of the School Board, was going to be politely asked not to enter the race.
She may have been asked, but on Jan. 19, Kim, a Stanford grad with a law degree from Boalt Hall, declared her candidacy. Throw in Jim Meko, and you’ve got a crowded field for the far left. Which is exactly what they said they weren’t going to do.
The moderates have the same dynamic. Theresa Sparks, the former president of the Police Commission, had all the early buzz. Sparks was married twice and fathered three children before undergoing sexual reassignment surgery and moving here to live as a transgender woman in 1997. She’s an impressive public speaker and a well-connected political advocate in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender community. So she may be a moderate, but it seemed pretty hard to attack her from the left. (Although Daly was able to manage it.)
But that was before Tenderloin activist and attorney Elaine Zamora declared her candidacy this month. Zamora is running as “the independent voice of District 6,” promoting the idea that she will be able to use public matching funds for her campaign, rather than financing from the powerful Democratic County Central Committee. (Actually, a little of that DCCC money could prove very helpful, but Zamora knows she’s not likely to get any.)
In a recent e-mail, Zamora took a veiled swipe at Sparks, complaining that when the community group “The New Tenderloin,” attempted to get some action from the Police Commission back in 2007, their efforts were frustrated. Zamora pointedly notes that Sparks, then the president, never responded to TNT’s concerns.
All that and we haven’t even mentioned drag queen Anna Conda (Glendon Hyde) yet. But you can bet that we will. (SFGate)
Filed under: Activism, District Six, SF Tenderloin, Tenderloin, What's Going On? | Tagged: District 6, Elaine Zamora, The Tenderloin, Theresa Sparks
