Under pressure from progressives, and with even the more conservative members of the Democratic County Central Committee showing reluctance to change the rules at this point, Alix Rosenthal has withdrawn a proposal that would have undone what the voters decided June 7.
Rosenthal, who lost her seat on the DCCC, told me that she will no longer pursue this change, which she said was about bringing more grassroots representation to the panel.
Instead, her plan to expand the size of the body and include more elected officials would have tipped the scales to the right and make it likely that the current leadership, including the chief lobbyist for the Association of Realtors, would continue to run the SF Democratic Party.
The progressives, who ran a major grassroots effort in June, were outspent 9-1 and overcame a flood of sleazy hit mailers to win 15 of the 24 seats that were on the ballot.
Since at least a couple of the ex-officio members are now likely to vote with the progressives, a new chair will almost certainly take office after the votes are certified and the new DCCC is sworn in.
Rosenthal told me that she “never had the intention” of changing the results of the election. She said that she though too many elected officials were now on the panel, and that it should be expanded to make more room for others.
She originally said that she thought the plan would have no impact on the political leanings of the DCCC, which was clearly inaccurate. She told me today that she had “miscalculated” and assumed that the real-estate-backed candidates on a slate that included her were going to be in control either way.
That’s very, very unlikely.
The numbers are a bit complicated – there are 31 members, 24 of them directly elected. The other seven are state and federal officials – Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Reps. Nancy Pelosi and Jackie Speier, Assemblymembers Phil Ting and David Chiu, state Sen. Mark Leno, and Board of Equalization Member Fiona Ma.
Of the 24 seats on the ballot, the progressives won 15. If just one of the seven ex officious votes with the progressives, they will control the DCCC. Since the voters made a clear statement, that seems more than likely.
“It’s clear that the voters wanted change,” Jon Golinger, one of the organizers of the progressive Reform Slate, told me.
Even Sup. Scott Wiener, who almost always votes with the real-estate slate and ran as part of that group, said he was unhappy with what Rosenthal was doing. “I agree with Alix’s decision to postpone the measure until after the new DCCC is seated,” he said. “We need to have a serious conversation about the structure of the DCCC — to ensure that grassroots activists can fully participate — and the newly elected DCCC is the body to have that conversation.”
Part of that conversation for the new panel will also include campaign contribution limits, so that the kind of big-money-fueled attack ads that defined this election won’t happen in the future.
In the meantime, the Wednesday/15 meeting will be a lot more quiet.
