Thurs, May 14 GREENZINE SF Green Party Weekly News and Events www.sfgreenparty.org twitter.com/sfgreenparty tiktok.com/@sf.green.party instagram.com/sf_greenparty www.facebook.com/groups/SFGreenParty/ Dear Greens, Our Green Voter Guide is in the mail, and the full text is now posted on our website, as well as at the end of this message. Please forward to interested people! Link here: https://www.sfgreenparty.org/endorsements/121-june-2026-endorsements If you can help cover the costs of printing and mailing, please donate here: https://www.sfgreenparty.org/donate Please support our endorsed candidates! Some upcoming events, and our next membership meeting, are listed below: *===========================* What: Alexandra Pray for Judge mobilization Where: Alamo Square Park, Hayes and Scott St, SF When: Sun, May 17, at 10 am Alexandra Pray's campaign for Judge will be doing some lit-dropping in D5 this coming Sunday, May 17, at 10am, meeting at Alamo Square Park. Come out and support her, as she's being outspent 5-1 by billionaires trying to buy our City elections! We will bring our Green Voter Guides at this event, so take some to hand out to voters. *===========================* What: Green Party members' meeting Where: 2973 16th St, #300, SF When: Wed, May 27, 7-9 pm Agenda: * Introductions * CitySmart newsletter update * GPCA plenary decisions for June meeting * Voter outreach between now and June election * Butch Ware campaign update * Decision - voter outreach at Pride (join contingent? booth? parade?) * Graphics for Pride - City and Federal budget pie charts Every 4th Wednesday the SF Green Party meets to discuss issues of concern, listen to interesting speakers, endorse events, plan outreach and more! Everyone welcome. All meetings are wheelchair accessible. To make a presentation or gain the SFGP endorsement of events and issues, please contact our SFGP County Council at: cc@sfgreens.org Note: CC meetings are on the *2nd Wednesday* of each month at 7:30 pm. Mask policy: Masks are currently optional indoors, for both vaccinated and non-vaccinated people. We provide the option for SF Green Party members and guests to participate in our meetings via Zoom, so email cc@sfgreens.org for info on how you can join us virtually. *===========================* GREEN VOTER GUIDE for June 2026 Statewide Candidates: * Governor - Butch Ware (Green Party) Dr. Butch Ware is a lifelong activist, artist, organizer, and professor specializing in the history of empire, colonialism, genocide and revolution. He was the Green Party's vice presidential nominee in 2024, when he ran on a ticket with Dr. Jill Stein. For the past two decades, Dr. Ware has put scholarship in service of the people, especially in response to the Gaza genocide and the 2020 George Floyd murder. His work is focused on building sustainable, just, peaceful alternatives rooted in African, Indigenous, and Abrahamic traditions. Ware is currently a UC Santa Barbara professor, teaching in History, Black Studies, and Islamic Studies. In March, the CA Secretary of State (a partisan Democrat) removed Dr. Ware from the ballot, alleging that he had not complied with the "Trump Tax Law" that was passed by Democrats in 2019 in order to block President Trump from appearing on the California ballot in 2020. This law requires that some statewide candidates release a redacted copy of their federal tax returns. Dr. Ware was removed from the ballot because he had allegedly not redacted a phone number from one page of his returns, and he was only notified of this 10 minutes before the filing deadline. Although the CA Supreme Court ruled that the "Trump Tax Law" is unconstitutional when used to block federal candidates, they continue to allow the code to be selectively enforced in order to block Green Party candidates from the ballot. Dr. Ware is continuing to run as a write-in candidate, so we urge voters to write in "Butch Ware" for Governor. Left Unity Slate: For the second consecutive statewide election, the Green Party and the Peace and Freedom Party are jointly fielding a "Left Unity Slate." This strategy of cross-endorsing each others' candidates increases the chances of at least one candidate from each party reaching the 2% threshold needed to guarantee ballot access for the next four years. In 2022, the strategy was a success, with Greens reaching 3.8% and Peace and Freedom reaching 3.6% in their best contests. (Note that ballot access is also earned by having at least 0.33% of CA voters joining a party, and both the Green and Peace and Freedom Parties met this threshold based on each having approximately 0.5% of registered voters.) Unfortunately, this cooperative strategy didn't extend to the Governor's race this year as it did in 2022. Peace and Freedom Party Chair Kevin Akin promised Dr. Ware in Spring 2025 that they would support him instead of running their own candidate. However, Peace and Freedom later endorsed a gubernatorial candidate from the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), an organization that does not have ballot access but often runs candidates on the Peace and Freedom ballot line in California. The Left Unity Slate therefore only includes candidates from Lt. Governor on down the ballot, and both the Green Party and Peace and Freedom Party have endorsed all of them: * Lt. Gov - Alice Stek (Peace and Freedom, Unity Slate) Dr. Alice Stek is a physician, educator, and socialist who has served on the front lines of California’s healthcare system for over 32 years. As an Obstetrician, Gynecologist, and an HIV specialist, she has treated the most vulnerable patients and witnessed first hand how our political and economic systems fail the working class. This daily reality solidified a conviction she has held since her youth: that socialism is the only cure to the ailing system of capitalism. A lifelong activist and 30-year member of the Peace and Freedom Party in Venice, CA, Dr. Stek has seen how corporate greed and unaffordable housing can threaten the heart of a community. She is running for Lieutenant Governor to build a mass movement that challenges this corrupt system. * Secretary of State - Gary Blenner (Green Party, Unity Slate) Gary Blenner comes from a long family tree of activism and alternative party politics. His great-grandfather was a union organizer for the CPUSA in the 1920s and 30s. His grandparents were active in the American Labor Party of New York and in the 1948 campaign of former Vice-President Henry A. Wallace. His great uncle was a union organizer and active in the Brotherhood Party of New York. Blenner himself was first elected to his local school board in 2006. Blenner previously ran on the Left Unity Slate for Secretary of State in 2022, earning 3.0% of the vote. * State Controller - Meghann Adams (Peace and Freedom, Unity Slate) Meghann Adams has been a tireless organizer of anti-war and anti-racist actions in the Bay area for fifteen years. She has been a school bus driver for seven years, active in SMART 1741, the union representing school bus drivers in San Francisco and San Mateo Counties. Adams ran on the Left Unity Slate for Treasurer in 2022, earning 3.6% of the vote, the highest for any Peace and Freedom Party candidate. * State Treasurer - Glenn Turner (Green Party, Unity Slate) Glenn Turner is an activist and former small business owner. She ran a sole proprietor retail shop in Oakland for 32 years, which she sold to her employees when she retired. At the basic level, Turner is familiar with the routine of budgeting and reporting on financial activities, and calculating taxes, from her preparation of reports for her retail business. Seeing the larger picture, she is very concerned about the state's finances, which she thinks are too often tied with profiteering corporations that abuse the environment, are complicit in serious crimes abroad (such as the genocide in Gaza), and devote their money and energy to wars and weapons manufacturing rather than advancing the interests of the people of California. Turner has decades of experience working with action groups such as the Climate Emergency Mobilization Task Force, the Public Bank of the East Bay (being developed as a partial alternative to for-profit banks), Family Advocates for the Seriously Mentally Ill, and Berkeley Copwatch. She brings this history of grassroots activism to her campaign, and would continue it into the Treasurer's office. * Attorney General - Marjorie Mikels (Green Party, Unity Slate) Marjorie Mikels is a grandmother pursuing justice as an attorney/peace activist. With a Law Degree from UCLA, she stands for human rights and has opposed wars and military dominance and oppression her entire life. She will uphold the rights of brave ordinary people and grassroots organizations fighting for protection of land, water, air, forests and natural resources against powerful special interests. Her first foray into politics was in 1968 while a Sociology graduate student at University of Washington. She walked door to door in Seattle registering voters for Eldridge Cleaver, an Oakland Black Panther Peace and Freedom candidate for President. * Insurance Commissioner - Eduardo "Lalo" Vargas (Peace and Freedom, Unity Slate) Lalo Vargas been a teacher at the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) for the past five years. He teaches biology and environmental science to high school students. Vargas is also a proud member of United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) and is a fierce advocate for his students. In 2023, Vargas along with thousands of other teachers went on strike in solidarity with SEIU Local 99 to better learning conditions at LAUSD. When Vargas isn’t teaching he spends his time organizing alongside different working class communities to fight for what they deserve. In January 2025 when the LA Wildfires broke out, Vargas was one of the first organizers on the scene to provide aid to families who were displaced and lost their homes. In 2022 he helped Pasadena tenants organize against evictions and form their own tenant union. From helping fire survivors clean up effected areas to organizing immigrants to fight back against ICE terror, Vargas’s extensive experience serving the people have prepared him better than any other candidate to become California’s next Insurance Commissioner. Everyday people’s livelihoods are destroyed by the private insurance industry and those in charge of regulating the industry do nothing but aid this criminal activity. Vargas is running for Insurance Commissioner to end the stranglehold that private insurance has over the working class, to investigate and hold corporate executives accountable for their crimes against consumers and to fight for a California that provides free and high quality coverage for all. * Superintendent of Public Instruction - Frank Lara (Peace and Freedom, Unity Slate) Frank Lara is a dedicated educator, union leader, and organizer whose commitments to racial justice, immigrant rights, and working class unity have guided his work in California for decades. Based in San Francisco, Lara has over ten years of classroom teaching experience and knows the realities and conditions of our public schools all too well. Having served as the Executive Vice President of United Educators of San Francisco (UESF) since 2021, Lara has been fighting alongside his union siblings for better learning conditions for students and better working conditions for educators, and has played an important role in transforming the union to become a fighting, organized union, one of the strongest educator unions in the state of California. Born to immigrant parents and raised in the working class border town of Calexico, Lara grew up with a clear understanding of the challenges immigrant communities face in California. He first began organizing for immigrant rights as a student at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, where he graduated in 2008. He earned his teaching credential with bilingual authorization shortly after, knowing he wanted to work in San Francisco’s Mission District in a multilingual environment. Lara quickly took on leadership roles at his school, becoming a union steward, as well as a master teacher, mentoring new bilingual teachers and supporting them as they entered their challenging and fulfilling roles as educators. In 2015, he was awarded the Teacher 4 Social Justice "Thank-a-Teacher" Award and the 826 Valencia "Teacher of the Month" Award. Through his work as a bilingual educator, a leader in his union, an organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), and member of the Peace and Freedom Party of California, Lara has fought continuously for the rights of immigrant students and families. After Trump was elected in 2016, Lara organized alongside his whole school community, planning and leading anti-fascist marches and a 3,000-student march against the caging of children and family separation. In 2016, he was nominated to take part in a racial justice task force with the California Federation of Teachers (CFT) and was awarded the CFT "Pride of the Union" Award in 2017. When the COVID-19 lockdown went into effect in 2020, Lara helped organize a campaign for educators to donate stimulus checks and raised over $100,000 for undocumented families, who had been excluded from the federal aid, and was awarded the Bay Area Jefferson Award for Supporting Undocumented Workers. Lara’s experiences and leadership in the classroom, in the union hall, and in the streets demonstrate his unique abilities to connect different struggles and build working class unity in a society that often sows division and tries to isolate us from one another. Our schools are in crisis, but Lara’s unwavering commitment to collective liberation and decades of relevant experience make him ready to lead as Superintendent of Public Instruction and continue fighting for the schools our students deserve. SF Candidates: * Congress D11 - Connie Chan The San Francisco Green Party endorses Connie Chan for the CA-11 U.S. House seat. Chan currently serves as the District 1 Supervisor on the SF Board of Supervisors. Greens were impressed by her responsiveness as a local elected official, her commitment to upholding progressive values, and in particular, her expertise on housing policy, which is a serious issue for San Franciscans. Chan distinguishes herself from others in the race by insisting on sustainable housing that would not lead to further gentrification or de-regulation. She also has strong labor support and a demonstrated history of progressive organizing in San Francisco. It is unusual for a local Green Party to endorse a Democratic candidate, especially in a partisan race. However, we chose to weigh in in order to prevent the election of a far more dangerous candidate, State Senator Scott Wiener. Many of our members are also skeptical of Saikat Chakrabarti due to his previous support of local conservative politicians, his willingness to use his wealth to try to buy the election, his claims of "authoring" the Green New Deal (originally written by Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins), and his lack of organizing history in the city. We recognize Chan's stance on Israel is not ideal, and intend to pressure her to move to a complete arms embargo on Israel rather than her current support of the "Block the Bombs" Act (and continuing to send "defensive" military aid to Israel). * State Assembly, both districts - no endorsements Matt Haney (AD17) is running unopposed. Catherine Stefani (AD19), who many see as a virtual Republican, is running against an actual Republican. Greens did not endorse in either of these contests, and we hope that a candidate who shares our values will run next time. * Supervisor D2 - no endorsement Neither candidate for District 2 Supervisor sought the Green Party's endorsement. * Supervisor D4 - #1 Natalie Gee, #2 Jeremy Greco The San Francisco Green Party endorses Natalie Gee (#1 ranked choice) and Jereme Greco (#2 ranked choice) for District 4 Supervisor. Gee is currently the Chief of Staff for Shamann Walton, the elected member of the Board of Supervisors from District 10. She brings a wealth of experience to the role and would be ready to hit the ground running. Greens were impressed by her experience in San Francisco city politics, her dedication in advocating for the interests of her constituents, and her detailed policy knowledge. Greco earned our #2 spot based on his dedication to progressive values and his passion for the Sunset community. His policy stances in regards to grassroots democracy, ecological wisdom, and social justice are well-aligned with the Green Party's values and platform. * Board of Education - Virginia Cheung The San Francisco Green Party endorses Virginia Cheung for School Board. We were impressed by her commitment to supporting students of all backgrounds, particularly students who speak English as a second language. She is also very supportive of equitable funding, fighting school closures, and is a huge supporter of UESF (and was a strike liaison during their recent strike). Cheung has also earned the UESF endorsement. * Judge, seat 16 - Alexandra Pray The San Francisco Green Party endorses Alexandra Pray for San Francisco County Superior Court. Pray is a longtime attorney at the San Francisco Public Defender's Office. Greens were impressed by her dedication to social, racial, and economic justice, and her insistence on applying the law in a fair and compassionate way to every single client. She is also adamant about properly staffing courtrooms and bringing back mandatory preliminary hearings in order to reduce backlogs. Moreover, she has considerable experience in programs aimed to reduce recidivism and and addressing the root causes of crime. We believe she would be a tremendous asset to the San Francisco Superior County court based on her record. SF Ballot Props: * NO on A - Earthquake/Emergency Bond Prop A is a $535 million bond for various earthquake safety and emergency response projects. Because the proponents are not being honest about what the money will actually be used for, Greens urge a NO vote on prop A. In 2020, Greens were divided on Prop B, a $628 million bond measure to support earthquake safety and emergency response projects. We did not reach consensus to either support or oppose Prop B. However, we agreed that the Emergency Firefighting Water System (EFWS), which was supposedly the main purpose of Prop B, would be an important public benefit. With Prop A, the proponents are again using the need for the EFWS to sell voters on a new bond, even though we supposedly already paid for it in 2020. The other projects that Prop A would fund are non-specified facilities for police and firefighters, and an overhaul of the Potrero Muni Yard in order to ready the site for private housing development. Greens are very concerned that Muni service will once again take a back seat to considerations of developers' profits. Because of our concerns about specificity and redundancy with funding already approved in other bond measures, Greens endorse a NO vote on Prop A. * NO on B - Lifetime Term Limits Prop B would change the way term limits work for the Board of Supervisor and Mayor. Currently, these elected officials are limited to two consecutive 4-year terms, but can then sit out for one or more terms before running for the position again. Prop B would limit officials to two lifetime terms, preventing "comebacks." Prop B is aimed at two progressive officials: Aaron Peskin (who has already served four terms) and Dean Preston (who has served one). Neither is currently in office, but both could run for one or two additional terms in future elections under the current system of term limits. Although Prop B would not ban Preston from running again, it would limit him to just one more term instead of two, therefore lessening his potential if he is re-elected. Prop B was sponsored by District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, who narrowly defeated Preston after exaggerating his credentials to voters by claiming to have worked as a neuroscientist (he was actually a venture capitalist who had taken some courses while an undergrad at Stanford). You don't need to be a neuroscientist, even a fake one, to deduce that the oligarchs running San Francisco are afraid that either Peskin or Preston may stage a comeback in 2028. Let's allow the voters to decide if that will happen, rather than preemptively blocking voter choice via stronger term limits. Vote NO on Prop B. * YES on D, NO on C - Overpaid CEO Tax Prop D would restore the "overpaid CEO tax." This is a tax on corporations whose executives are paid more than 100 times the salary of their lowest paid worker. It would raise approximately $300 million per year, funds that are badly needed to prevent cuts to Muni and other public services. The CEO tax was originally approved overwhelmingly by voters in 2020 with Prop L, which Greens endorsed. However, the tax was then repealed in 2024 by Prop M, an overhaul of all business taxes that was supported by Democrats and opposed by Greens (Prop M also blocked the tax on Uber, Lyft and Waymo to fund Muni). Most voters probably did not know that Prop M would repeal the CEO tax or prevent Muni from being funded, but they went with it because nearly all Democratic Party politicians endorsed Prop M. As we wrote in 2020, "overpaid CEO" taxes work well in Europe to control executive pay, and Greens support bringing it to the US. Prop L worked great until Democrats and corporations steamrolled it by passing Prop M in 2024. It's time to bring it back. Because Democrats know that voters strongly support taxing overpaid CEOs, they are once again resorting to sneaky tactics to defeat the tax. They put Prop C on the ballot, which would reduce taxes on some small businesses. However, buried in Prop C's language is a "poison pill" to block Prop D, just as Prop M in 2024 repealed the CEO tax without most voters knowing this would happen. Although Greens support small businesses, Prop C is hiding its real purpose, which is to block the CEO tax from taking effect when voters once again vote for it this year. We strongly urge voters to reject Democrats' political games and restore the overpaid CEO tax - join us in voting YES on D and NO on Prop C! *===========================* To submit events for our newsletter, please email a short blurb to news@sfgreens.org. Messages to a mailing list will be rejected.