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Re-elected Supervisor Melgar Beats the Odds—Leaves Big Spenders TogetherSF & GrowSF in the Dust
• • • • • • • November 20, 2024 • • • • • • •
Reprinted by permission from Mission Local
Four years ago, when Myrna Melgar ran for District 7 supervisor, she won the race with 53 percent of the vote. This year, she’s in the exact same spot: Winning with 53 percent of the vote.
“It’s official — I’ve been re-elected District 7 Supervisor!” Melgar wrote in a statement shared with Mission Local. “This victory is not mine alone — it belongs to each and every one of you who believed in our shared vision for a safer, more affordable, and better Westside.”
While Melgar’s chief opponent, Matt Boschetto, successfully tapped into a base that opposes Melgar on housing, transit infrastructure and closing the Great Highway, Melgar benefited from her record, and a changing and more diverse district.
In 2022, when the city’s district boundaries were redrawn, District 7 lost its most conservative precincts to District 4, and gained more progressive ones from District 5.
Those precincts are what pushed Melgar across the finish line. Her team also said it counted on more votes from more progressive, younger constituents, according to John Whitehurst, Melgar’s campaign consultant.
There are 50,973 registered voters in District 7, and 35,315 votes have been counted so far. Overall, Boschetto received 37 percent of the first-choice votes, behind Melgar’s 47 percent. After ranked-choice voting, the gap narrows: Melgar holds 53 percent of the vote, and Boschetto has 47 percent.
Boschetto could not be reached for comment on Monday. He does not appear to have conceded in the race.
“We’ve shown how close we are to unseating an incumbent,” said Boschetto, the day after the first results trickled in. Boschetto added that the results show “how out of step she [Melgar] is.”
Boschetto is currently 1,914 votes behind Melgar, even after gaining most of the transfer votes (2,935 votes) from the other two candidates in the race, Stephen Martin-Pinto and Edward S. Yee. Melgar gained 1,225 transfer votes.
“I’m a brand-new candidate. I’m an outsider,” said Boschetto. “The fact that we are in striking distance, considering the matchup, is a victory in and of itself.”
In 2020, Melgar, then a planning commissioner, ran in a crowded race against six opponents with no incumbent. This year, it has been a two-way battle between Melgar and Boschetto, a political newcomer who outraised her by $37,000 and is backed by well-funded advocacy groups GrowSF and TogetherSF.
In 2022, when the city’s district boundaries were redrawn, District 7 lost its most conservative precincts to District 4, and gained more progressive ones from District 5.”
“This time is much more personal,” said Melgar, over the phone the afternoon after Election Day. “Everybody knows me now. People love me or hate me.”
Melgar’s campaign also had to contend with an electorate that has shown dissatisfaction with the status quo: Voters ousted incumbent Mayor London Breed in favor of political newcomer Daniel Lurie, and incumbent District 5 Supervisor Dean Preston, electing Bilal Mahmood, who is also new to City Hall.
District 7 is the city’s largest district by area, and it encompasses different political pockets, from a progressive base in the Inner Sunset to a staunchly moderate base in West Portal. As supervisor, Melgar has leaned into the duality of her district’s voters, forming alliances across the political spectrum.
“I don’t know which side of the fence I put Myrna on,” said Jim Stearns, Aaron Peskin’s political consultant. But in this election, he said, “she was vehemently opposed by the TogetherSF money machine,” referencing the deep-pocketed public pressure group backed by venture capitalist Michael Moritz.
Boschetto’s campaign, and his supporters, focused on Melgar being on the wrong side of the fence — whichever side that may be.
Boschetto consistently contradicted Melgar on most issues in a weekly Q&A with Mission Local. When Melgar proposed preventing cars from driving through the intersection where a horrific traffic accident killed a family of four, Boschetto advocated against the changes. Boschetto also sponsored the campaign against Proposition K to close the Great Highway, which Melgar placed on the ballot.
To a certain extent, Boschetto’s strategy seems to have worked, at least within the boundaries of West Portal, Forest Hills and St. Francis Wood. According to the precinct-level first-choice results, Boschetto has homed in on his base.
But it was not enough to carry him across the finish line.
Meanwhile, with Melgar to remain the district’s supervisor, the prospect of her becoming board president is in the cards.
“It’s not up to me; it’s up to my colleagues,” she said. “I am the bridge builder. We’re going to need that, for sure,” she added.
Additional reporting by Joe Rivano Barros.
Reporter Kelly Waldron writes for MissionLocal.org
November 2024
