Voters in District 4 swiftly and strongly chose to oust Supervisor Joel Engardio in a contentious special election held Tuesday, September 16th.
District 4 Supervisor Joel Engardio was backed by nearly every conservative-leaning big-money PAC in San Francisco. Millions poured into the race by groups like GrowSF and TogetherSF — the latter PAC now rebranded as an “evolution” of sorts under its new name, SF Blueprint — to oust the area’s more liberal incumbent, Gordon Mar. Engardio ultimately wedged out Mar by a small margin, around 1.7% of the total votes cast.
But Engardio’s tenure hasn’t been one without controversy. Residents of the neighborhoods he represents, which include the Sunset District and the now car-free Upper Great Highway, criticized Engardio of ignoring their wants, pursuing a more individualistic agenda; the sentiment was particularly strong amongst the area’s Asian voting demographic and those opposed to closing the Upper Great Highway to private cars.
With the majority of the special election’s recall vote tallied, voters chose to rescind the former executive of the non-profit Stop Crime SF by a massive margin; over 65% of all counted votes were cast in favor of recalling the incumbent Supervisors. Mayor Daniel Lurie will now have the ability to appoint a new supervisor, who will find themselves on two ballots next year, one in June and the other in November.
What remains to be decided is whether Engardio will officially resign before Lurie introduces new legislation that would see a 12-story tower placed in his historically NIMBY district.
