The latest poll shows Ross Mirkarimi leading for sheriff and Sharmin Eshraghi Bock trailing for district attorney—but in both cases half the voters said they hadn’t made up their minds yet, so both races have to be considered open.
What’s more, San Francisco now uses a complex system of second and third choices that can scramble the results. This is used to avoid having run-off elections. Voters are asked to rank their choices. If no one gets a majority, then the candidate coming in last is dropped and his voters’ second and third choices are counted for those candidates. If no one yet has a majority, the next bottom vote-getter is dropped and his second and third choices distributed—and so on until someone gets a 
A poll taken in mid-October by the Bay Citizen newspaper and University of San Francisco shows Mir-Karimi ahead for sheriff with 21 percent support, followed by Chris Cunnie and Paul Miyamoto, each with 13 percent. But 50 percent of those polled said they were still undecided. The incumbent sheriff is retiring and has endorsed Mirkarimi, giving him a major leg up.
In the race for district attorney, incumbent George Gascon leads with 27 percent. Trailing far back are Bill Fazio, a perennial candidate with 10 percent, Alameda County prosecutor Bock with 8 percent and criminal justice professor David Onek with 6 percent. But 49 percent of those polled were undecided.
Most say Gascon should win. But Bock has bucks to spend in the final election run, and that could spell a big difference. Bock has raised $335,000 so far while Gascon has pulled in $295,000. Onek has raised $183,000 and Fazio a mere $25,000. Fazio isn’t likely to make much of a splash in the final dash to the polls with that little money while Bock should be a presence to contend with.
Bock is banking on her main campaign theme—that she is the sole candidate to have ever tried a case in court. In fact, she has tried about a thousand in 22 years as a prosecutor.
Bock was born in Tehran and came to the United States at the age of four. She graduated cum laude from the Georgetown University Law School and immediately joined the prosecutor’s staff in Alameda County, which is just across San Francisco Bay from the city and includes Oakland and Berkeley.
Mirkarimi was born in the United States to an Iranian father and a Russian mother. He has been a member of the San Francisco county council for several years.