March 5, 2024 San Francisco Endorsements

Vote for safe streets and sustainable transportation on the San Francisco ballot

Our endorsements

KidSafe SF is proud to announce our endorsements for safe streets and sustainable transportation champions for the March election.

California State Senate District 11

Scott Wiener

Scott Wiener is one of transportation’s biggest champions in Sacramento. He has sponsored and passed numerous safe streets and transportation policies in Sacramento over his two terms in Sacramento. Most recently he introduced the SAFER streets package, SB 960 and SB 961, which would require CalTrans to adhere to its complete streets policy, and set standards for vehicle safety including side underride guards for trucks and speed limiters. His focused effort to fund transit operations in 2023 resulted in $1B in funding directed toward transit, and he is continuing to prioritize funding solutions for public transportation in the current legislative session. Sen. Wiener’s SB 922 (and its predecessor SB 288), which became law in 2022 and allows transit, bike, and pedestrian projects to bypass CEQA requirements, was critical to ensuring JFK Promenade could become permanently car-free without a protracted legal battle.

Assembly District 19

Catherine Stefani

We are pleased to endorse Catherine Stefani for state Assembly to represent San Francisco’s west side and northern San Mateo County. While a supervisor, Stefani voted to make JFK Promenade permanent while also advocating for accommodations for people with disabilities and additional reporting from the park’s museums on attendance and pandemic recovery. She also voted to extend the Great Highway weekend pilot beyond the pandemic emergency closure, and has supported pedestrian safety initiatives in District 2 (the Marina, Pacific Heights, Cow Hollow). We look forward to seeing her support and champion additional measures for street safety and public transportation, especially for operations funding, in Sacramento.

Assembly District 17

Matt Haney

Since he was a supervisor representing District 6 (SOMA and Mission Bay), Matt Haney has supported safe streets and public transportation. In District 6, he helped get dozens of miles of protected bike lanes built, and while on the board of supervisors he voted to make JFK Promenade permanent. In Sacramento he has supported critical safety legislation to legalize speed cameras and secure operations funding for Bay Area public transportation.

Safe Streets Champions for Assembly District 19

  • Sara Barz

    TRANSIT PROFESSIONAL / MOTHER

    Sara Barz has volunteered on KidSafe’s leadership team since our founding in 2021, and was also a founder of Seamless Bay Area. A mom and transportation professional, she was instrumental in the campaign to permanently protect JFK Promenade.

    Sara’s questionnaire

  • Mike Chen

    DATA ENGINEER

    Mike Chen has volunteered with many community groups advocating for urbanist policies, including KidSafe SF. He also serves on the citizens advisory committee for SFMTA.

    Mike’s questionnaire

  • Brian Quan

    COMMUNITY VOLUNTEER

    As the former president of the Chinese American Democratic Club, Brian Quan worked to increase support for sustainable transportation and safe streets in the Asian community. He also worked with KidSafe SF to help lead the Prop J campaign to victory in 2022.

    Brian’s questionnaire

Safe Streets Champions for Assembly District 17

  • Emma Heiken

    PUBLIC POLICY ANALYST

    Emma Heiken serves as transportation and land use aide to Supervisor Myrna Melgar, where she helps implement safe streets and transportation policy in District 7 (west of Twin Peaks/southwest SF) and citywide. She is a regular bike commuter and lives in the Mission District.

    Emma’s questionnaire

  • Joe Sangirardi

    HOUSING POLICY DIRECTOR

    Sangirardi is an LGBTQ activist and professional fundraiser for political and nonprofit causes. He is a strong supporter of bicycle infrastructure, pedestrian safety and public transit, and volunteered in 2022 on the campaigns for both Prop J for a permanent JFK and Prop L, the transportation funding measure.

    Joe’s questionnaire

  • Frank Tizedes

    WORKFORCE TALENT STRATEGIST

    Frank Tizedes is the president of the Duboce Triangle Neighborhood Association. As president of the neighborhood association, he has championed the Noe Slow Street and a “Slow Triangle” plan to create a network of safe streets in his neighborhood.

    Frank’s questionnaire

Additional notes on our endorsements

In addition to our endorsed candidates, we want to acknowledge the many additional candidates who provided strong responses to our questionnaire and/or have a public record of supporting JFK Promenade, the Great Walkway, Slow Streets, and other safe streets and transportation projects over the past several years.

Please take a moment to read their questionnaires and learn more about their campaigns. There are 10 seats up for election on the west side of San Francisco (AD-19) and 14 on the east side (AD-17).

AD-17

Cedric Akbar, Carrie Barnes, Trevor Chandler, Matt Dorsey, Jane Kim, Michael Lai, Bilal Mahmood, Michael Nguyen, Joshua Rudy Ochoa, Sydney Simpson, Nancy Tung, Luis Zamora

AD-19

Dan Calamuci, Parag Gupta, Gordon Mar, Jen Nossokoff, Marjan Philhour, Mano Raju, Catherine Stefani

What is the DCCC?

The DCCC makes the official Democratic Party endorsements for candidates and ballot measures, including those that affect transportation policy and outcomes in the city, and can easily influence the outcome of elections.

This body is elected every 4 years in a presidential election year during the primary election. That's happening this year on March 5, 2024! 

There are 24 elected members of the body: 14 elected from AD-17 (roughly the east side of the city, along with West Portal, Forest Hill, and several other west of Twin Peaks neighborhoods), and 10 elected from AD-19 (roughly the north and west sides, including the Sunset, Richmond, Marina, Pacific Heights, and Mission Terrace). Your ballot will only show the names from your assembly district.

How to vote for DCCC

You can only vote in this election if you're a registered Democrat, so be sure to check your registration with SF elections and make sure your party preference says "Democratic". If it doesn’t, you’ll need to change your voter registration to be able to vote in the DCCC elections. It’s easy - you can change your party preference here until February 20, 2024.