Levitt Moves to 2nd in SF Senate Vote Count
Amid final vote counting, David Levitt has moved into 2nd place in San Francisco, in California's US Senate primary race.
Statewide it is clear the runner up will be party-endorsed Republican Elizabeth Emken, the best funded candidate after incumbent Senator Feinstein.
However in San Francisco, computer technologist Dr. David Levitt has received more votes than any Republican, third party candidate, or Democrat other than Senator Feinstein - more votes than any of her 22 other opponents, including much better funded and more experienced candidates. Levitt has received more than 71,000 votes statewide.
"Throughout this primary race, Senator Feinstein has consistently refused to participate in debates or to answer questions posed by citizens and opponents in public forums and online, even on her own Facebook page and Twitter feed," explains Dr. Levitt. "Instead she has been focussed on petitioning the Federal Election Commission in hope of obtaining an even greater financial advantage over her opponents. This just one aspect of what is widely known as 'the corrupting influence of money in politics,' and it has been a shame to see Senator Feinstein continue to embrace it."
"The policy questions Senator Feinstein has refused to address are more urgent than ever - particularly when just last week, the New York Times, CIA experts and others confirmed that the drone and secrecy policies she has embraced as Intelligence Committee Chair are helping and even driving Al Qaeda recruiting efforts. The Senator's secretive national security decisions are making America less safe. Independent of any election process, millions of Americans need answers to those questions and changes to those policies," says Dr. Levitt.
Levitt has proposed alternative policies that can make Al Qaeda recruiting harder rather than easier. These include:
- apologies and compensation, similar to Canada's apology, to Maher Arar, the innocent engineer whom the US rendered to Syria
- accountability for NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly, who has overseen warrantless surveillance of thousands of Muslims in the New York area
- justice and transparency for abused Guantanamo prisoners who have never been found guilty of any terrorist activity
These alternatives to violence will exist long after the elections are over.
