Ed Lee won the Mayoral election by a large margin\u2014roughly 60 percent of voters listed him as their first choice\u2014but District 11 Supervisor John Avalos won the Mission vote by a landslide, earning 4,439 votes of the 9,726 ballots cast in the district.<\/p>\n
Avalos issued a statement of concession on Friday, Nov. 11.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to offer my congratulations to Ed Lee on his election,\u201d it read. \u201cWe are very proud to have made a strong showing for second, and are incredibly proud to have run a clean, issue-based campaign, powered by our dedicated volunteers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many Mission residents had the opportunity to experience the Avalos campaign and meet him in person\u2014whether it was at a community gathering, local committee meeting or just passing by on his bike\u2014and the impact of his campaign still resonates in the neighborhood.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeeing John in second place reflects where SF is at politically,\u201d said Carlos Martinez, a Mission resident and active participant in the Avalos campaign.<\/p>\n
Martinez admitted that he was disappointed by the low, 40 percent voter turnout, but said he is also proud of the greater impact the Avalos campaign has had on the Mission District and the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the beginning of a progressive revival,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Avalos effectively integrated his history of community involvement and social work into his campaign. Using an ambitious grassroots strategy, he succeeded in bringing together a cross-section of public funders and voters from a diverse range of communities.<\/p>\n
Rob Mcbride, a retired college professor and Mission resident, said that he voted for Avalos precisely because his progressive stance and transparent funding sources set him apart from the rest of the candidates.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve seen him look out for the interests of working people in general, people in the Mission, immigrants whether documented or not, and some of the most marginalized communities,\u201d McBride said.<\/p>\n
The neighborhood\u2019s reaction to this year\u2019s election results was largely sympathetic to Avalos, but there were some Lee supporters.<\/p>\n
Gabriela Lozano, owner of L\u2019s caf\u00e9 on 24th street, is one of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cEd Lee has always been my candidate,\u201d she said. \u201cIn the last 10 months he has made many positive changes to help small business owners, as he made it easier for people to fill vacant spaces in the mission.\u201d<\/p>\n
She hopes that Lee creates more jobs so people have money to spend at small neighborhood businesses, like hers.<\/p>\n
But, as the low voter turnout numbers would suggest, many Mission residents said they didn\u2019t bother to vote at all.<\/p>\n
Giovan Alonzi, an English literature student at San Francisco State, said that he spoke with an Avalos campaigner and fellow bike rider, who told him about the bike-friendly changes that Avalos was advocating. In the end, it wasn\u2019t enough.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t vote,\u201d he said, expressing the sentiments of roughly 60 percent of city voters.<\/p>\n
Alonzi said that through conversations with other students, he learned he was not alone in his decision\u2014many of them didn\u2019t vote because they couldn\u2019t relate to the political changes being posed by any of the mayoral candidates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ed Lee won the Mayoral election by a large margin\u2014roughly 60 percent of voters listed him as their first choice\u2014but District 11 Supervisor John Avalos won the Mission vote by a landslide, earning 4,439 votes of the 9,726 ballots cast in the district. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[847,288,1351,180],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-11693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-ed-lee","tag-john-avalos","tag-mayoral-race-2011","tag-mission","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n