Early returns for District 3 race — slight lead for Peskin

Former Supervisor Aaron Peskin was narrowly leading the race to reclaim his District Three seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Tuesday night, edging out Supervisor Julie Christensen, who was appointed to the seat by Mayor Ed Lee in January.

With some of the mail-in vote counted, Peskin had 49.1 percent of the vote while Christensen had 46.5 percent. Perennial candidate Wilma Pang was trailing with 4.2 percent.

The race is subject to the city’s ranked-choice voting system in which the third-place finisher, expected to be Pang, will be dropped and her second-place votes distributed to the two main contenders. That had not happened as of early Tuesday night, though Pang had told her supporters to pick Christensen as their backup choice.

With no big-name competition challenging Lee, the race to represent North Beach, Chinatown, Telegraph Hill and the Financial District was viewed as a referendum on the economic boom and resulting affordability crisis that have dramatically reshaped San Francisco during Lee’s five-year tenure.

The winner will determine the political direction of the board, with a Peskin win tipping it to a 6-5 majority in favor of the progressive bloc and a Christensen win preserving the current moderate majority.


http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Peskin-leads-Christensen-in-early-returns-for-6609177.php