Did get your vote-by-mail packet yet? It's mayoral election time again!

DNA Lounge is endorsing:

1. Bevan Dufty,
2. Dennis Herrera, and
3. Ed Lee, in that order.

(The Wikipedia article on instant runoff voting explains why you should vote for the candidate you really prefer in position #1, regardless of what you think their chances are. IRV makes "strategic" voting less necessary.)

Specifically, we implore you to vote for anyone whose name is not "David Chiu".

Chiu is the biggest enemy of nightlife in San Francisco politics, and allowing him to be elected mayor would be the worst possible outcome.

As I said of him during the last election:

He spent many months gunning to disband the Entertainment Commission (only reversing his position once he saw which way the political wind was blowing) and every time he makes a speech in public, he is still saying that "we have to do something about these clubs" because "people are getting shot at nightclubs once a month", which is demonstrably false. He keeps saying this in public even after having been called out on it, because that kind of "tough on crime" rhetoric is what sells. He was also strongly in favor of the (fortunately vetoed) alcohol tax, and that idiotic "promoter permit" idea.

Lately he has toned down his anti-nightlife rhetoric, presumably because while that played well for him in North Beach, it doesn't play as well in the city as a whole. But he has already shown his true colors, and having this man as mayor would be an unmitigated disaster for nightlife.

Whereas, Dufty is such a supporter of nightlife that he even uses the response, "I want bars to be open until 4AM!" to dodge other questions!

Here's Dufty's page on nightlife issues, and here's Herrera's, both of which sound good. Notably, Ed Lee doesn't have one. David Chiu kind-of has one, but while it talks a lot about "the arts" (by which he seems to mean "galleries"), all he has to say about nightlife is that "he passed several pieces of legislation to monitor and regulate nightclub violence."

Of course, it probably doesn't matter who we tell you to vote for, because Ed Lee's almost certainly going to win anyway, which is why we recommend him as your third-choice vote: as a safety vote against David Chiu.

The only reason the Board of Supervisors agreed to appoint Lee interim mayor was because he promised that he wouldn't run, so right out of the gate he's proven himself to be a liar. Aren't politicians supposed to be better than that at hiding their lies? But, he's owned by Rose Pak, the Vampire of Chinatown, so it's a done deal. As far as I can tell, she's been personally choosing San Francisco's mayor for decades, but was only dragged out of the shadows and into the press this year.

Politics! Ain't it grand?