This is the first time there has been a competitive election for Congress in San Francisco in 40 years, and it’s a three-way race. Saikat’s two opponents, Connie Chan and Scott Wiener, are local elected officials with deep roots with San Francisco’s two current political machines. This election is an opportunity to vote for change, and replacing Nancy Pelosi with a political outsider (with good ideas and charisma) would be quite a change.

With over 50 candidates on the ballot, the California governor’s race is a shitshow. The top two vote-getting candidates move on to the general election in November, but because there are more than a dozen Democrats running vanity campaigns while polling below 5%, there is a very real possibility of two Republicans “winning” the primary with 15% of the vote each and having only their names printed on ballots in November. Looking at the serious contenders, Tom Steyer has one of most detailed and positive visions for California, including my personal hobby horse, eliminating long-term discounts for corporate real estate owners. Tom is a wealthy former financier; I don’t think that’s disqualifying given how he’s spent the last decade+ of his life and how he talks about raising taxes on himself, but if that’s a bridge too far for you, Katie Porter has a similar agenda and a lot less money. Note again that the governor’s race is not ranked choice, meaning you can only pick one candidate.

The California lieutenant governor is effectively the state’s vice president – a largely symbolic second executive officer. As such it’s not an especially important race, though the office is an automatic member on the boards that govern public universities and public land in California. This race has fewer candidates than the governor’s, with the top two advancing to the ballot in November. On this list, former Stockton mayor Michael Tubbs has one of the better alignments between campaign promises and the job he’s running for. He’s promised to build housing for students and staff on university-owned land, freeze tuition for California’s world-leading public universities, and realign coastal construction rules to phase out oil and gas and phase in housing construction on climate-resilient parts of the coast. These are all within the powers of the lieutenant governor and would represent a step forward for the state.

In addition to executing the normal functions of the California attorney general, Rob Bonta has earned a place in my heart for bringing the hammer on reactionary cities that don’t want to comply with state housing laws, such as the efficiently run “city” of Huntington Beach and the checks notes cougar habitat known as Woodside. Four more years.

Shirley Weber is the incumbent; she’s done her job and ensured we actually get to vote, and she’s by-the-book enough that she told Gavin Newsom to kick rocks when he screwed up his election paperwork and tried to correct it after a deadline. Two big points in her favor, here’s to four more years.