Who's on the Ballot: Incumbent Supervisor Malia Cohen vs. neighborhood activist and theater impresario Tony Kelly. Yes again.
Four years ago, Supervisor Malia Cohen emerged as the victor in a District 10 election that was about as palatable for critics of ranked-choice voting as the Hindenberg disaster was for the anti-dirigible crowd.
Cohen, with a scant 2,083 votes and less than 12 percent of first-place votes, bested top contender Tony Kelly and a field of more than 20 candidates after countless RCV permutations. It wasn't exactly a mandate from up on high and, in office, Cohen hasn't struck anyone as the second coming of Jessie Unruh.
And yet, a battalion of contenders hasn't emerged to challenge Cohen. Quite the contrary. She finds herself, once again, facing down Tony Kelly. Queries to San Francisco's political class essentially positing if this is the best we can do elicited cruel laughter.
That question, apparently, applies more widely than District 10.
Cohen, if anything, appears to be in a far stronger position now than she was four years ago. Only four challengers bothered to sign their names to the requisite forms, and only the progressive firebrand Kelly is mounting a serious campaign.
And that's because Cohen's mediocrity may actually be her greatest strength.
District 10 is San Francisco's Belgium (sans the fries and mayonnaise). It's composed of several distinct communities that don't much mix (a growing Asian population; a shrinking African-American sector in Bayview and Hunters Point; and white Potrero Hill progressives). Attempts to anoint any single leader results in messy, protracted elections like the last one. Attempts to please everyone will please no one.
Cohen, however, has managed to essentially split the difference. And that figures to be enough. Without corruption or malfeasance, it's exceedingly difficult to unseat an incumbent in a ranked-choice voting system, especially an inoffensive one like Cohen seemingly engineered to pick up second- and third-place votes. Leaders who don't lead much, who remain largely unobjectionable, thrive in this system — especially with such a fractious voter base.
Would-be opponents realized this. That's why there are so few of them.
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