Despite being one of the multitude running for the vacant seat in District 5, which includes the Haight Asbury neighborhood, candidate Lisa Feldstein couldn’t imagine running in any other district.

“District 5 is a great district for me,” she said. “I would never call myself a moderate but there are people running to the left of me, which is an experience I wouldn’t have anywhere else.”

But Feldstein acknowledges that in the crowded District 5 race, it’s been nearly impossible to distinguish herself based on her political platform.

A member of the Green party, Feldstein supports public power, district elections, progressive taxation, tenant rights, and open government – just like the other top two favorites in the race, Ross Mirkarimi and Robert Haaland.

In fact, when the San Francisco Bay Guardian endorsed Mirkarimi, Haaland, and Feldstein for first, second, and third choice respectively, the issue’s cover photo pictured all three candidates grinning widely, standing elbow to elbow.

“I think that there is a great deal of similarity between many of the candidates,” Feldstein said, describing the race as “a bell curve, with a few candidates at extreme ends.”

“But most of us tend to be clustered in something that I don’t like calling the middle, but we tend to be clustered on issues.”

As a result, she says she’s differentiating herself through good old-fashioned people skills.

“I’m approachable and a good listener. I make decisions in an informed, rational way. In simply talking to me, many voters tell me that they walk away thinking I have a solid approach to problem solving.”

Unlike some of her opponents, Feldstein has not made any formal allegiances with other candidates. The theory behind that approach is to maximize votes in the new Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) system being used for the first time in the city’s history.

Feldstein prefers to keep her eyes on the bottom line. “I think that there are potential advantages to the strategy for candidates, but I’m not sure what the value is post-election if it doesn’t carry them to victory,” she said.

Passed by voters under Proposition A in March 2002, RCV asks voters to pick their first, second, and third choice candidates for a particular office. If no candidate receives over 50% of the votes, the candidate with the fewest first choice votes is eliminated. Then, the votes are tallied again, with second choice votes counted in place of the eliminated first choice candidate. The process of eliminating and replacing continues until a winner emerges.

Proponents of RCV argue that the “instant runoff” system eliminates the need for costly tie-breaking elections, gives voters greater diversity of choice, and opens the playing field for candidates who might not otherwise run for office.

“RCV did not affect my decision [to run] because we didn’t know if it would be certified for this November,” Feldstein explained.

A New York City native, Feldstein moved to San Francisco in 1989 to attend law school at the University of California, Berkeley. She landed a position with Mayor Willie Brown’s Office of Housing after graduating but left after five years of disagreements with the administration.

Her experience as a city employee motivated her to work with labor unions as a policy analyst for the next several years. In 2002, she reclaimed her passion for affordable housing when she joined the city’s Planning Commission.

If Feldstein ends up as one of the 21 District 5 losers, she won’t be losing any sleep.

“I’m running to win, but the reality is that I really love the work that I have done,” she said. “My [affordable housing] clients tell me that there’s a piece of them that hopes I don’t win because they want me back.”

As for another run for District 5 Supervisor in 2008. “It’s like asking a nine-months pregnant woman if she’d like to have another baby,” she said. “The thought of going through the process again is not terribly attractive.”

“But I won’t do myself the disservice of saying outright ‘no, I won’t run again.’”