In the June primary, challenger Ray Ellis bested incumbent District 1 City Councilmember Sherri Lightner 45.6 percent to 41.5 percent. As the top two candidates, both made the recent general election, where Lightner not only added significantly to her total (54.9 percent), but drove down Ellis’ (45.1 percent). How did Lightner change the minds of…
Picture yourself in a room full of people you don’t know. It’s too awkward to stand there alone, so you survey the scene, looking for a group to join. The progression is always the same. Anyone I know? Nope. Anyone who’s like me? Nope. Anyone who looks like they might like people like me? The…
After Americans re-elected President George W. Bush and gave Republicans majorities in both houses of Congress in 2004, Karl Rove spoke of a durable Republican majority. It endured until 2006. The election of President Obama, which was touted as the first triumph of the changing demographics that would keep Democrats in power. That lasted until…
You own a widget factory, you’re hiring a new CEO, and you have two applicants. One has worked with widgets for decades, believes in them, and wants to make them better. The other doesn’t like widgets and wants to shrink the company to produce fewer of them. Who do you hire? I’m taking the applicant…
When last week’s Return on Investment Analysis put Scott Peters at No. 1, there was a close second: Councilwoman Sherri Lightner. Lightner, the Democratic incumbent councilmember from District 1, has been a solid advocate of LGBT issues on the City Council, and has the endorsements of elected LGBT officials including Councilman Todd Gloria and Assemblywoman…
One of the newer data points available to punditocracy is New York Times columnist Nate Silver’s Return on Investment Index. By looking at polls, population and electoral votes (among other things), Silver determines the likelihood that one voter in a given state would decide a razor-thin election, and thus where campaigns might wisely spend their…
politically aware BY JOEL TRAMBLEY When I moved from Atlanta to San Francisco, I missed my first chance to vote. I was able to register when I got my California driver’s license, but when election day came around, I didn’t know where my precinct was and I was a medical intern, working from 6:30 a.m….
At a recent leadership training session, I was told that part of the “Ying/Yang” philosophy is negative energies producing positive results. Never was that more clear than when President Obama declared his support for marriage equality in the wake of North Carolina enshrining discrimination in their constitution. But beyond the elation of the LGBT community,…
Iowans gather Tuesday for the nation’s first primary season caucus BY JOEL TRAMBLEY Tuesday evening, 100,000 or so Iowa voters will bundle up, brave the cold and head out to one of 800 political gathering places. At 7 p.m. (CST), they will begin the process of picking our next president. Below is a primer on…
