The evidence has been leaking out, drip by drip, for a couple of weeks now, and it’s time to say aloud what so many are saying privately:
The San Francisco Democratic Party has become a statewide embarrassment.
Since the billionaires funded a takeover, the local Democratic County Central Committee has been moving more and more to the right. But now it’s more than political positions. The party is looking worse and less competent every day.
Consider:
—The DCCC made a huge deal of fighting sexual misconduct—and just endorsed a candidate for supervisor who was credibly accused of assault. Joe Eskenazi at Mission Local, who is carefully not aligned with any political group or movement, calls the DCCC’s local actions “a farce.” He notes:
the process the party undertook was indefensible — and not just useless, but worse than useless.
—The DCCC changed its own rules to break with the state party and come out against the billionaire tax, Prop. 40. Typically the local party cedes to the state party positions on statewide issues; the state party is Yes on 40. But in this case, the members wanted to side with the very rich. Taxing the rich has always been popular in San Francisco; almost every measure to raise taxes on the wealthy has won at the ballot. I suspect Prop. 40 will do well in this city, too. The local party is way out of touch.
—The DCCC voted to oppose Prop. I, a measure that would direct more than $100 million a year in existing tax money to affordable housing. The voters approved taxing high-end real-estate transactions in 2020 to fund social housing; former Mayor London Breed refused to spend that money on housing, and now Mayor Daniel Lurie wants it to go to the cops. That tax money would not exist if the voters hadn’t believed it was designated for affordable housing.
All Prop. I does is make the tax permanent, and mandate that it go where the voters intended. SF YIMBY has also come out against Prop. I, saying that the city shouldn’t tax housing to build housing—but that’s a silly excuse: Prop. I taxes the sale of real estate worth more than $10 million. A handful of mansions sometimes sell for that much, but the vast majority of the money comes from the sale of commercial real estate, like office buildings. It could apply to giant housing developers that are buying up massive pieces of expensive land—but the seller, not the buyer pays the tax. It could also impact speculators who get housing entitled with no intention of building it, then sell that entitlement to someone else; this is who the Democratic Party is supporting?
—The DCCC has, so far, killed a resolution calling on the city to end its contracts with spy-camera company Flock until the outfit can prove the data is collects is secure and not shared with the feds. Flock is increasingly unpopular, and most San Franciscans don’t support sharing their daily movements with the Trump Administration.
The resolution, by member Gordon Mar, went to the Issues Committee—which is chaired by Flock public affairs flack Lily Ho, who made sure it never got to the full DCCC. Worse: Ho tried to get her colleagues to refuse to talk to a reporter about her role. From the SF Standard:
Ho did not respond to Power Play’s inquiries — but she did try to put the kibosh on others informing this newsletter about her connection to the company.
“All – Joe Fitz is reaching out re [automated license plate reader] reso and asking to confirm my role at Flock,” Ho wrote to party members in a group chat on Friday, according to a copy of the message obtained by Power Play. “I ask you all to not respond. Thanks.”
The local party is becoming a laughingstock. Hene Kelly, regional director for the Democratic Party, told me “this is the last progressive local party, and I know that because other regional directors have told me.”
Democratic Party endorsements matter, particularly in local races: When voters don’t know much about the candidates, they look to trusted sources for advice, and in an election where many see the Democratic Party as the best chance to contain Donald Trump, the DCCC slate card may influence low-information voters.
More: The party is not bound by campaign contributions limits, so the billionaires can give as much money as they want to the DCCC, which can use it to put out mailers supporting its candidates and positions. It’s a huge slush fund for the likes of Manny Yekutiel.
All run through an operation that has proven itself a total disgrace.
