Rand Hart
From Usgovsimulation
| ||||
| Democratic Party | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Caucus Member | ||||
| Began Present Office: 2000 | ||||
| Electoral District | {{{district}}} | |||
| State | California | |||
| Region and Superregion | {{{region}}} | |||
| Previous Offices | San Francisco Supervisor | |||
| Born | October 23, 1977 Simi Valley, California | |||
| Spouse | Unmarried, living with partner | |||
| Religion | Unitarian Universalist | |||
| Residence | San Francisco, California | |||
| Occupation | Politician | |||
| Education | San Francisco State University | |||
Randall Leonard "Rand" Hart (born October 23, 1977) is a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. He represents District 6, encompassing the Civic Center, Tenderloin and South of Market districts, as well as Treasure Island and Yerba Buena Island and the northern half of the Mission District (known as Inner Mission). He was elected to the Board at the age of 23, while still in college.
Biographical
The eldest of three children, Rand Hart was born into a middle-class family on the outskirts of the Valley; his father was a dentist, his mother a secretary. He attended Royal High School, where he was captain of the debating team and a member of the cross country team. After graduating third in his class, he attended San Francisco State University, where he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in history in 1997 and his master's degree in 1999 (both cum laude). At the school, he was deeply embroiled in campus politics, serving as President of the College Democrats and organizing support for progressive candidates for city and state office.
In 2000, while studying for his doctorate, he was convinced by fellow activists to seek election to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors as an at-large candidate. Running with the support of both the local Democrats and the local Green Party, as well as the Sierra Club and the SEIU, he was elected to a transitional two-year term, and subsequently sought re-election in the 6th District. As a member of the Board of Supervisors, he has made a name for himself as one that body's most ardent progressives and was a key supporter of fellow Supervisor Matt Gonzalez, a Green Party member, during the latter's term as Board President. His votes were instrumental in not only Gonzalez's election as President, but also in the advent of instant-runoff voting in municipal elections, the highest minimum wage in the nation ($8.50), and the Healthy San Francisco program to provide health insurance to all residents, as well as legislation to limit gentrification and expand public benefits to domestic partners. Supervisor Hart was a supporter of a failed ballot measure that sought to give the city government control over the municipal election system, and introduced legislation to concentrate public education funding in low-income districts. Although he endorsed Gonzalez in the 2003 mayoral election, he was a vocal supporter of winner Gavin Newsom's decision to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, and endorsed him for re-election in 2007.
Despite (or perhaps because of) his close relations with third-party progressives, he has been very influential in Bay Area Democratic circles, lending his support to the successful primary campaigns of State Treasurer Phil Angelides (in his race for Governor), State Assemblyman Mark Leno (in his race for State Senate), Supervisor Tom Ammiano (in his campaign for State Assembly), and San Francisco Education Commissioner Eric Mar (in his race for Supervisor), among others. However, he has also occasionally broken with the party, as when he endorsed Green Party members Ross Mirkarimi and Mark Sanchez in their campaigns for Supervisor and School Board, and later joined with them in endorsing the Independent congressional campaign of peace activist Cindy Sheehan.
Supervisor Hart resides in San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood with his partner, actor Julian Brent. Having served two consecutive four-year terms, and one two-year transitional term before that, he is ineligible to run for re-election. He is a longtime member of the ACLU, the Human Rights Campaign, Peace Action, the Campaign for America's Future, People for the American Way, and Global Exchange. As a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, he is a founding member of Cities for Progress. His writings have appeared in the pages of The Nation, CounterPunch, In These Times, The American Prospect, The Progressive, and The Progressive Populist, and online on AntiWar.com and TomPaine.com.
