Nov 3, 2020 Election Endorsements

I am a lifelong Democrat who has spent my entire adult life working to advance the progressive ideals of the Democratic party. As an Asian-American woman, I have worked to make sure women, and specifically women of color, have a place at the decision making table in politics.

I have spent years working as a community organizer to bring neighbors and businesses together. As the Co-Founder of the Balboa Village Merchants Association, I helped elevate the voices of our small businesses, as well as helped organize the annual Halloween and Spring festivals in her neighborhood. I have also served on the board of community organizations like the Richmond Neighborhood Center and Planning Association for the Richmond.

I am a proven leader who deeply understands the issues the Richmond is facing and I have comprehensive plans to address them. I also have the skills and experience to cut through the bureaucracy at City Hall to make things happen. I believe that every one of our neighborhoods should be clean, safe, and vibrant. I will fight to bring more trash cans and street cleaning to our merchant corridors. I’ll introduce legislation to create more new homes for low and middle income residents so everyone can afford to live here. To address homelessness, I will provide funding for more Navigation Centers, permanent supportive housing, and mental health and addiction treatment beds to help people out of homelessness and off the streets. Finally, it’s important that our City leadership has someone who understands the challenges that come with owning and operating a business in San Francisco. I will bring my experience as a small business owner and make sure that San Francisco is a City of opportunity.

Thank you Ed Lee Democratic Club for your endorsement and your support. You can learn more about my campaign at votemarjan.com. I look forward to working together to create a better San Francisco for all.

As an activist, and a District 5 resident for more than 25 years, I have fought tirelessly to better my community and solve the challenges we face. Improving quality of life in D5 is personal: after losing my parents before age 14, I was raised by my community. Fighting for affordable housing, environmental protections, and homelessness has been my principal goal as an activist, Legislative Aide for 10 years, and as a Supervisor.

I’ve worked in our neighborhoods, and in nonprofits. I’ve created housing on City land. I’ve served two previous District 5 Supervisors. And I’ve served the City and our neighborhoods in previous times of crisis. During my time as Supervisor, I passed over 30 pieces of legislation on affordable housing, women’s reproductive rights, and equity. I worked to create the Office of Racial Equity, the City’s first navigation center for people living out of their cars and RVs, and passed a first-in-the-nation rule ensuring that our brick-and-mortar business still accept cash.

Without action, the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis will permanently devastate vulnerable communities, shutter restaurants, cafes, bars and commercial corridors, exacerbate inequality, and lead to more housing insecurity and ingrained homelessness with more despair than before. With the right approach that includes all of us working together, we can emerge as stronger neighborhoods in a stronger City.

This unprecedented moment calls for collaborative, effective leadership. We need a thoughtful, responsive leader as our Supervisor in District 5 with an actionable plan, and I believe I am that leader.

Thank you, Ed Lee Dems, for your endorsement and for your support in this race! You can learn more about my vision for District 5 and join my campaign at www.votevallie.com.

I’m running for supervisor so families can afford to live and feel safe in San Francisco.

After coronavirus, we can’t go back to business as usual. We must change the decades-long practice of City Hall ignoring the needs of families when it comes to housing, schools and quality of life. City Hall must focus on the basics that our neighborhoods care about: clean streets, less crime and more effective services.

I will be a neighborhood supervisor you can rely on. As supervisor, my office will respond to your questions, concerns and ideas within 24 hours. Residents deserve more than what they’re getting from City Hall. I will help you get answers and results when you need them.

We need new and independent leadership at City Hall to clean up the corruption and mismanagement scandals that continue to unfold in the news. I’m the rare candidate who has never worked for City Hall. As a journalist, I held the government accountable. I will do the same as a supervisor.

I stand up for homeowners, families, and small businesses. I support neighborhood schools. I’ve outlined a plan on how City Hall must change its ways to save small businesses. I know we must radically rethink a $13 billion budget that was out of control for a long time. City Hall can no longer use us like an ATM. Every program must be audited and we should only pay for what works.

My ideas are informed by public policy training and community involvement. I help lead Stop Crime SF, a victim’s rights group dedicated to public safety and making sure the justice system takes crime seriously while being accountable. My award-winning journalism examines how San Francisco can address its problems.

I believe our best days are ahead — if we’re willing to tackle today’s problems with equal doses of innovation and common sense.

It is such an honor to receive the endorsement by the Edwin M. Lee Democratic Club. Having worked with Mayor Lee for many years, I am humbled to be endorsed by your club. Thank you for believing in my candidacy.

Qualifications

My spouse and I have been in the Lakeshore neighborhood for over 15 years and raised our 2 now adult daughters here. I grew up in the Richmond District and graduated from Lowell High School.

I've had a diverse career with deep experience in both the private and public sector. After graduate school at UCSD, I worked for AT&T in Tokyo, then joined the first Clinton White House as a Director for International Economic Affairs, followed by the International Bureau of the Federal Communications Commission. But once you have lived in San Francisco, you always find a way back to this amazing city: I moved back in 1996 to complete a Ph.D. in communication from Stanford. I was then appointed to the San Francisco Women's Commission and eventually asked to lead the agency.

I am the best candidate for District 7 because I have the most experience and the best ideas.

I am the only candidate who has held elected office and advocated for the Asian American community extensively. In 2010, I became the first Japanese American to ever be elected to the San Francisco Board of Education in its 160+ year history and served as President in 2015. I reversed an official school board policy from 1906 excluding Asian students from their home schools and segregating them into the Oriental School. I later partnered with the Mayor's Education Advisor Hydra Mendoza, the Chinatown Lions, the Chinese Newcomer School, and Former First Lady Anita Lee and her family to rename the school to the Edwin and Anita Lee Newcomer School in 2018.

Until March 2020, I served as Director of the San Francisco Department on the Status of Women. The Department funds key agencies serving APIA women and their families: APA Family Services, Asian Women's Shelter, Cameron House, CYC, Gum Moon Women's Resident, and APA Family Services. I organized a Chinese language media roundtable on domestic violence that resulted in print and radio coverage. I also inaugurated a partnership with the Pacific Asian American Bay Area Women Coalition to fund a fellowship to expand diversity and inclusion in women's policy work.

Campaign Platform

My three priority issues are:

1) STRENGTHENING thriving neighborhoods.

2) BOLSTERING public safety and health.

3) ACCELERATING economic growth.

I am endorsed by State Treasurer Fiona Ma, Assemblymember Phil Ting, Sheriff Paul Miyamoto, the Chinese American Democratic Club, among others.

I ask for your #1 vote on November 3.

How you can help

Join Team Murase! Opportunities are available in contactless voter outreach and phone banking. Send a cover letter and resume to staff@emilymurase.com (Attn: Micaela). We believe in investing in our volunteers and interns!