San Francisco voters oust three school board members in recall vote, CNN projects

Though the battle lines in San Francisco were fine and the debate colored by distinctly local clashes, the successful recall campaign will be applauded by conservatives around the country, who have made “parents’ rights” a rallying cry as they seek to win over mainly suburban voters turned off by former President Donald Trump. Republicans, like new Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a potential 2024 presidential candidate, have sought to translate parental frustration over Covid-era mandates into political gain, a political tactic that is also overlapping with wider right-wing campaign to sanitize or censor historical readings and teaching in schools across the country.

The driving forces in the recall, though, were often simpler — but portend more difficult discussions among Democrats.

“During such a difficult time, the decisions we make for our children will have long term impacts,” Breed, the mayor, wrote in a Facebook post explaining her support for the recall. “Which is why it is so important to have leadership that will tackle these challenges head on, and not get distracted by unnecessary influences or political agendas.”

Opponents of the recall derided it as a power grab by big-money interests seeking to push progressive voices out of local power and pointed to elections, scheduled for just nine months from now, as a fairer way for voters to have their say.

“These two recalls have one thing in common: they are attempts to short-circuit the democratic process with big money,” the group says. “Across the country, right-wingers are attacking school boards; over half of the signatures to qualify for the ballot were gathered by people paid as much as $22 per signature, many of whom came from out of state.”

Though the recall effort had a number of big-money backers, including Neighbors for a Better San Francisco, a political action committee that is also boosting an effort to recall District Attorney Chesa Boudin, a progressive champion, it also secured a potentially crucial late endorsement from the San Francisco Chronicle’s editorial board.

The recall campaign had, according to the Chronicle, collected nearly $2 million, while organized support of the endangered board members, most notably Moliga, had raised only $86,000.

López, who was elected to the board in 2018 and chosen by her colleagues to lead it in 2021, has defended her work to reopen schools and insisted the renaming process never interfered with those efforts.

But some of the school names that once appeared on the chopping block, including Abraham Lincoln and George Washington, raised eyebrows both in the city and around the country. San Francisco-based US Sen. Dianne Feinstein, too, was on the list, in connection with a decision when she was mayor, in 1984, to replace a Confederate flag damaged by protesters outside City Hall. There were also instances in which critics noted that the board had misattributed historical deeds to figures — like Paul Revere, in one instance — which fueled anger over the decision.

Bowing to pressure in April of last year, the board voted unanimously to suspend its plans. The school names all remain in place.