Recalled! -- 65% -- Redux
When everyone tells you it cannot be done, sometimes you need to go out and do it.
[author’s note — I have made some revisions to this report for purposes of precision and clarity in a few places and performed a more precise copy edit (that’s for you Judi). Because this is, in my opinion, an important retrospective, I decided to republish the piece so that everyone will have a chance to see the improved, revised version. Thank you, please enjoy.]
Yesterday was a special Election Day here in The Sunset. Most of the votes in the matter of the Recall of Supervisor Joel Engardio were counted and at about 8:45 p.m. PDT the San Francisco Department of Elections (DOE) dropped the first ballot count for mail-in and early voted ballots.
Let’s cut to the chase — as ballot counts dropped, it became crystal clear that what so many so-called “experts” across San Francisco told us was impossible was about to happen, we were going to win and recall & remove Supervisor Joel Engardio.
Joel Engardio recall results: SF supervisor likely ousted | Politics | sfexaminer.com
District 4 Supervisor Joel Engardio has been recalled.
Nearly two-thirds of ballots counted as of 10:41 p.m. Tuesday were cast in support of ousting Engardio, whose district mostly consists of the Sunset and Parkside neighborhoods west of 19th Avenue.
Of the 16,437 ballots counted by press time, 65% were in favor of recalling Engardio versus 35% that were cast in favor of him remaining in office. Ballots will continue to be counted, and results will be updated in the coming days.
Adam Shanks, San Francisco Examiner
We were right and they were wrong.
Most of today, Wednesday, September 17th, has been a chaotic whirlwind of media interviews and follow-up conversations about what comes next. Interestingly, that is the question that seemingly all in the media are talking about, what comes next?
However, their questions and their writing strike me in an odd way. Not very many journalists, broadcasters, experts, thought-leaders or pundits are asking the most important questions. Then again, none of them have been asking the most important questions throughout this entire process, why should now be any different?
In January, virtually all of them said it could not be done — (spoiler alert — Embattled Engardio crushed in recall vote — that was the headline in the San Francisco Examiner this morning).
Recalls funded by billionaires was the way it gets done and, well, guess what? Our little ragtag band of Recallers are not billionaires. And there were not any deep pockets all that interested in helping us put the Engardio Recall on the ballot.
Moreover, all the billionaire and centi-millionaire tech & crypto-bros were backing Joel Engardio — to the tune of ($250,000 from just three tech & crypto-bro donors out of $425,000 just in Phase I of the campaign) — [author’s note — the bold italics sentence immediately before this note edited for precision and clarity at 11:11 am PDT 9/18/25] — the signature gathering stage. In the end those same tech & crypto-bros poured in $475,000 out of about $850,000 total raised in both Phase I and Phase II — [prior essays and reports on Engardio’s large, tech & crypto bro donors] — Not. One. Damn. Inch. - Follow the Money - Chris Larsen Redux - Oh What a Tangled Web They Weave.
While the tech & crypto bros were pouring in cash, the media and the experts were telling us that not only could it not be accomplished, but that it should not. Joe Eskenazi of the Mission Local paper said that the anger that residents of The Sunset felt over Engardio’s betrayal was being coddled through the Recall Campaign.
Of course, I wonder why Joe never asked the hard questions about how Joel Engardio and the City deceived every voter in San Francisco through the well-documented incidents of deception swirling around Prop K that were incorporated into the official Voter Information Pamphlet and the narrative crafted by Supervisor Engardio, Senator Scott Wiener, Mayor London Breed and a host of urbanists YIMBYS such as Todd David — Lock, Stock and Two Smokin Barrels.
Why not ask the question Joe? Because the San Francisco Chronicle and the New York Times believed the lie so Mission Local should as well? Being deceived regarding Prop. K saving money by closing The Great Highway does not bother you? Or did you just get over it because no one “coddled” and “nurtured” your anger?
When the San Francisco Chronicle tried to point out that Recallers were ignorant because we had the audacity to point out the deception, betrayal and corruption of Supervisor Joel Engardio (or was it just me that you were talking about?) you condescended and pontificated about Engardio’s character being above reproach and implied that we, or I more likely, were just too stupid to understand that Engardio never did anything unethical, corrupt or illegal — but here is some of the evidence that he did unethical, corrupt and illegal things — Let the Sunshine In - Here Comes the Sun - Good Day Sunshine - No Slack, None Whatsoever. The San Francisco Chronicle was wrong about giving Engardio their endorsement and they were wrong about Engardio’s integrity, big time.
Perhaps the Chronicles’ endorsement has become the new “kiss of death” that the San Francisco Police Officers Association (SFPOA) has long been said to be. The SFPOA called it wrong on Engardio as well and they threw in $50,000 to Joel’s campaign so they could continue their “kiss of death” streak — SFPD Blue.
But they were wrong, all of them.
The Recallers did the only thing that we could do, we filed the paperwork and set to the work of gathering signatures. The Department of Elections told us we needed 9,911 certified signatures to trigger the recall election. We gathered 10,523.
Recallers knocked on thousands upon thousands of doors. We walked miles upon miles up and down the hills of The Sunset. And we walked up thousands upon thousands of the infernal steps for which houses in The Sunset are so well known. My right knee still aches a little when I think about how many of those steps I walked up.
However, in the end, on May 22nd nearly 100 Recallers gathered on the steps of City Hall to announce to the world that we had, indeed, accomplished that Herculean signature gathering task — Echoes in Eternity — and we turned in 10,523 certified signatures, 85% of which were gathered by volunteers, triggering the Recall of Supervisor Joel Engardio.
After the recall petition was certified and it was announced that the special Recall Election Day would be September 16th, we began Phase II. We knocked on all of those doors again, a couple more times.
Early voting ballots arrived on August 18th and nearly a month later Election Day — September 16th — did as well. And from August 18th all the way through September 16th the voters of District 4 voted. They did not care if experts and pundits and journalists thought that we were wrong, stupid, coddled or whatever else they said. They voted. They stood up and they spoke out, thunderously.
Sixty-five percent of the votes counted so far were Yes on A to bring about the recall and removal of Supervisor Engardio. The Yes on A to Recall Engardio vote was a massive statement from the people of District 4, an uprising connected across racial, ethnic, socio-economic and political lines.
Never double-down on a Faustian bargain.
The Recallers — and I am proud to call myself one of them — worked tirelessly everywhere the people discussed and debated the Recall — at the doors, in shops and restaurants, on the sidewalks and parks, in the media, social media, wherever people gathered.
We were there because this is our community, and we wanted to take it back. And those volunteers, those D4 residents stood up and were counted — 65%! And they sent an historic message to City Hall and beyond — we are here, we are not going away, we are The Sunset, Parkside, District 4. We made history this summer and we laid claim to our future too.
Joel Engardio will be a footnote in history. But the Recallers, they will be remembered — Echoes in Eternity. I say that with great confidence because I know that we are not finished yet. And Mayor Daniel Lurie and the next D4 Supervisor that Mayor Lurie appoints would do well to remember that this Recall Engardio Campaign has given the people of District 4 and our friends around us a sense of our own power. And we’re not going to forget that sense any time soon.
Joel Engardio made that Faustian bargain, he sold his political soul to the Wiener-YIMBY-Abundant-gentrification cult. The price of that betrayal has been collected. Mayor Lurie and his appointee should take note of that price. Doubling down on Joel’s bargain, his backroom dealing, his deceit, his betrayal, his corruption, his negotiating away, in secret, the decisions that D4 residents want very much want to have a voice in — doubling down on that is ill-advised, for Mayors, Supervisors, state Senators and all the rest.
No on A to retain Joel Engardio as D4 Supervisor = 35%
Yes on A for the Recall (and removal) of Joel Engardio = 65%
What a year 2025 has turned out to be.
john
