Prostitution more popular in SF than public power
Public power advocates---take a bow, Bay Guardian and Ross Mirkarimi---need to take a close look at the more or less final election numbers and compare the vote on public power with the vote on legalizing prostitution:
Proposition H (public power): lost 61% to 39% (210,963 against and 132,499 for).
Proposition K (legalizing prostitution in SF): lost 59% to 41% (201, 482 against and 139,471 for).
More people voted to legalize prostitution (139,471) than voted for public power (132,499).
Labels: Right and Left, Ross Mirkarimi, The SF Bay Guardian
posted by Rob Anderson @ 1:31 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
IMHO, the complete absence of any coherent campaign from the public power folks, plus a $10 million+ initiative from PG&E opposing it probably had a bit to do with the results.
Most San Franciscans have no idea why they'd want public power, and "Stop the Blank Check" is a pretty catchy slogan, especially when nobody's explaining to us precisely why we need a blank check in the first place (there's actually plenty of good reasons to remove voter oversight on certain bond measures, but who took the time to explain it?).
PG&E completely owned the discourse on this issue and won decisively.
Yes, of course, Michael. City progs never lose on an issue or a candidate on the merits; they are always outspent by their wicked political antagonists, usually the Downtown Interests. By the Bay Guardian's own reckoning, public power has been on the city's ballot eleven (11) times. And it's lost every time only because the city's voters are too dumb to understand what a great thing it would be if City Hall ran our power system. What city voters rightly fear is that public power would quickly become another huge city bureaucracy and a jobs program for featherbedding execs and unemployed progs.
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