I love the point about de-facto divided government! I feel like the kind of split you mentioned for SF is something that can be seen (or has been seen at some point) in a number of cities and contributes to a lot of gridlock.
It’s tough for the public to see this with the kind of clarity that they can with divided government at the state and federal levels because there’s no GOP vs. Dem divide in party labels.
I’ve wondered if having more official (and publicly branded) “sub-parties” within the Democratic Party might help make this issue more transparent for the public.
Yeah, it's been such a structural thing that people assume "This is just the way it is." But that doesn't have to be the case. There is an amazing opportunity now to totally reset the relationship between the Board of Supervisors and the Mayor.
One of the reasons I'd like to see cities (and counties, and states) start using proportional election systems (ideally Sequential Proportional Approval) for their legislative bodies is that this makes it a lot easier for a new small party to get a toehold, and that opens up space for a party that refuses to align itself purely with one of the national parties to come in and start building a profile. We should be able to have "the San Francisco Moderate Party" as a formal thing, with fundraising and issue positions independent of the national Democratic Party.
I love the point about de-facto divided government! I feel like the kind of split you mentioned for SF is something that can be seen (or has been seen at some point) in a number of cities and contributes to a lot of gridlock.
It’s tough for the public to see this with the kind of clarity that they can with divided government at the state and federal levels because there’s no GOP vs. Dem divide in party labels.
I’ve wondered if having more official (and publicly branded) “sub-parties” within the Democratic Party might help make this issue more transparent for the public.
Yeah, it's been such a structural thing that people assume "This is just the way it is." But that doesn't have to be the case. There is an amazing opportunity now to totally reset the relationship between the Board of Supervisors and the Mayor.
One of the reasons I'd like to see cities (and counties, and states) start using proportional election systems (ideally Sequential Proportional Approval) for their legislative bodies is that this makes it a lot easier for a new small party to get a toehold, and that opens up space for a party that refuses to align itself purely with one of the national parties to come in and start building a profile. We should be able to have "the San Francisco Moderate Party" as a formal thing, with fundraising and issue positions independent of the national Democratic Party.
Yep, I am intrigued...
Any idea who Lurie has in his kitchen cabinet? Or who he plans to put in charge?
Nope! He has very important decisions to make.