Following the release of the early vote, D4 incumbent Greg Casar had few worries: As expected, it showed him with 65%, dominating challengers Gonzalo Camacho (20%) and Louis Herrin III (15%). Tuesday’s much smaller Election Day vote, while surprisingly narrower (Casar 48%, Camacho 33%, Herrin 19%) didn’t materially affect the outcome, although the relatively low turnout was concerning: 11,981 total votes, less than half the number that turned out in the Westside districts. More worrisome to the council member late Tuesday was the national outcome. “I was proud to celebrate my victory beside so many supporters, social justice and labor activists,” he told the Chronicle, “but it’s difficult to do so in light of the results nationally. … If Trump wins, it’s a horrible outcome, and going forward we can’t expect any help from the federal level. Progressive change is going to have to happen from the bottom up. There are many good things happening in the cities, and that’s where we’ll have to focus our efforts.”
“Progressive change is going to have to happen from the bottom up,” said Casar.
This article appears in November 11 • 2016.
