[SFGP] Greenzine: Election Day! Green Voter Guide to June 2 election

[Announcement list for SF Green Party, updated weekly]

Tues, June 2
GREENZINE
SF Green Party Weekly News and Events

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Dear Greens,

    Today's the last day to vote in the June election!  If you haven't
voted yet, polls are open until 8 pm, and you can still mail in your
ballot today.

    Our voter guide is online and the text is below:
https://www.sfgreenparty.org/endorsements/121-june-2026-endorsements

GREEN VOTER GUIDE for June 2026

Statewide Candidates:
  * Governor - Butch Ware (Green Party) - write in!

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!

*===========================*

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