Bay Area voter’s guide to key races in 2024 election

(KRON) — San Francisco Mayor London Breed is fighting for her second term in office, and the East Bay is looking at several high-profile recall campaigns. Republicans are fighting to maintain control of the U.S. House, and California could prove a significant factor in deciding it. In addition to the legislature, California voters will decide who will occupy the Senate seat long held by the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein along with 10 statewide propositions. 

Here is KRON4.com’s Bay Area resident’s voter guide for this upcoming election season, covering what’s happening in the region and the state as a whole. 

San Francisco Mayor’s race

Incumbent SF Mayor London Breed is trying to convince voters she deserves a second term in office. She faces four main challengers, all of whom are Democrats:

• Mark Farell is a former interim mayor of San Francisco and a current venture capitalist. 
• Daniel Lurie is a nonprofit founder dedicated to anti-poverty campaigns. He is also most notably the hair to the Levi Strauss fortune, to which many of his funds – approximately 6$ million – were used for his own first mayoral campaign.
• Aaron Peskin is the president of the Board of Supervisors and often advertises himself as the most liberal of the four candidates.
• Asha Safaí is a city supervisor and a former labor organizer.

Recalls: Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, Alameda County DA Pamela Price

Oakland and Alameda County residents gathered enough signatures to decide whether to recall Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and, for the first time in county history, a sitting district attorney in Alameda County DA Pamela Price.

Pamela Price was elected with a 53% vote in 2022. Some of her reforms include pursuing alternatives to prison time, expanding mental health diversion services, and prosecuting more domestic violence cases. Critics say Price is too lenient on criminals and mishandled several high-profile murder cases. 

Sheng Thao was elected with a 50.3% vote through rank-choice voting in 2022. The mayor believes her policies have led to Oakland’s most recent drop in crime. She also credits herself for creating a home for the city’s newest baseball team, the Oakland Ballers. Critics say Thao contributed to the public safety crisis in Oakland, partly through budget mismanagement, and the departure of the city’s Major League Baseball team, the Oakland Athletics. Thao’s recall campaign received enough signatures in May before the FBI raided the mayor’s home in June. 

California Senate

In a historic race for the U.S. Senate, two candidates are vying for the seat long held by former San Francisco mayor, the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who passed away in 2023.

Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) has been serving as a U.S. Rep. from California since 2001. Schiff, a Democrat, was a member of the California State Senate from 1996 to 2000 and is currently leading most polls. More information can be found here.

Steve Garvey is a former baseball star who played for the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres. A Republican, Garvey consistently claims he won’t be blindly loyal to the Republican party and is courting voters from the Latino community. More information can be found here. 

There will actually be two elections for the California Senate. The main election will be to serve the full six-year term, and the other will serve the remaining weeks of Feinstein’s unexpired term. Laphonza Butler, the Democrat appointed to fill the Senate’s vacancy, did not seek to replace Feinstein.

California House: Congressional District 12 Race

Rep. Barbara Lee, a Democrat, has held the District 12 seat in Congress for over two decades. Lee was defeated in California’s U.S. Senate primary earlier this year and announced she would leave Congress in January. Two fellow Democrats are running for Lee’s seat: 

Jennifer Tran, a Democrat, is a current professor of Ethnic Studies at Cal State East Bay. During the pandemic, Tran advocated for more policing and secured millions in funds for small businesses. Her priorities include addressing police understaffing by integrating social workers into police departments and improving homelessness by reopening state-run mental health hospitals. More information can be found here. 

Lateefah Simon, a Democrat, is a current BART board director and the youngest woman to receive the MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship. Prior to BART, Simon was an Executive Director of the Yong Woman’s Freedom Center, where she advocated on behalf of marginalized young women. Her “priorities” include more public safety by closing “loopholes” in federal gun laws and uplifting bills that strengthen the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit. More information can be found here.

California House: Congressional District 16 Race

Rep. Anna Eshoo will be retiring in 2024 after three decades in Congress. Two candidates will be facing off for her seat:

Sam Liccardo is the former mayor of San Jose. Some of his priorities include addressing housing affordability through revitalizing empty downtown commercial buildings or empowering homeowners to become “housing providers.” He also hopes to address homelessness by building housing faster and at lower costs, as well as leveraging the power of housing vouchers. More information can be found here. 

Evan Low is a current state assembly member representing parts of Silicon Valley. Some of his priorities include preventing homelessness by using federal resources to increase accessibility to substance abuse prevention programs in mental health services, as well as promoting a Silicon Valley “Acceleration Agenda,” which advocates policies that advance emerging technologies such as digital currency and artificial intelligence. More information can be found here.

Proposition Guide: 

Ten statewide propositions are currently on the November ballot. Here’s a brief description of each, according to Ballotpedia:

• Prop 2 will issue $10 billion in bonds to fund the construction and modernization of public education facilities. 
• Prop 3 will repeal a previous proposition, Prop 8, to permanently legalize same-sex marriage in California. 
• Prop 4 will issue $10 billion in bonds to fund state and local parks and environmental, water infrastructure, energy, and flood protection projects.  
• Prop 5 will lower the vote threshold from 66.6% to 55% for local bond measures to fund housing projects and public infrastructure. 
• Prop 6 will remove involuntary servitude from the state constitution as punishment for a crime when serving jail time.
• Prop 32 will increase the state’s minimum wage to $18 per hour. 
• Prop 33 repeals the Costa Hawkins Rental Housing Act. 
• Prop 34 requires healthcare providers to spend 98% of their revenue from federal discount prescription drug programs on direct patient care. 
• Prop 35 permanently authorizes a tax on care organizations to fund Medi-Cal programs. 
• Prop 36 increases penalties for certain drug and theft convictions, also allowing a new class of crime to be called “treatment-mandated felony.” 

KRON4.com is your local election headquarters. Stick with us through election season for the latest updates on the local, statewide and national races that matter.

​(KRON) — San Francisco Mayor London Breed is fighting for her second term in office, and the East Bay is looking at several high-profile recall campaigns. Republicans are fighting to maintain control of the U.S. House, and California could prove a significant factor in deciding it. In addition to the legislature, California voters will decide […]