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Voter Guide Methodology

The Garry's List voter guide synthesizes the recommendations of trusted community partners — local groups with deep roots and a track record of supporting accountable leadership, safe communities, opportunity, and educational excellence.

It does not represent the direct endorsements of Garry Tan. When you see an "Endorsed" chip on a candidate or measure, it links back to the partner organization's own voter guide so you can read their reasoning in their own words.

Each section below explains why we include that organization in our synthesis. Expand any row for the specifics.

Why Garry's List supports SF Realtors (San Francisco Association of Realtors)
  • Represents the people who actually transact housing in the city, with a built-in pragmatic check on policies that block supply.
  • Endorsed Mayor Daniel Lurie in 2024 alongside the broader pro-housing coalition.
  • Consistent advocate for streamlined permitting, density bonuses, and zoning reform, lowering prices for actual San Franciscans.
  • Brings real-world transaction data to the housing debate.
Why Garry's List supports SF Dem CC (San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee)
  • After the 2024 SF Democrats for Change slate win, the DCCC now has a pro-housing, pro-accountability moderate majority.
  • Endorsement and slate cards drive turnout in low-information races.
  • The Change slate explicitly campaigned on common-sense outcomes, public safety, school accountability, and housing supply — the same axes Garry's List operates on.
  • Practical infrastructure for the broader pragmatic-Democrat coalition that has retaken city government since 2022.
Why Garry's List supports the Abundance Network
  • Statewide network electing pro-housing, pro-transit, pro-abundance candidates across California.
  • Political Director Todd David helped build much of SF's modern pro-housing political machinery.
  • Helped engineer the 2024 SF DCCC takeover that put the Change slate in the majority.
  • Lobbied SB 4 ("Yes in God's Backyard"), SB 79, SB 423 — the legislative wave that ended exclusionary zoning carveouts and accelerated permitting.
  • Aligned with Governor Newsom's "abundance agenda."
Why Garry's List supports YIMBY California
  • The single most effective pro-housing legislative shop in California. Co-author and lead advocate of SB 9 (ended single-family-only zoning statewide), SB 35 (streamlined approvals), SB 423 (extended and expanded SB 35).
  • Between 2018-2021, SB 35 alone enabled ~18,000 new units, mostly affordable — the biggest concrete supply-side win in a generation.
  • Operates the Metropolitan Abundance Project (MAP) connecting state policy work to city-level execution, which is exactly the multi-level pragmatism Garry's List is built around.
  • Endorses pro-housing candidates.
Why Garry's List supports CalMatters
  • Nonprofit, nonpartisan California newsroom founded in 2015 to make state government transparent and hold it accountable. No corporate owner, no partisan editorial line.
  • Covers the policy domains Garry's List cares about — housing, education, criminal justice, homelessness, the economy — with actual data and source documents.
  • Acquired The Markup (2024), adding investigative capacity about privacy, algorithms, AI regulation, and tech policy originating from California.
  • CalMatters reporting has been cited in legislative debates on housing bills (SB 9, SB 423), school accountability, and criminal justice reform. Their journalism creates the evidentiary foundation that pragmatic policymakers need to act.
  • Publishes the WhatMatters newsletter, the same kind of civic-information infrastructure Garry's List is building, but at the statewide level.
  • Rated "Least Biased" by Media Bias/Fact Check with "High" factual reporting.
Why Garry's List supports BAJC-Action (Bay Area Jewish Coalition Action)
  • Grassroots group formed in response to the October 7, 2023 terrorist attacks in Israel, addressing the alarming rise in local antisemitism with community-driven solutions that protect civil rights and safety for all Bay Area residents.
  • Operates the most thorough voter guides in the Bay Area, evaluating candidates across federal, state, and local races based on principled support for civil rights, public safety, and democratic values.
Why Garry's List supports SPUR
  • Nonprofit policy research and advocacy organization founded in 1910 with offices in San Jose, Oakland, and San Francisco, providing data-driven analysis on housing, transportation, sustainability, governance, and economic justice.
  • Issues comprehensive voter guides for every Bay Area election, recommending positions on ballot measures based on rigorous policy research rather than partisan ideology.
  • Publishes The Urbanist magazine, hosts policy events, and convenes community discussions, building the civic infrastructure that makes informed voting possible at scale.
Why Garry's List supports Bay Area Council
  • Founded in 1945, represents over 270 of the largest employers in the nine-county Bay Area, mobilizing private-sector leaders on housing, transportation, education, and equity.
  • Sponsored Plan Bay Area, BART expansion, and California's high-speed rail — long-horizon infrastructure work that compounds over decades.
  • Anchor of the regional pro-housing coalition pushing for streamlined approvals and density near transit, the supply-side reforms that lower costs.
Why Garry's List supports 21st Century Alliance
  • Common-sense voter information for California, building independent research and analysis on the most important political issues facing California.
  • Successfully advocated for California's 2025 "phonics bill" requiring evidence-based reading instruction, covered by the Wall Street Journal and LA Times, demonstrating real policy impact.
  • Track record of electing common sense candidates to Sacramento and tracking bills using members, supporters and activists.
  • Policy research includes analysis of EDD fraud ($20B), California's progressive income tax burden, homelessness programs, and education spending vs. outcomes.
Why Garry's List supports ConnectedSF
  • Bottom-up, grassroots organization powering 11 District Groups across San Francisco, led by "authentic centrists" who are "common-sense driven and bi-partisan."
  • Current campaigns address quality-of-life issues that city government has failed to solve: public drug use near schools and playgrounds, street prostitution in the Mission, SFMTA parking fee expansion, and public safety enforcement.
  • Tracks public meetings, analyzes city budgets, exposes mismanagement, organizes community feedback, and helps residents navigate City Hall bureaucracy.
Why Garry's List supports Ed Lee Democratic Club
  • The largest Asian Pacific Democratic club in San Francisco, mobilizing a crucial voting bloc around pragmatic governance, public safety, education reform, and economic opportunity rather than ideological positioning.
  • Successfully advocated for Mayor Ed Lee's bust to be installed at City Hall in 2024, eight years after his passing — the institutional memory and civic pride that honors effective leadership.
  • Builds bridges between diverse communities through voter registration drives, policy panels, networking events, and leadership development.
Why Garry's List supports Bay Area Hindus United Vote
  • Coalition partner with Bay Area Jewish Coalition Action in creating comprehensive voter guides that combat hate, antisemitism, and Hinduphobia while focusing on moderate candidates from both parties who support civil rights and community safety.
  • Represents a growing civic voice in Bay Area politics, advocating for religious freedom, civil rights, and protection from hate crimes, values that strengthen pluralistic democracy.
  • Part of broader Hindu advocacy movement monitoring acts of Hinduphobia, advocating for civil rights, and engaging in legislative action on religious freedom issues.
Why Garry's List supports United Democratic Club
  • Pragmatic, progressive Democratic organization that "prioritizes long-term sustainability and progress towards the greater good of all San Franciscans" rather than short-term partisan gains or ideological purity.
  • Mission to "empower Democrats across San Francisco to foster civic and philanthropic engagement" while "building a bench of democratic leaders by cultivating and nurturing grassroots activists."
  • Historical endorsement pattern demonstrates consistent support for effective leaders and local candidates focused on governance rather than ideology.
Why Garry's List supports Govern For California
  • Statewide political philanthropy founded by David Crane (former special advisor to Governor Schwarzenegger) to counter special-interest influence over California's governments.
  • Backs candidates who put the broad public interest ahead of narrow rent-seeking — fiscal responsibility, education accountability, and reform of the state's pension and budgeting practices.
  • Operates a network of donor-advised funds and independent committees that recruit, educate, and support state and local officials willing to govern on the merits rather than along interest-group lines.
Why Garry's List supports Association for the Advancement of Asians (AAA)
  • Issues data-driven Accountability Report Cards that grade candidates on Public Safety, Public Education, and Economic Development — three of the axes Garry's List cares most about.
  • Holds elected officials accountable through transparent grading rather than blanket endorsements, so voters can see exactly where each candidate stands on the issues that affect AAPI communities and the broader Bay Area.
  • Reports cover statewide constitutional offices, U.S. House, California Assembly, SF Board of Supervisors, and Board of Education for both 2024 and 2026 election cycles.
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