I’m on everyone’s email and text list, so I get a lot of messages from people who are running for office and want money.
The easy thing is to ignore them. But that’s boring: I like to answer.
Sometimes, to my surprise, the politicians sending out the texts actually read my replies.
So here’s Some Fun With Political Texts.
From Joe Sangirardi, who is running for Democratic County Central Committee:
Hi Vivian! This is Dave, a neighbor in the Castro volunteering with https://www.sfdemocratsforchange.org and Joe Sangirardi for SF DCCC. I’m a San Francisco Democrat volunteering to chat with other SF Dems like you. We want you to know there’s a race on your ballot that most San Franciscans don’t even know about – the election for our SF Democratic Party leadership.
We noticed you haven’t yet voted. Ballots were mailed to all voters so you can return that ballot or vote in person on Election Day. Will you be voting on or before March 5?
Well, Vivian is my daughter, who is in college on the East Coast, so her ballot was in the mail. Don’t know why I got a text for her, but whatever. I responded:
Have your read Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the 21 Century? Do you agree with him that we must impose at least a 3 percent annual wealth tax on the very rich? What will you do to raise taxes on the rich at home?
The guy responds:
This is Joe (the actual candidate) taking over the text from my friend. Thank you for committing to vote! I would LOVE to be one of your votes for SF Democratic County Central Committee (it’s a mouth full, I know). And yes – I’ve read it and I agree with Picketty. I read it a few years ago when it came down.
I’m a Castro resident, LGBTQ activist, and work to build more affordable housing in SF and across the state. I’m really passionate about climate change, housing affordability, public transit, LGBTQ+ equality, and good government reform (fighting corruption in City Hall).
Good for him. I responded:
Most of your slate are neoliberals. How are you different? Neoliberalism has created the homeless crisis and destroyed the middle class. Are you going to support London Breed for mayor? Have you read David Harvey? And by the way, Vivian is my daughter this is Tim not sure why you sent her a text at this number.
That was the end of that. No more response.
From Trevor Chandler:
Hi Timothy! This is Trevor Chandler. I’m a San Francisco Democrat running for our local Dem Party leadership (County Central Committee) and I’m on your March 5th ballot. I’m running to bring common sense back to our local party and I’m running with a team of like-minded, results-oriented leaders like me. https://www.sfdemocratsforchange.org/
I responded:
Have you read Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the 21st Century? Do you agree that we need a 3 percent annual wealth tax on large fortunes? In not where do you specifically find Piketty’s analysis at fault?
Trevor: “Tim, I have not read it.”
Me:
You should, and this. Because if we can’t fix this we can’t fix anything.
I offered to meet with him.
No response.
Now we get to The Guv.
Gavin Newsom here, humbly asking if there is ANYTHING I can say to convince you to contribute to help me to defeat the recall campaign Trump Republicans launched against me yesterday.
What if I told you the recall effort is backed by a number of anti-science, anti-woman far-right conspiracy theorists looking to take over the largest state in the country?
What if I told you part of their aim was to distract us in California from the fight to re-elect Joe Biden and save our democracy?
And what if I told you that if everyone reading this donated even just $10 today, we’d have the resources to beat this recall and really wouldn’t have to worry about it again.
My response:
Announce a 3 percent annual wealth tax on fortunes of more than $50 million and I will consider donating.
Needless to say, my old pal Gav didn’t answer.
Keep the texts coming! I love to talk about this stuff.
