With the region’s traffic getting worse, a Sausalito water taxi service that has the backing of mega-businessman Dick (Mr. Dianne Feinstein) Blum has just won approval from the California Public Utilities Commission to begin scheduled commuter runs between San Francisco and Berkeley.

Tideline is one of two private water taxis to get the OK to run scheduled trips across the bay. The other is Prop, which plans to have service to Berkeley, Emeryville, San Francisco and Redwood City in early January.

“We have an untapped waterway,” said Prop CEO James Jaber. “Unlike the bigger lines, we can offer cities an inexpensive look at public ferries without a 10-year, multimillion-dollar commitment on their part.”

Unlike the publicly subsidized ferries, which have boats that hold up to 400 passengers, the smaller taxis hold about 40 commuters or less.

“It’s a private operation. We get no public subsidies,” said Tideline Marine Group President Nathan Nayman.

Tideline expects across-the-bay trips to take about 20 minutes. The fare will be about $10 each way — twice what the larger ferries charge.

“It’s a sink-or-swim operation, and hopefully, we don’t sink,” Blum joked when asked about his investment in the water taxi.

Blum does have a personal stake in the venture other than his money. As a UC regent, he has to cross the Bay Bridge to get to UC Berkeley, something that has become increasingly difficult.

“We’ve got to do something — be it more boats, BART or even catapults,” Blum said.

Meanwhile, public ferry service is expanding as well. The San Francisco Bay Ferry expects to handle 2.8 million riders in the coming year. It serves San Francisco, Oakland, Alameda, South San Francisco and Vallejo.

“We just awarded contracts for two more boats, and we have seven boats on order,” Bay Ferry spokesman Ernesto Sanchez said. Service is to be expanded to Richmond in 2018, then to Treasure Island.

Metropolitan Transportation Commission spokesman Randy Rentschler said the private water taxis are a business response to the times.

“Just by being private, they will have less costs, but making a private ferry service profitable is a big challenge,” he said. “However, they are clearly a symptom that we are having more and more congestion where people can think they can make a buck off this.”

Santa Clara slam: One look at the Blupac website will tell you why donors to the effort to unseat Santa Clara City Council members critical of the San Francisco 49ers stadium deal might not want their names revealed.

“I never knew running for office could be this interesting,” said City Councilwoman Kathy Watanabe, when asked about the Blupac “People to Watch” posting that features her photo and the statement “despite her ethnic sounding name, Ms. Watanabe is not ethnic.”

“They are right about that,” Watanabe said — adding that her husband, Carl, is, however, “ethnic.”

Mayor Lisa Gillmor is slammed both for having worked to appoint “a white woman” — “despite the city having several opportunities to appoint qualified minority candidates” — and for questionable deals with developers that “will be revealed soon.”

Councilwoman Debi Davis is taken to task for opposing raising the city’s minimum wage while voting to double the council’s pay.

“It’s a desperate attempt to discredit those who want to clean up City Hall and stadium operations,” Gillmor said.

Not so, says Blupac co-founder Doug Chan, who says Blupac’s goal is to elect more diverse candidates to local offices.

Perhaps it’s a coincidence that the candidates being targeted have been raising questions about how much city money is going into stadium operations. And perhaps it is a coincidence that the candidates Blupac backed appear to be more stadium-friendly and that Blupac’s other co-founder, consultant Rich Robinson, worked with the 49ers to win approval of the stadium plan in 2010.

And while Gillmor and others are pointing fingers at the 49ers, Blupac is listed as a civic nonprofit and doesn’t have to disclose its donors. Meanwhile, Niners spokesman Bob Lange said the team doesn’t “comment on political matters or rumors.”

Whatever the case, it’s turning into quite an off-the-field fight. One that could have reverberations for the city, the stadium and the Niners for years to come.

Trumping Kamala: Rep. Loretta Sanchez may not have gotten much campaign traction from her debate performance Wednesday night against her U.S. Senate rival, state Attorney General Kamala Harris, but judging by comments on social media, her dramatic “dab” that capped the night was one for the books.

After going over the allotted time for her closing remarks, and repeatedly being interrupted by the moderator, Sanchez punctuated her finish by dropping her head, bending one arm and raising the other — striking the same touchdown celebration pose as Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton.

What was she thinking?

“I don’t know,” Sanchez campaign consultant Bill Carrick told us afterward. “That was a spontaneous moment.”

“Unbelievable,” Harris spokesman Sean Clegg said. “If your big problem is that people think of you as a clown, you shouldn’t put on a red nose at the end of the big debate.”

However, there was nothing spontaneous about Sen. Barbara Boxer’s postdebate endorsement of Harris to succeed her. It was just a question of when the Harris campaign would drop the news.

San Francisco Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross appear Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KPIX TV morning and evening news. He can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call (415) 777-8815, or email matierandross@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @matierandross