Thanks, guys. I'm likewise pleasantly surprised at how the statewide propositions are going. SF seems about like usual, "disappointing, but not unexpectedly". Jo Jorgensen and Spike Cohen are currently listed with 2,231 votes in SF; there are 2,898 registered Libertarians in the city (see https://www.sfelections.org/tools/election_data/), and I'm sure many of them didn't vote at all while some voted for Trump or Biden, so I don't think we're batting under our weight in the presidential contest given the sharp tilt of the playing field against us.
I'm similarly doing about how I expected. Ten percent is okay for a two-person race against a Democrat, but I wouldn't call it great. On the other hand, Shahid Buttar, who ran a much more active campaign against Nancy Pelosi from the left, only got about 20%, so it's not too bad either.
In general, I think the more candidates we have the better, though it's good not to feed the State (with filing fees and such) any more than the value for liberty we get out of it, so anyone running should plan to get more exposure for the LP and the freedom message than what they could get by just spending a similar amount of money on advertising without running for office. I only ran this time because I didn't have to pay the filing fee and was guaranteed a spot on the November ballot, due to Chiu not having any other opponents.
It would be good to have at least one local candidate to get behind per cycle, either one of our own or someone like Chesa Boudin or Joel Engardio that we can support. Speaking of the latter, Engardio looks like he's narrowly lost the District 7 Supervisor race to Myrna Melgar by about 53% to 47% (see https://www.sfelections.org/results/20201103/data/20201103_4/d7/20201103_4_d7_detail.pdf). Joel unfortunately appeared to have tacked closer to law enforcement this cycle than in the past, which no doubt hurt him in this election with the heavy focus on police reform this year*, but he's still fairly libertarian by local Democrat standards. We had given him support in the past, both volunteering and recommending, although we did not this cycle (partly my decision not to push the issue because of his law enforcement emphasis). Maybe he will run again and will be open to the idea that our active support could have made the difference and that focusing on law and order did not help him.
*On a bright note, I was delighted to see Proposition E, removing the minimum SFPD staffing requirement, passing with almost 72% of the vote, a much higher margin than I would've expected. Having that large a super-majority vote for fewer cops seems pretty significant to me, even in SF!
Love & Liberty,
((( starchild )))