Mayoral Candidate Information Project
To Fix the Picker
Message to Mayoral Candidates
Hi {You},1
I’d like to invite you to participate in a project that may forever change the way we do elections. A bit of background first, and where the inspiration came from.
On May 2, when there were 53 candidates registered to run for Mayor, Manny’s announced their mayoral debate, where "all five major candidates for Mayor” will be present.
SEIU 1021 hosted a Mayoral Town Hall on June 4th, with the purpose of “putting the candidates to the test… ahead of endorsements." Again, the same five candidates were invited.
The Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club, on May 21, hosted a Mayoral Forum, where the “five frontrunners in the 2024 San Francisco mayoral race took the stage.”
Why only them?
At that time, 90% of the registered candidates were excluded from the conversation. How is it fair that only a pre-selected 10% get invited? What makes them the major candidates?
If I look at the 2019 election results,2 I see that three candidates are running again this year. I’d consider at least two of them “major,” especially because the race may come down to just hundreds of votes.
Marc Roth, who, as a write in, got 7 votes,
Paul Ybarra Robertson, who got 7,472 votes, and
Ellen Lee Zhou, who, as the runner up, got 24,667 votes.
What kind of democracy is this?3
The qualification deadline passed mid-June. 13 candidates fully qualified to run, and some chose to run as write-in candidates. But, 5 candidates have already been solidified in peoples’ minds, leaving 8 with an uphill battle.
The best candidate for mayor may not be the pre-select five.
You run for mayor because you think you can do a better job. It’s statistically more likely the the best candidate one of the 8, and not one of the five. There is a tremendous opportunity to select the best person for the job this time.
You can only make an informed decision if you know the candidate,
People generally do not have time to do research deep enough to fully and properly vet all candidates, and
Those that do are in the minority; not enough to meaningfully affect the outcome.
Because of that, a small number of influential [special interest] groups wield an unnaturally high amount of power in choosing the representatives.
Having run for office once before, I know how difficult it is for candidates to get their name, platform, and vision out there.4 So, following the example put forth by the SF League of Women Voters and SF Public Press, and with inspiration from the aforementioned events, this project comes forth.
The Goals of the Project
To give you, and each other candidate, a fair platform and chance share your campaign,
Provide the People of San Francisco access to hear from ALL candidates directly, without an overlying narrative and pre-selection, and
Make it as easy as possible for each San Franciscan to make the best decision.
Frankly, if San Francisco continues its downward spiral after this election, it will only be because of ignorance. We want to remove ignorance from the equation, inspire each other to act on a better future.
The Output of the Project
The finished product for this project would look something like this:
A candidate page contains:
Video interview
Executive summary
Personal message from the candidate
Links to website, socials, contact info, volunteer information, donation page, whatever you want.
Comments will be enabled on all candidate pages so that People who like to do that deep research can share what they find. Candidates can also comment on each others pages.
The Invite for You
Schedule an interview.
The most important piece of content on the candidate page is the video interview:
Why should you be mayor? (Aim to present for 30 minutes)5
Top Issues Q&A – all candidates get the same questions about the top issues pressing San Francisco— pressing issues that we’ve been trying to resolve since I was born, such as, but not limited to:
How would you end drug tourism and enablement? Why would it work?
How would you end incentives for criminal activity and make San Francisco safe?
How would you end the homeless industrial complex?
Any other questions people have
Open Q&A.
Message me to schedule a time:
Promote it.
You’ll have to be part of the distribution infrastructure. The big, influential groups in San Francisco appear to have decided to keep the race small, so a lot of the getting out the word will be made possible by your campaigns.
It is up to us to overcome the pre-selected, special-interest favored candidate system.
Thank you, God bless, and Godspeed,
-Arjun
PS: Enjoy :)
Please replace “{you}” with your name
It’s not a democracy.
Two existing organizations that do a great job easing this difficulty are the League of Women Voters and San Francisco Public Press.
The League of Women Voters invited me to film a 2 minute campaign statement, and to fill out a profile on Vote411, which they run. San Francisco Public Press reached out with some questions to compose a short info blurb to put on their voter guide of all candidates, and requested a 2 minute audio clip of me discussing voter’s top-of-mind issues.
30 minutes may seem like a long time, but it’s really not. It’s short. It’s hardly enough time to properly get to know someone who’s going to be running our city for the next four years. Social media and 24/7 news cycles have decimated our attention spans, to our own detriment. At the same time, the person who’s running the city should be able to make a very compelling case in 30 minutes.