Understanding the upcoming State Senate race

I confess that before I started Coastsider, I had no idea who my state senator was and had no interest. Sometimes it’s difficult to get perspective.  The Daily Journal has a good analysis today of the race for June’s Democratic primary for the seat representing San Francisco and the peninsula, the winner of which is likely to have a lock on the seat.

Three political heavyweights — Lou Papan, Mike Nevin and Leland Yee — are vying for the empty Senate District 8 seat. The seat is currently occupied by state Sen. Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo, who is making a bid for lieutenant governor, and was previously held by Quentin Kopp.

The district consists of 45% San Francisco and 55% San Mateo County residents, placing San Franciscan Yee at a disadvantage to former county supervisor Nevin. Yee has been increasing his visibility on the Coastside recently and speaking at the Coastside Democrats on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Nevin’s campaign says that Papan is running a spoiler campaign against Nevin because Nevin backed Gene Mullin against Papan’s daughter in 2002.  There are some tasty nasty comments between the two in the Daily Journal article.

Coastsider will be putting together a questionnaire for the candidates, focusing on local issues.