By Kim Geiger
Despite Mayor Gavin Newsom’s hefty lead over the 11 challengers vying to unseat him in this year’s mayoral election, some say the city’s new voting system to take effect for the first time this year could have allowed an underdog a chance — if any of the challengers had been able to secure public campaign funds from the city.
Candidates who were able to raise at least $25,000 in campaign contributions could have qualified for public campaign funding, where the city would have matched what the candidates raised on the street.
But since none of the 11 candidates running against Newsom could garner enough cash to seriously challenge the incumbent, challengers say Newsom has been able to cruise through the campaign without even having to seriously debate his opponents.
“I had a strategy. I would have won,” said “Chicken” John Rinaldi. “People like me. I’m a likeable character.”
With ranked-choice voting this year replacing the traditional runoff election, San Francisco voters will be able to vote for three candidates in order of their preference. This means that while many are expected to take Newsom for their first choice, two additional choices remain.
“Ranked choice voting allows the voters in San Francisco to rank up to three candidates for the same office,” said Charles MacNulty of the San Francisco Department of Elections.
Mayoral candidates like Rinaldi, “Grasshopper” Alec Kaplan and Josh Wolf — a coalition that calls themselves the “Anyone But Gavin” group — said they were hoping one of the 11 long shot candidates would be able to win the office thanks to the new system.
Rinaldi, 39, said his chances of unseating Newsom, the highly popular incumbent, were lost when the city denied him public campaign funds. Unable to get the word out about his candidacy, Rinaldi said his once viable dream of becoming mayor is no more than a pipedream now.
“Anyone who would vote for us isn’t voting for Gavin as their second choice,” said Rinaldi, who was hoping to win the race by garnering enough second place votes to put him over the top.
Unless Newsom wins 50 percent or more of the first choice votes, ballot counters will have to take the ballots of those voters whose first choice received the lowest amount of votes and instead count those voters’ second choices. The process will continue until one candidate emerges with 50 percent of vote.
But some candidates say they still believe they’ve got a chance, thanks to the new system.
“It’s gonna shock the shit out of everybody, but I’m gonna win,” said “Grasshopper” Alec Kaplan, a homeless taxi driver campaigning on a platform of legalizing marijuana and prostitution.
Harold Hoogasian, one of two Republican candidates, thinks he can draw enough disgruntled conservatives to unseat the left-leaning Newsom. When asked who he thought would win the race, Hoogasian replied with a simple, yet serious, “me.”
The other Republican of the bunch, Michael Powers, said he’s not sure who will win, but that the ranked-choice voting is sure to make the results interesting.
“It’s going to be the most unique and unusual vote,” Powers said. “The split is going to be interesting and it’s going to cause a huge, unique outcome.”
Josh Wolf, a 25-year-old freelance journalist who organized weekly debates between nine of the less mainstream candidates, said the new system could lead to a drastic change in the city’s political system.
“Ranked-choice voting has allowed this to happen,” Wolf said of the collaborative campaign, which consists of nine eccentric and unusual candidates for mayor. “We’re only beginning to see all the wonderful things we can do with it.”
