We all know why the Big Tech and Real Estate money went into the March election for members of the Democratic County Central Committee. The goal wasn’t to promote the Democratic Party or register voters; it was to control the endorsements for mayor and supervisor.
That, of course, is what happened. The party, which could be a significant factor in a high-turnout election, went with Mayor London Breed—and with all the conservative candidates for district supervisor.
Down the line.
The party endorsed candidates who supported the recall of Chesa Boudin, who support criminalizing unhoused people, who in some parts of the country would be Republicans.
Again, this is not a surprise: But there’s an interesting twist.
Sup. Matt Dorsey, along with Committee Members Emma Heiken, Joe Sangirardi, and Michael Nguyen—Heiken, Dorsey, and Sangirardi part of the billionaire slate—introduced a resolution the same day as the endorsements calling on the party to “recruit empower, and elect queer women to office.”
It states:
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the San Francisco Democratic Party shall work to recruit, empower, and elect queer women in San Francisco in order to increase proportional representation of both women and the queer community in elected office in San Francisco.”
There is, I believe, exactly one queer woman running a serious campaign for supervisor in San Francisco this year. Jackie Fielder is a leading candidate in D9. She’s exactly what this resolution calls for.
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But she’s a progressive. So the billionaire slate endorsed Trevor Chandler, a white gay man. They gave Roberto Hernandez, a longtime Mission community leader, the number two nod, which is interesting: It appears the billionaires are good with Hernandez as a second choice.
Because make no mistake: the folks who put up all this money to control the Democratic Party have made their intentions clear to the committee members. The votes follow the money.
The DCCC had in its hands a letter from 43 Mission District Latino community activists and leaders, many of them people who have been involved in organizing for years—and all of whom opposed Chandler. They knew the corporate DCCC was never going to endorse Fielder, but they asked for a “no endorsement” vote:
As Mission residents and advocates, we have lots of love for our communities. We are a diverse group of folks, from all over the world and three generations in. This is a special place in the heart of the city.
We are not blind to the issues we face, that is why we are looking for a supervisor who can work with our community to solve them. Trevor Chandler is not up to the job. He simply lacks the cultural competency needed and is advocating for policies that will not ensure our communities safety.
This is why we are asking members of the SF DCCC to vote to not abstain, but vote “No Endorsement for D-9.”
That letter had no impact. Of course it didn’t: These folks take their cues from the ones who funded their campaigns, and those folks want less regulation and taxes on tech, more sweeps of the unhoused, more police arresting people for drugs and locking them away in a jail system that can’t handle them … all things that sound kind of Republican to me.
But that’s the Democratic Party, so to speak, in San Francisco in 2024.
I sent a text to Dorsey, who used to be very responsive to the news media, even me:
Matt is it not ironic that you passed a resolution calling on the party to elect more queer women, then you endorse two guys over a queer woman in d9?
I have not heard a word.
By the way and for the record: Chandler says nothing on his website or in his literature about the longest job he’s ever had, working (according to his LinkedIn) for five years for the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, which works and spends big money electing Republicans, as well as Democrats, to Congress if they adequately support the State of Israel. He refused to respond to my emails about this, but when I cornered him outside a debate and asked him why he doesn’t talk about this. His response: “I am more concerned about what’s happening on the streets of the Mission than what’s happening in the streets of Gaza.”
Take that for what you will.
