Previously: Last SF Supe Frontrunner Update Tonight: Reilly In D2, Kim In D6, Wiener In D8, Kelly In D10
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom appears headed for Sacramento with a comfortable lead in the lieutenant governor’s race over incumbent Abel Maldonado as of this morning.
With over 70 percent the votes counted as of 2 a.m., Newsom had an approximately 9 percent lead over Maldonado, 49 percent to 40 percent, according to unofficial election results.
The Democratic mayor will now join Democrat Jerry Brown, who won the governor’s race, as the state’s top two executives.
“As your next lieutenant governor, I will spare no effort and waste no time,” Newsom said in a statement released by his campaign. “I am ready to hit the ground running.”
“California has always been a land of dreamers and doers, of entrepreneurs and innovators,” Newsom said. “And Californians deserve a state government worthy of this example.”
San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris, also a Democrat, was trailing Republican Steve Cooley in the race for attorney general of California, 46 percent to 45 percent.
San Francisco’s elections for four new members of the 11-member Board of Supervisors remained undecided.
With no candidates achieving a 50-percent majority of votes in races in District 2, 6, 8 and 10, San Francisco’s ranked-choice voting system will determine the winners in the coming days.
Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District board member Janet Reilly and investment banker Mark Farrell led the pack to succeed Supervisor Michela Alioto-Pier in District 2 in the Marina and Russian Hill neighborhoods.
Reilly garnered nearly 42 percent of the vote and Farrell 39 percent, according to unofficial results.
In District 6, which covers the Tenderloin and South of Market neighborhoods, Board of Education President Jane Kim received 31 percent of the vote, Building Inspection Commissioner Debra Walker 28 percent and Human Rights Commission Director Theresa Sparks 16 percent.
District 8 in the Castro District and Noe Valley will be led by either Deputy City Attorney Scott Weiner, who got nearly 42 percent of the vote, or public law and affordable housing attorney Rafael Mandelman, who received 36 percent.
The top vote-getters in District 10, covering the Bayview District, Potrero Hill and Visitacion Valley, were community activist Tony Kelly, with 13 percent, BART board director Lynette Sweet and Malia Cohen, a public affairs, media and policy consultant, with 12 percent each, and Steve Moss, founder of San Francisco Community Power, with just over 11 percent.
Supervisor Carmen Chu ran unopposed in District 4, which covers the Sunset District.
The jockeying to succeed Newsom as mayor now begins. The Board of Supervisors will be tasked with choosing an interim replacement to hold the city’s top post until the next election in November 2011.
Ari Burack, Bay City News
