A former state attorney, now in private practice, is running to unseat a controversial judge on the San Francisco Superior Court.
Anthony Tartaglio, 39, a workers rights attorney who spent five years as a deputy attorney general, filed paperwork Tuesday morning to challenge Judge Michelle Tong, a frequent target of complaints from the San Francisco district attorney’s office and advocates for tough-on-crime judicial rulings.
“I’m running for Superior Court judge because justice and the rule of law are essential to keeping San Francisco safe and vibrant,” Tartaglio said in a statement.
A graduate of UC Law San Francisco, Tartaglio began his legal career as an intellectual property lawyer before serving under state Attorneys General Xavier Becerra and Rob Bonta. As a workers rights attorney, he has clients that include municipal employees who blow the whistle on public corruption.
Tartaglio files Tuesday to run for judge. | Source: Courtesy Anthony Tartaglio
Tartaglio’s wife, Natassia Kwan, also a private practice attorney, previously worked for the city attorney’s office and was active in the Stop Asian Hate movement.
Tong’s controversies
Tartaglio said his decision to run was inspired in part by a November story in The Standard detailing a child’s abduction that occurred after Tong ruled that the child could travel to Kazakhstan with his mother for two weeks. They never returned, and the child’s father blamed Tong for the abduction. The Chronicle first reported (opens in new tab) on the case in 2024.
During Tong’s brief assignment to criminal court, she faced more challenges from the district attorney’s office than any other jurist, according to public records obtained by The Standard. The DA can challenge judicial assignments in the hopes of being assigned someone else — a strategy known as “judge-shopping.”
But Ellen Chaitin, a retired judge, wrote in an op-ed (opens in new tab) that the district attorney’s “blanket disqualification” of Tong would undermine the independence of the judiciary.
Tong spent 17 years at the San Francisco public defender’s office before being elected to the bench in 2020. She handles civil harassment and traffic court cases (opens in new tab), considered the least desirable assignments in the city’s court system.
“It’s a privilege and an honor to serve San Francisco and its constituents,” Tong said Tuesday. “I am looking forward to serving another six-year term.”
Tong has opened a committee for her reelection campaign with $100,000, half from her and half from family members. Facing Tartaglio’s campaign, she will begin fundraising efforts, she said.
Tong has faced criticism from moderate political groups. The nonprofit Stop Crime SF, which runs a judicial watch program, gave Tong its lowest score on a late-January report card (opens in new tab).
Tartaglio’s entry is likely to make this the only contested judicial race on the June ballot. All recent efforts to unseat sitting judges have been unsuccessful. In the 2024 election cycle, amid heightened public-safety concerns, two attorneys challenged two incumbent judges but failed. In 2018, four progressive attorneys sought to unseat incumbent judges, and all fell short. (opens in new tab)
More than a dozen judges are up for reelection this year; if they face no challengers, they will be automatically reelected to six-year terms and will not appear on the ballot.