2 ms·
> The DA was freely elected by the people FOR these views. That's debatable. Another perspective: Boudin was nobody's first choice, but because of ranked-choic
by wahern 7y ago
> The DA was freely elected by the people FOR these views.
That's debatable. Another perspective: Boudin was nobody's first choice, but because of ranked-choice voting and some political infighting among moderates that split the vote, Boudin took home the prize. See https://missionlocal.org/2019/11/s-f-election-wrap-how-could-this-happen-and-what-are-we-in-for-now/ https://missionlocal.org/2019/11/s-f-election-wrap-how-could...
Which is not to say that he wasn't fairly elected, just that I seriously doubt he was specifically elected for his platform. The man is a Rhodes scholar, a great speaker, and got a lot of press, precisely the kind of person you vote for in ranked-choice after you've checked off your top pick(s).
For example, Boudin did well among the Chinese community, which is generally conservative. But their first choice was Tung, a moderate-conservative who supported prosecution of quality of life crimes at least as strongly as currently. As the SF Chronicle put it, "Tung was a natural choice for Chinese voters, who make up a third of the city’s voters, and Boudin campaigned heavily in the Chinese community. He speaks some Cantonese and Mandarin and won the endorsement of the Sing Tao Daily, the largest Chinese language newspaper in the Bay Area. That could be a reason he won a lot of Tung’s second-choice votes, even though their politics were at opposite ends of the candidate spectrum." https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/heatherknight/article/How-Chesa-Boudin-a-public-defender-who-never-14826323.php https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/heatherknight/article/Ho...
As the Mission Local implied, this is the sort of oddball result you can sometimes get from "the fetid rabbit hole of San Francisco club politics, that perfect amalgamation of Tracy Flick and the Soviet politburo." (That quote is just amazing. Are there journalism prizes for soundbites? 'cause that journalist deserves one.)