Out candidates head to runoffs
Pride-police agreement
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Planet Queer
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Cynthia Laird
Courtesy the candidate
San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, right, was joined by former assemblymember Tom Ammiano outside the Castro Muni Station Tuesday morning.
Assembly candidate Shawn Kumagai
Out men dominate LGBTQ CA leg races by Matthew S. Bajko
I
t was a good night Tuesday for out male legislative candidates in California. Of the dozen LGBTQ contenders who survived their primary contests, just three were female. Two more female candidates are hoping the counting of additional ballots will lead to their advancing to the November general election, while the campaigns of three male and one nonbinary candidate are now over. Based on the results of the June 7 races, it appears the Legislative LGBTQ Caucus could grow from its current eight members to having a record 15 members, at least, in the next legislative session. In the East Bay race for the open 20th Assembly District seat, gay Dublin City Councilmember Shawn Kumagai was in second place with 25% of the primary vote, according to the unofficial returns Wednesday. Should his standing hold then he is poised to compete in the fall against labor leader Liz Ortega, who is straight and landed in first place with 31.1% of the vote. Gay nurse and union leader Jennifer Esteen was in fourth place with 20.8% of the vote behind Republican Joseph Grcar, who was in third with 23.1% of the vote. The quartet was vying to succeed Assemblymember Bill Quirk (D-Hayward), who opted against seeking reelection and endorsed Ortega in the Alameda County contest. Should Kumagai win the seat in the fall, the Navy veteran would be the first LGBTQ legislator of Japanese descent in Sacramento. Esteen on Wednesday was holding out hope that her bid to be the first out Black female to serve in the Legislature was not over. In a tweet thread Wednesday Esteen noted that “over half the ballots” still need to be counted and was waiting to see if the additional vote tally would boost her standing in the race. “When those numbers come in from the registrar of voters we’ll be watching and counting. And until then, conserve your energy, refresh, renew, reinvigorate because Team Esteen will be calling on you to join the movement and keep building power for a California that works for all,” she wrote. See page 16 >>
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Vol. 52 • No. 23 • June 9-15, 2022
Rick Gerharter
Readying AIDS quilt for park display
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early 3,000 panels of the AIDS Memorial Quilt will be displayed this weekend, June 11-12, in Robin Williams Meadow in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. On Monday, June 6, five of the panels were temporarily hung from the Mayor’s balcony at City Hall, and Kory Powell-McCoy took a selfie joined by volunteers and supporters, including quilt co-founder Gert McMullin, second from right, and gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, right. This weekend’s
free, public installation takes place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days and is being overseen by the National AIDS Memorial Grove, which took over stewardship of the quilt in 2019. This year marks the quilt’s 35th anniversary and the upcoming event is the largest exhibit of the quilt in about a decade, and the biggest ever in San Francisco. For more information, go to https://www.aidsmemorial.org/ or see the Bay Area Reporter’s coverage at https://www.ebar.com/news/latest_news//314150.
Voters recall SF DA Boudin by Eric Burkett
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ithin 45 minutes of the polls closing, progressive San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, who spent half of his two years in office battling recall efforts, had lost his effort to keep his job. Proposition H, which aimed to recall the district attorney, passed with 60% of the vote, according to unofficial returns. See page 16 >>
Gay CA insurance czar Lara survives primary challenge by Matthew S. Bajko
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ay California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara survived an intraparty challenge in his primary race Tuesday to advance to the general election in November where he could be running against a Republican opponent. Because several other out candidates did not fare as well in their primary races, Lara is expected to remain California’s lone LGBTQ statewide leader should he win reelection. His election four years ago marked the first time an LGBTQ person had been elected to statewide office in the Golden State. But following a rocky first term beset by ethical scandals dating back to 2019, Lara faced not only a challenge this year from several Republicans but also from Assemblyman Marc Levine (D-Greenbrae), who ran attack ads against Lara that painted him as unfit to remain the state’s insurance czar. Yet the power of incumbency and the strength of the Democratic vote, as Lara had secured the endorsement of the California Democratic Party, appear to have helped the Latino politician from Los Angeles County fend off Levine. Lara took first place in the primary with 37% of the vote, according to the unofficial returns Wednesday. “I want to thank California Primary voters for sending me to the General Election by a 2:1 margin! I look forward to continuing to build on the important work we’ve done for consumers,”
Courtesy Lara campaign
Gay state Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara survived a primary race and will advance to the November election.
Lara, a former state legislator, tweeted. He could be facing in the fall election Republican Robert Howell, who was in second place with 17.8% of the vote as of Wednesday. As for Levine, he was in third place with 16.8% slightly ahead of the fourth place finisher, GOPer Greg Conlon, who had 16.5% of the primary vote. In a statement released on election night, when he was in second place, Levine expressed optimism that he would advance to the general election ballot to compete head-to-head with Lara.
“We’ll be watching the results closely over the coming days, and if we are fortunate to make it through to the general election, we look forward to consolidating support behind our campaign, continuing to make the case for change, and winning a victory for California consumers in the fall,” stated Levine. As for transgender nurse Veronika Fimbres, a Green Party member who also ran in the primary for insurance commissioner, she received 2% of the vote based on the unofficial returns. The San Francisco resident was the first known transgender statewide office seeker to make it onto a primary election ballot in California, as well as the first person living with HIV to do so.
Other out candidates fall short
Gay Los Angeles city controller Ron Galperin fell short in his bid to be elected the state’s controller. He landed in fifth place with 10.7% of the vote. Lesbian Sacramento District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert, who left the Republican Party and ran as an independent to be the state’s attorney general, came in fourth place in her primary contest with 7.5% of the vote. The Democratic incumbent, Rob Bonta, who was appointed to the position, landed in first place with 54.5% of the vote. See page 2 >>
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