Political Notes: SF Assembly race may not end with Tuesday's special runoff
A winner will be declared in Tuesday's special runoff election for San Francisco's vacant 17th Assembly District seat. But it may not mean the end of the campaign for the two candidates seeking to represent the city's eastern neighborhoods in the state Legislature.Either District 6 Supervisor Matt Haney or David Campos, a gay man who is a vice chair of the California Democratic Party, will be the city's next Assemblymember and serve out the remainder of the term through December.
They were the top two finishers advancing out of the February 15 election to fill the seat vacated by David Chiu, who in November became San Francisco's first Asian American city attorney.The pair of progressive politicians has also qualified for the June 7 primary ballot in the race this year for a full two-year Assembly term on the November ballot.
Thus, whoever falls short Tuesday could decide to continue to compete for the legislative seat against the winner.In the case of Haney, should he not win Tuesday then he would need to decide if he wants to continue pursuing the Assembly seat or run for reelection to his supervisor seat in the fall.
Yet whether the Tenderloin resident will remain in District 6 is an open question with the city's redistricting task force failing to meet its April 15 deadline to produce a new map for the 11 supervisorial districts.Under a map the body abandoned last week, Haney would have found himself living in the new District 5.
