november 2022 VOTER GUIDE

STATE ASSEMBLY

What is an Assemblymember?

  • An elected official who represents a geographic district within California’s State Assembly

  • The State Assembly is one part of the two-part state legislature (think of it like our statewide house of representatives) 

  • The State Assembly is made up of 80 members

  • Members’ jobs are to write and pass legislation by building coalitions across the state and with their colleagues in the State Senate. They should be able to work closely with the Governor to ensure that their district is well-represented

  • San Francisco is split into two Assembly districts that cover the Western and Eastern halves of the city, so who you vote for will depend on where you live. The 17th District is the East Side and the 19th District is the West Side

  • The salary and benefits of this full-time position total $119,000 per year

Why You Should Care

Statehouses have become a firewall for civil rights protection in the light of recent Supreme Court decisions. A great example of this is the state of Kansas voting to protect access to abortion in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. We need all state representatives to be aligned and able to work across the aisle to get things done.

Our Vision for This Office

Skilled negotiators and policy wonks who want to solve the state’s big problems work across the aisle to pass effective legislation. They see the opportunity presented by the immense size of the state of California’s budget. Members are willing to make tough decisions and understand trade-offs.

Why vote for him: Haney previously served as the District 6 Supervisor in San Francisco, but it is not clear that he left the district better than he found it. That said, Haney has become more vocally supportive of improving public transit, encouraging a vibrant nightlife, and pro-housing policies such as growing our city’s housing stock. It’s extremely important to have a housing champion in the state legislature because housing costs in California will not come down until the state takes major actions to make it easier to build housing in urban areas. Haney says he will support ending exclusionary zoning policies, which prevent apartments from being built everywhere. Haney also says he will support statewide minimum zoning requirements to allow for increased density near transit and affordable housing to be built everywhere in the state. We hope Haney will take the wheel on legislation he’s said he supports.
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Note that Haney is essentially the only person running for this seat. This will be the fourth and final time he faces off against David Campos this year. However, after Haney defeated him in February, April, and June, David is no longer campaigning for this office. His name will still appear on the ballot.
Why we're not endorsing anyone: Phil Ting is the incumbent, though he sports a tarnished reputation after his involvement in a complicated catfishing scandal in which he used the image of another Assemblymember to start dating a woman on a pay-for-dates website. He was married at the time. The woman ended up testifying in key Assembly hearings. Because of his scandal, several notable Democratic clubs in the City refused to endorse Ting in the June 2022 primary election, despite having done so enthusiastically in the past. No one expected him to seek another term, but since there was no public accountability for his actions, he is brazenly seeking a sixth term and no serious candidates are willing to challenge him as he is the incumbent.
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His legislative efforts are largely performative. For instance, while he was praised for passing legislation that encouraged schools to reopen during the COVID pandemic, no schools really took the initiative. He missed a chance to mandate school reopening. And though his district and the Chinese community largely voted in favor of both the Chesa Boudin and school board recalls, Ting declined to take a stand.

We believe politicians should be evaluated based on how they use their political capital—in other words, what policies and politicians do they “spend” their support on? Ting is shrewd about supporting centrist policies that appease most of San Francisco’s factions. However, he has consistently backed politicians who are more performatively progessive rather than those who are delivering progressive outcomes.

Paid for by TogetherSF Action. Not authorized by any candidate or a committee controlled by a candidate. Financial disclosures are available at sfethics.org.

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