With the 2012 election mostly put to bed, this blog is retiring — temporarily. This post features thoughts on elections in general from KQED Election Editor Tyche Hendricks, Election Blog editor Jon Brooks and contributor Lisa Aliferis.

Tyche Hendricks, KQED Election Editor

As the dust settles on this election — with its nail-biter races that ranged from the presidential contest to board of supervisors races and local parcel taxes — it’s a good time to note that our individual votes really can make a decisive difference. It’s true, given our electoral college system, that nobody campaigns too hard for California’s votes in the presidential race. But we did have some state and local races that were decided by razor thin margins.

In two California congressional races, long-time incumbents lost their seats by just a few thousand votes out of more than a quarter of a million votes cast. San Diego Rep. Brian Bilbray and Sacramento area Rep. Dan Lungren both lost by exceedingly narrow margins. And in Alameda County, a sales tax hike for transportation projects fell just about 700 votes short of the two-thirds majority needed for passage. With more than half a million votes cast, that was a defeat by a margin of .14 percent.

So you can see that if a few hundred or a few thousand people had stayed home, or a few hundred or a few thousand more had turned out to vote, the outcome of those contests could have flipped.

That’s not to say that this political system of ours is perfect. KQED’s reporting examined the profusion of outside money that is playing an increasingly influential role in state races. We also took note of the millions of Californians who could vote but don’t, and explored some of the reasons people feel they don’t have a place in the political process.

Most Californians did turn out. By my preliminary assessment, it looks like 13.4 million people cast votes in this election. That’s roughly 73 percent of the 18.2 million registered voters in the state (and about 56 percent of the 23.8 million Californians eligible to vote). If those numbers are accurate, our turnout rate this year is down a bit from 2008 and 2004, but higher than in 2000 or 1996. Meanwhile the state’s electorate is beginning to better reflect the state’s tremendous ethnic and racial diversity, with Latinos, African Americans and Asian Americans together making up about 40 percent of voters in this election.

Through this election year we’ve been out across the state talking to voters young and old, and listening to Californians from the Inland Empire to Siskiyou County. We wanted to understand what makes a Republican become a Democrat or vice versa. And more than anything, we wanted to tap into the conversation that’s been taking place across the state and the country about what folks really want – and don’t want — from those we elect to govern us.

That dialogue will continue. And we’ll keep tracking it through our ongoing governance and politics coverage. We hope you’ll remain a part of the conversation.

Lisa Aliferis, Election Blog Contributor

Normally, I blog about health, not politics, but when there’s an election — especially a presidential election — it’s an “all hands on deck” time in a newsroom. Frankly, I was happy to get paid to learn about all those 11 propositions on the state ballot, such as this one, this one, oh and this very, very complicated one.

But then something happened. I discovered my inner political geek. I watched a one hour press conference, streamed live, between Gov. Brown and the editorial board of the San Jose Mercury News — and was riveted. I learned more than I ever wanted to about the history of the death penalty in California. And then, after the election, I became obsessed with the accuracy of the exit poll.

So thanks for reading. I’m shifting back to my health blog now and, among other things, following a major health story which is also a big political story: the roll-out of the Affordable Care Act.

Jon Brooks, Election Blog Editor

The people have spoken.

For now, at least.

The judgment of the body politic has tended to be maddeningly temporary over the last decade. In 2004, Democrats were shocked that the nation would return George W. Bush, perhaps the greatest liberal bête noire since Richard Nixon, to the presidency. Then in 2006, the Democrats swept back to power in the House and Senate. That was followed by the Obama landslide in 2008, resulting in one-party rule in the executive and legislative branches.

But in 2010, the electorate pulled the plug on that arrangement. The dissatisfaction was widespread, with GOP victories as far as the eye could see, from Congress to governorships and state houses around the country. The stage seemed set for the completion of a Republican revival in 2012…

Nope. The reasons for that failure are now being parsed, floated, squealed, critiqued, debunked, shouted, whispered, and trumpeted, as Democratic voters are besotted with schadenfreude, and Republican fans are moving to Canada. For real, this time!

In California, now long past its canary-in-the-coalmine status for the GOP, the estrangement from the Republican party was completed when voters granted Democrats not only a two-thirds, Proposition 13-proof supermajority in the Legislature, but also decided to actually increase taxes on themselves.

So…are we in the early days of a Democratic Wonderland, one ruled by a new and more progressive mindset? Or have the American people yet again only granted a short-term loan of the reins of power to one of the two major political blocs?

We’ll let you know in 2014.

As far as our coverage goes, I can only tell you what our stats indicate: many, many people had a genuine desire to go as deep as they could in understanding the candidates and issues they were being asked to vote on. This was especially true concerning California’s initiatives. Our proposition guide got “slammed,” to use online parlance, meaning more people accessed it than I, for one, honestly thought cared. Especially surprising was how many people found their way to this post on the highly complex governance initiative, Proposition 31, proving that many segments of the California electorate could not be dissuaded from meeting their direct-democracy responsibilities, even when it comes to decoding the most daunting of proffers.

And that was heartening.

We’ll keep on keeping on in covering all the local and regional political goings-on at our News Fix blog… see ya there.

In this 2008 photo, workers sort California mail in ballots. (Justin Sullivan: Getty Images)

With estimates that for the first time vote-by-mail will exceed in-person voting in California, county voting officials are presumably working hard to get all votes counted. Counties are required to report their final results by December 7, and the secretary of state will certify the election by December 14.

In the meantime well over a million mail and provisional ballots are still being counted statewide.

Here are the races still too close to call:

Congressional Races

• Bera v. Lungren (7th Congressional District): The political newsletter The Nooner reports that Bera is ahead by 182 votes with 193,000 uncounted ballots. Next update is Friday, 3pm.
• Bilbray v. Peters (52nd Congressional District): Only a few hundred votes separate the San Diego candidates.
• Ruiz v. Bono Mack (36th Congressional District): Ruiz is ahead, and local media have called the race for him. But Bono Mack has yet to concede.

Assembly Races

• Bloom v. Butler (District 50): In Los Angeles County, only a few hundred votes separate the two.
• Norby v. Quirk-Silva (District 65): Several hundred votes separate the candidates in Orange County.

Ballot Measures

• Alameda County Measure B1 (Transportation): About one percentage point shy of the two-thirds needed for passage, with roughly 100,000 mail/provisional ballots still to count. Could be “several days” before we know the results, the Alameda County Registrar of Voters told the Chronicle.
• Berkeley Measures S and T: “S” is “sit/lie” and “T” changes zoning in West Berkeley. The most-recent numbers show yes on T trailing by only 26 votes. S is not quite as close. UPDATE, 7am, Friday, November 9: “Yes on T” has pulled ahead by one vote. The counting continues.

Supervisors

• Crowley v. Yee: San Francisco County Supervisors District Seven. Counting votes could take until next week.
• Roberts v. Danon: San Diego County Supervisors

Other too-close-to-call races or measures we should know about? Tell us in the comments section!

Mark Takano (D), newly elected representative from the 41st Congressional District in the Inland Empire. (MarkTakano.com)

California’s Congressional delegation will include about a dozen new faces next year. Redistricting and the state’s “Top Two” primary system led to an unusual number of competitive races, as well as a few upsets — and Democrats are the beneficiaries.

Of the state’s 53 Congressional districts, 34 are currently represented by Democrats. With Tuesday’s voting, at least one more seat will turn blue, while three other races still appear too close to call.

For starters, parts of the Inland Empire are looking a lot more purple — with areas once seen as Republican strongholds giving way to a wave of Democratic newcomers.

Early on election night, Mark Takano wasn’t yet ready to claim victory as returns showed him ahead of his Republican opponent in the newly drawn 41st Congressional District. “So let’s be patient,” he said, “luxuriate in the feeling we have now and be hopeful that change has come to Riverside.” But within hours it was clear that Takano, currently a Riverside Community College board trustee, had become the first openly gay Asian American elected to Congress. He believes that his success was partly driven by a wave of younger voters he says are more accepting of gay candidates. Robert Melsh supported Takano in two prior unsuccessful Congressional bids in the early 1990’s — when opponents circulated anti-gay campaign flyers. That didn’t happen this time.

“That shows you that not only is Riverside getting ‘blue’ politically, but it’s growing up. Four years from now it will be more majority Hispanic, it’ll be diversified, and Republicans will be running for cover,” says Melsh.

In what’s shaping up to be one of the biggest upsets, political first-timer Democrat Raul Ruiz appears to have defeated veteran GOP Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack of Palm Springs. The county registrar’s office still has thousands of vote-by-mail ballots to tally. But registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by a narrow majority in the newly drawn 36^th District. It’s the first time Bono Mack sought re-election in a district that was not more heavily weighted toward Republicans.

The congresswoman was also hurt by a comment she made referring to the city of Coachella as a “third world toilet.” The Coachella Valley is home to a large number of Latinos — who make up about a third of the district’s voters. During an election night interview with the Palm Springs Desert Sun, Bono Mack all but conceded the race with thousands of votes left to tally. “Historically the trend would say that the numbers will continue to go the way they are going, and that he [Ruiz] will win,” she said.

Republicans held ground in other parts of the Inland Empire, including the 31^st Congressional District which includes San Bernardino. But by toppling the GOP in several other key races, Democrats might now see the region as a winnable battleground for future state and national candidates.

What's more awkward than two belles sharing the same stage in the same dress? Two political candidates from the same party in a knock-down, drag-out fight to the bitter finish in November!

Granted, California was not a swing state in the presidential election. We’re so dominated by Democrats, it’s hard to imagine anybody so much as blinked when Barack Obama won here. And Dianne Feinstein’s next term in the U.S. Senate? Even loyal Republicans were calling that one for her before the ballots were published.

But even in a True Blue state like this one, there was plenty of blood spilled in the California delegation to the House of Representatives. Between the way Congressional districts were redrawn after the last US Census and the state’s new top-two primary system, the stage was set for some high-pitched theater in two Republican districts and six Democratic ones. You might think that Democratic Party leaders would gather in some smoke-filled room somewhere in California and make the decisions required to avoid one party member going up against another. That’s not how it played out.

Exhibit A: The “Battle of the Ermans”

There used to be two liberal Jewish Democratic Congressional Districts nestled against each other in LA County’s San Fernando Valley. And then there was one.

Awwk-ward. Who would step aside?

Would it be Howard Berman, a senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee? Or Brad Sherman, less senior but the more familiar face to most of the voters in the new 30th district? The open primary in June was set up to send the top two winners, regardless of party affiliation, into the general election in November.

The battle became one of the most expensive congressional races in the country. Altogether, Politico calculates some $15 million was spent. At the height — or low — of the fight, Berman and Sherman appeared to come close to blows at a local candidate forum. Berman even used the icky moment in a campaign ad.

Remember, there’s about a hair’s worth of difference between these two guys politically. They both supported the Dream Act, for example. They co-sponsored the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).

“I did not go into politics to run against Howard Berman,” Sherman said last night, rather graciously after his 21-point win. But run against him, he did.

So how did the other same-party Congressional races play out? From the Secretary of State:

• CD 8 – Republicans Paul Cook over Gregg Imus

• CD 15 – Democrats Eric Swalwell over Pete Stark

• CD 31 – Republicans Gary Miller over Bob Dutton

• CD 35 – Democrats Gloria Negrete McLeod over Joe Baca

• CD 40 – Democrats Lucille Roybal-Allard over David Sanchez

• CD 43 – Democrats Maxine Waters over Bob Flores

• CD 44 – Democrats Janice Hahn over Laura Richardson

Lines were long in Point Pleasant, N.J., where residents from the Jersey Shore communities of Point Pleasant Beach and Mantoloking had to cast their ballots due to damage in their hometowns.

Many there still have no power eight days after Sandy pummeled the shore.

Sarah Brewster of Long Beach, N.Y., was shaken when she entered a school to vote. She noticed that the clocks were all stopped at 7:27. That’s the time one week ago Monday when everyone in her community had lost power. Tears streamed down her face as she emerged from the school cafeteria. Brewster, who works at a nonprofit, said voting is “part of our civic responsibility in the midst of all this crisis.”

Retired customer service agent Joan Andrews, who fled her trailer in Moonachie by boat a week ago, said, “I always have to vote, especially now. Many friends of the 68-year-old woman were too overwhelmed to vote, but Andrews said she’d encouraged them to take the time.

“Oh my God, I have been so anxious about being able to vote,” said Annette DeBona of Point Pleasant Beach. “It’s such a relief to be able to do it. This is the happiest vote I ever cast in my life.”

The 73-year-old restaurant worker was so worried about not being able to vote that she called the police department several days in advance, as well as her church, to make absolutely sure she knew where to go and when. She was one of the first to cast a ballot in her neighboring town, choosing Mitt Romney.

“I truly believe Romney is an honest, caring man,” she said. “He will lift us out of our spiritual and mental depression and help us believe again.

Renee Kearney of Point Pleasant Beach said she felt additional responsibility to cast a ballot this Election Day.

“It feels extra important today because you have the opportunity to influence the state of things right now, which is a disaster,” the 41-year-old project manager for an information technology company said.

She had planned all along to vote for Obama, but said her resolve was strengthened by his response to Superstorm Sandy.

“I was extremely impressed by his response to the storm,” she said. “For people who were not so certain about him, I think this may have sealed the deal.”

Voting in tents or by provisional ballot

Authorities in New York and New Jersey were set to drive some displaced voters to their polling sites and direct others to cast ballots elsewhere as residents insisted the devastation wrought by Superstorm Sandy wouldn’t stop them from participating in Tuesday’s election.

“Nothing is more important than voting. What is the connection between voting and this?” said Alex Shamis, a resident of hard-hit Staten Island, gesturing to his mud-filled home.

The efforts put a premium on creativity. At a public school in Staten Island’s Midland Beach, flares were set up at an entrance to provide light, and voting machines were retrieved from inside the school and moved into tents where voters braved 29-degree temperatures as they lined up.

Voters arriving at another Staten Island school found no official signage referring them to a new polling place, but those who arrived on foot were taken to the correct location by a shuttle bus, officials said. A hand-written sign eventually was placed at the school’s driveway.

Election officials in both states were guardedly optimistic that power would be restored and most polling places would be open in all but the worst-hit areas. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order Monday allowing residents to cast a so-called affidavit, or provisional ballot, at any polling place in the state for president and statewide office holders, an opportunity New Jersey was extending to voters as well.

“Compared to what we have had to deal with in the past week, this will be a walk in the park when it comes tovoting,” Cuomo said.

Provisional ballots are counted after elected officials confirm a voter’s eligibility.

Authorities were also sensitive to concerns about potential disenfranchisement and were taking steps to ensure voters were kept informed of continued problems or changes to their voting locations.

Ernie Landante, a spokesman for the New Jersey Division of Elections, said fewer than 100 polling places around the state were without power compared with 800 just days ago, and said the state has abandoned its earlier plan to use military trucks as makeshift polling places. Most voters will be able to cast ballots at their regular polling sites, he said.

Landante also said the state had taken extra steps to make sure people displaced by Sandy’s destruction would be able to vote, like allowing “authorized messengers” to pick up as many mail-in ballots as they request for people in shelters or away from their homes.

“We are doing everything we can in this extraordinary situation not to disenfranchise voters displaced by Sandy. Their voices and their votes will be heard no differently than anyone else’s,” Landante said.

Displaced voters may cast ballots by email — along with a paper ballot

But authorities abruptly switched gears on an additional directive that Christie’s office announced allowing displaced New Jersey residents to vote through email and fax.

The directive allowed voters to request and file a ballot electronically. But under pressure from voting rights advocates, officials said those voters would have to submit a paper ballot along with the electronic filing — a rule the state’s military personnel and residents living overseas are required to follow as well. Initially, the state was going to waive the paper ballot requirement.

Congress (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)

California Report host Scott Shafer looks at these races with reporters Tara Siler from KQED in San Francisco, Steven Cuevas who reports from the Inland Empire for KPCC and The California Report’s election editor Tyche Hendricks.

Scott Shafer, Host: One thing is certain for the first time in memory about a dozen Congressional races in California are actually, well, competitive, up in the air, or even toss ups. We’re going to take a look now at some of them, starting in Northern California and working our way south. Reporter Tara Siler is covering the 7th Congressional District, the suburbs of Sacramento and beyond. Incumbent Republican Dan Lungren fighting for his life there, it’s a rematch from the 2010 election against a Democrat physician Ami Bera. So Tara, tell us what makes this race so interesting.

Tara Siler: Well, what makes it interesting is you have a four-term Republican, conservative Republican, who is fighting for his life. And he’s up against Ami Bera for the second time. And this district has changed; it’s more Democratic under redistricting. And Democrats really see an opportunity here to pick off a conservative Republican, and an incumbent at that. It’s attracted a lot of money, $8 million dollars in outside money. It’s one of the most expensive races in the country. And a lot of it is being thrown at Lundgren by these outside groups.

Shafer: At him meaning on his behalf?

Siler: Against him. Against him by Democratic groups.

Shafer: And how is President Obama figuring into that race if at all? I mean, it’s not a super liberal district, it may be more favorable now to the Democrats than it was a couple years ago but to what extent, is President Obama a factor there?

Siler: Well his name isn’t exactly being bandied about by the candidates it doesn’t seem but the issues are. For example, affordable health care is an issue.

Dr. Bera has said it doesn’t go far enough and Lungren has called it “unconstitutional.” And they also have really starkly different views, not surprising, about the role of government. And as you can hear here, here’s Congressman Lundgren at a recent speech at the Chambers of Commerce:

Dan Lungren: There is a difference between the two of us. He has this great faith in the government. I have limited faith in the government; I have expanded faith in the people. Why? Because that is how it has been when we’ve been successful in the past.

Siler: And you know, for his part, Dr. Bera likes to play up his public school education and the need for more investment in education and infrastructure.

Shafer: Alright, and then finally Tara, just to the west in Alameda County, the 15th Congressional District, and unusual situation there, two Democrats facing off thanks to the top-two primary system that voters approved of. And the incumbent there is Pete Stark, one of the most liberal members of Congress. He’s been there 40 years.  Why is he so vulnerable?

Siler: Well, he’s vulnerable because he’s 80-years-old and he’s made some charges that he’s had to apologize for, a number of them. He talks off the cuff and gets himself in trouble a lot. And Swalwell is young. I see this as a generational challenge. But the interesting thing is that the endorsements for Stark are just lining up. The Democratic leadership is–

Shafer: Circling the wagon

Siler: Circling the wagon, indeed.

Shafer: Alright Tara Siler, thank you so much. Let’s go now to the Inland Empire, which is truly one of those purple parts of California. It includes Riverside and San Bernardino Counties and tends to go back and forth between Republicans and Democrats in the races for governor and president at least. And a few months ago, Democrats were hoping to pick up one, maybe two seats there, but it hasn’t quite worked out that way. Reporter Steven Cuevas covers the Inland Empire for KPCC in Los Angeles. And he joins us now.

Steven, what about that 31st Congressional District, San Bernardino. Two Republicans facing off at that race, tell us about it.

Steven Cuevas: Democrats were hoping that they would take this district in the June primary. Pete Aguilar, Mayor of Redlands, the favorite there, he came in third. So now you have Congressman Gary Miller, long-time Congressman serving in Washington, who actually represented the old 42nd District, he’s moved into Rancho Cucamonga to qualify to run in this District. He’s going up against State Senator Bob Dutton. Kind of a local favorite, former Rancho Cucamonga Councilman.

Shafer: And how is the money lining up in that race? You have an incumbent Congressman, although he doesn’t represent that District, versus a pretty well-known Republican, but one who is in the State Legislator.

Cuevas: State Senator Bob Dutton is pretty much been swamped by the fundraising efforts of Congressman Gary Miller, who has actually gotten most of his money from the National Association of Realtors. They’ve poured close to $2 million into this race. Miller is also a home builder and he sits on the Congressional Committee that has oversight over the housing industry.

Shafer: And then Steven, let’s move over a little closer to the city of Riverside to the 41st Congressional District, again, no incumbent running in that District. Democrats have a slight edge in registration, how is that race shaping up?

Cuevas: This one could be a real squeaker. It’s getting a fair amount of national attention as well. You have a long-time Riverside County Supervisor John Tavaglione, the Republican, going up against the high school teacher and College Board Trustee Mark Takano. Both are well-known in the community, and both are well-respected.

Shafer: And Steven Cuevas, he is, Mark Takano, not only openly gay, but Japanese-American. Is that, in some way, helping him in that race do you think?

Cuevas: That’s a little harder to say. You have a fair amount of Asian-Americans in this area but I think what has really resonated with Latino voters, actually, is his family story. The story of immigration, how his family came here, how his grandparents were interned during World War II, and what happened afterwards.

Shafer: And of course, the Inland Empire a very much a growing Latino population so those votes will be important to the winner, I’m sure. Let’s move now to the Inland Empire, towards Palm Springs, a well-known Republican Mary Bono Mack, the widow of Sonny Bono who died while in office several years ago. KQED Politics Editor Tyche Hendricks to talk about that race. Tyche, just how vulnerable is she?

Tyche Hendricks: Right, Mary Bono Mack is a seven-term incumbent. She has easily won reelection in the past. And her opponent this year, Raul Ruiz, has no electoral experience. He was considered a long-shot. But the race is really tightening. Ruiz who is a Harvard trained emergency room doctor, the son of Mexican farm workers has attracted a lot of support from Democrats nationally. They’ve been pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into the race. And over the course of the Fall the race has moved to really where it’s now a toss-up. And it’s Bono Mack’s to lose.

Shafer: So a case where a compelling biography might be helping Ruiz.

Hendricks: I think his biography resonates. A quarter of the voters in the district are Latinos. They tend to vote more Democratic. But also the district has been redrawn, as all districts have, and it’s less Republican. It still tilts Republican but less so.

Shafer: And let’s go to a race in Los Angeles, specifically the San Fernando Valley where you’ve got two incumbent titans, two Democrats, Howard Berman and Brad Sherman, and the battle of the “ermans” as they say. Lots of money being thrown around in that race. It’s been very tense personally between these two men, what are the dynamics there?

Hendricks: These guys were allies really in Congress, two established Democrats. More than $13 million spent there. One of the most costly races in the country. They’re not that different, it’s been a little hard to distinguish themselves. This is a case where the top-two primary has really given us a new dynamic in California politics. It’s something that we haven’t seen before. It’s going to be a difficult choice for voters but in the end they’re going to be assured of having a Democrat representing their district.

Downtown San Francisco (Gabriel Bouys/AFP/Getty Images)

HOST CY MUSIKER: Over the next few weeks, we will be talking about local elections, including races in Oakland and Berkeley, plus partial taxes and school bonds around the Bay. Today we are looking at the most critical races in San Francisco and we are talking to Corey Cook. He directs the Leo T. McCarthy Center for Public Service and the Common Good at the University of San Francisco. And Corey, let’s start with a couple of propositions on the ballot, the highest profile involves the Hetch Hetchy reservoir in Yosemite Park and no pun intended because it’s around 4,000 feet. Measure F requires the city to study how to drain Hetch Hetchy and replace it as a source of hydropower and water for more than two million people living in San Francisco, the Peninsula and the East Bay.

COREY COOK: Right. In sum, it is a fairly small initiative and it all it does is fund a $8 million study and on one hand, it is really a small scale. On the other hand, the plan is then put on the ballot in San Francisco, an initiative that would ultimately drain Hetch Hetchy, which as you know, it would affect 2.5 million people, it would be enormously costly and as a result you really see this. Every member of the Board of Supervisors and the mayor united in opposition to this measure.

MUSIKER: Mayor Ed Lee and others are backing a Measure E. That is the next measure we are going to talk about. That would convert the city’s chief business tax from one taxing payroll size to one taxing business receipts. And that’s getting a rare consensus again of everybody on the supervisors but also labor and business, progressives and conservatives, why is that?

COOK: Well, in this case, yes, everybody is basically on the “yes” side and for three reasons. One is that the existing payroll tax has been called a job killer because, effectively, it taxes hiring. It taxes payroll. So as the tax on payroll, it’s been unpopular for business, it’s been unpopular for supervisors and with the Mayor certainly for a long time. But it is revenue positive and so certainly, labor is in favor and some of the more progressive voices in the city are happy because it de-rate $28.5 million annually, and it exempts small businesses. So it serves something for everybody. This is this grand compromise that did unite these different fractions in San Francisco.

MUSIKER: One more proposition to cover is Proposition C that would create a housing trust fund.

COOK: C came about because when the redevelopment agencies were taken apart in California, San Francisco, the city-county of San Francisco, lost about half of its fund for affordable housing, immediately, sort of over night. And so the question was how do you then go about funding affordable hosing in absence of redevelopment money. And the housing trust fund was a solution again, a consensus measure that was agreed upon, that would create a housing trust fund to support affordable housing, both for low-income houses and for moderate housing and the idea being to try to replace some of what was lost to redevelopment.

MUSIKER: So this sounds like something other cities might want to adopt because they also have lost their redevelopment funds.

COOK: Yes, potentially. I think there are different ways of doing this. I think they will certainly study San Francisco to see if it is the right model for their cities, but a lot of cities in California are hurting with the lost of redevelopment.

MUSIKER: A few supervisorial races now starting with District 5. That’s where Christina Olague is defending her seat and she is a mayoral appointee but she’s alienated Mayor Lee and others by voting to keep her predecessor, Ross Mirkarimi, on as Sheriff. But Olague’s chief rival, Julian Davis, is not accused of sexual harassment and he’s lost literally all of his endorsement in the progressive community. So, what do you make of this fight?

COOK: Christina Olague has been embattled as supervisor. I think she’s had some difficulty gaining her footing and sort of presenting herself as a confident member of the Board of Supervisors and so I think she has had some difficulty both with the allies of the mayor before the Mirkarimi vote and also with progressives in the district. So what submerged in this race is a candidate named London Breed who is a community activist, born and raised in the district, who I think is an interesting challenger. As well as Julian Davis, another, sort on the progressive left, who have argued that Supervisor Olague isn’t progressive enough. So I think this is turning into a fascinating race for District 5.

MUSIKER: And one more race, one we talked about last week on our air, Supervisor Eric Mar attracted national attention with his effort to ban Happy Meals in the city and he has been challenged by David Lee, a long time activist for voting rights for Chinese-Americans. What’s this race really about?

COOK: So this is the million dollar race in the city and both literally and figuratively. There is a lot of money going into this race, a lot of money from downtown interests. David Lee has been the beneficiary of a quarter million dollar so far, an independent expenditure from the Realtors Association in San Francisco. Obviously, this is a lot about downtown and development issues. Both candidates take out similar grounds on housing, in particular on tenants’ right but at the same time, the amount of money falling in suggests that there might be more at stake here that would suggest.

MUSIKER: And how might the election change the balance on the board of supervisors between those who support Mayor Lee and the so-called progressives who sometimes oppose him.

COOK: It might change the fulcrum of the board but I think more significantly it will change the composition of the board. I think, you know Sean Elsbernd, who has been the most local, moderate on the board is being termed out. Potentially, the change if Eric Mar doesn’t hold his seat or if Christina Olague doesn’t retain her seat, you may have different types of people elected and so it’s not just if the districts might shift a little bit right but more significantly, I think the composition of the board is going to change, the tone and tenor of the politics of city hall will change accordingly.

MUSIKER: Thanks so much for talking to us.

COOK: Thank you.

MUSIKER: Cory Cook directs the Leo T. McCarthy Center for Public Service and the Common Good at the University of San Francisco.