On April 25, the San Francisco Chronicle and the Sacramento Bee both endorsed Proposition 14, the California “top-two” ballot measure. However, both of these newspapers had also endorsed Proposition 62 in 2004. Proposition 62 was an earlier version of the “top-two” measure, and it was defeated by the voters.
The Los Angeles Times, which had earlier endorsed Proposition 14, carried a letter to the editor on April 23 by Ted Brown that opposes Proposition 14. This is the first content that the Los Angeles Times has printed that criticizes the measure, since it carried an op-ed over a year ago by Steve Hill.
The Sacramento Bee editorial is here. It says that if “top-two” were in force, Greens in San Francisco would be likely to place first or second in the June primary, and thus be able to place a candidate on the November ballot. The Bee editorial board knew that the election returns from the California blanket primary returns rebut this assertion. In 1998 the Green candidate for Governor, Dan Hamburg, placed fifth inside San Francisco. There was no U.S. Senate race in 1998. In 2000, Ralph Nader placed fifth in the blanket presidential primary within San Francisco. Also in 2000, Green U.S. Senate candidate Medea Benjamin placed third inside San Francisco. In 2003, in the special gubernatorial election in which all candidates appeared on the same ballot, Peter Camejo placed third in San Francisco. All the data rebuts the idea that Greens would place first or second within San Francisco, and the Bee had that data, but the Bee ignored the data and instead promulgated its unsupported speculation.
There were no Green Party candidates on the ballot in the blanket primary years in San Francisco for U.S. House or for state legislature.