Elections

We Can't Let Ed Lee Take Control of the Mission District

Many people don’t see a lot of reason to care about tomorrow’s assembly race, when two San Francisco supervisors named David will fight electoral battle to fill Tom Ammiano’s seat in Sacramento. It’s a race defined by similarities that make easy punchlines—both David Chiu and David Campos are Harvard Law graduates, both are 44-years-old, and both are liberal Democrats. SFist claims “it will likely make no difference whatsoever” who wins the race. Willie Brown joked “the only distinction I can see between the two of them is that Campos is a straight-up communist, while Chiu is a situational communist.”

Maybe the apathy is because no one is talking about the race’s most important local consequence: what will happen to the Board of Supervisors after Tuesday.

According to the city’s Charter, the Mayor is tasked with appointing a person to any vacant seat on the Board of Supervisors. That means regardless of which candidate wins, Ed Lee will be appointing someone to the board in the coming months.

Fellow Supervisor John Avalos attempted to change this rule, spearheading a Charter Amendment dubbed the “Let’s Elect Our Elected Officials Act.” But it died in City Hall, and the Mayor currently retains the appointment power.

Before we go any further, let’s be clear: had Avalos successfully changed this rule, creating special elections to empowering citizens to fill vacant supervisor seats, our take on this election would much, much different. While this blog has never been a huge fan of either politician running, we would be voting Campos. In the last year, Campos has put forward multiple measures to address housing affordability, evictions, and the city’s escalating cost of living. Meanwhile, David Chiu authored a bill that rezones the city for the benefit of Airbnb under very sketchy circumstances.

But District 9, which David Campos currently serves on the Board of Supervisors, is the most progressive district in San Francisco. Representing the Mission, Bernal Heights, and Portola, District 9 is the epicenter of our eviction and gentrification crisis. It’s where our city’s protests are happening, where we’re fighting back against the corporate takeover of our neighborhoods, and the heart and soul of our city’s progressive politics.

If we elect David Campos to the California State Assembly, we surrender District 9 to the whims of an Ed Lee appointee.

Suddenly, it will become a lot harder to pass progressive legislation in San Francisco. Not just because we’ve lost Campos, but because we will have effectively flipped District 9 into becoming a more conservative district. Avalos will be the last “true progressive” on the board, forcing him to form ad hoc coalitions on his own with progressive-leaning politicians like Jane Kim and London Breed. And whoever will be appointed to District 9 will certainly be a lackey for Mayor—a man who sabotaged Jane Kim’s proposed affordable housing ballot measure and routinely sells-out the city on behalf of his billionaire buddies.

What’s worse? The mayor’s appointee will have the power of incumbency going into the next supervisor’s election in 2016. While we appreciate the power of the District’s (thinning) progressive power base, incumbents are able to raise a grip of money and rarely face credible challengers (Campos himself ran for reelection practically unopposed). Once the mayor appoints someone, it’ll be incredibly difficult to unseat them. Tuesday has the potential to impact our neighborhood’s City Hall representation for ten years.

It basically comes down to this: would you rather see the 80 member California Assembly retain a progressive seat, or would you rather your local community remain in progressive control?

We wish it wasn’t this way. We wish we didn’t have to look at this race with a cynical eye towards its local impacts. But keeping the Mission progressive is just too important.

(Or vote for David Campos. Having an Ed Lee flunky in the Mission to take down will be hella good for pageviews.)

[New Mission photo: Jonathan Percy]

Comments (20)

Joaquine Torres would be the mayor’s likely pick.  I think that he would actually have a tough time because he was linked to the mayor, who polls much lower in District 9 than most other parts of the city.  Look at Christina Olague.  She lost because 1. Enrique Pierce (her campaign manger) but 2. because she was tied to Ed Lee in a progressive district.  Had Julian Davis not gotten all touchey feely he could have pulled out a win, but London Breed was smart enough to position herself as an anti-establishment candidate and get in.

On a side note… David Chiu was the swing vote, opposing electing our elected officials.

Anyhow, vote Campos for Assembly.  I think Lee’s appointment will have a hard time getting reelected in D9.  If Chiu wins, Lee can put in someone way more conservative who will (not even pretend to be progressive and) have a good chance of winning.

The problem isn’t so much Campos or Chiu, it’s that neither of them are Tom Amiano.  Big shoes to fill, and neither of them seem particuarly ready.

Kind of a super racist collage.

???

ouch,  didn’t post for four generations, but now makes amends by posting same silly shit four times .

Still, I think there is too much speculation in KevinMo rationalizing.   Vote for who you think is better.

Lee makes Newsom seem almost tolerable, doesn’t he?

Well, you guys should not have driven him out of town, by taking a dump in his living room, then !!

The problem with SF progressives is that it has this huge self-delusion complex. 

SF leftists think that they can somehow carve out for themselves one of the most prized cities of coastal California and make it their own Fristaden Christiania, removed from the influences of market forces in one of the preeminent economic regions of the United States. 

You thought somehow that this “progressive” scam will last forever ?

The sheer brazenness  of it !!

You guys had a good run, here. 

A very good one, indeed. 

However, these things do not last forever.

Unless you actually seceded and formed your own little republic, consisting of white castoff tramps, the great unwashed Hispania and few Hmong thrown in, for good measure. 

This was a long time coming. 

Hey there’s always Excelsior & Visitacion, right?


yeah, the prog movement in Frisco is on its deathbed. Bay Guardian flushed down the toilet. That creep gullicksen from STFU (sic) is gone. And now sup Crapos. Such a self serving and divisive SOB. He deserves to fail at politics on principal. This moron clearly does not respect the constitution of this country- his idiotic ellis eviction stealing just got bitch slapped in state court!  And now we are wasting city money to fight this. No chance this crap will get reversed. 

And it will really be telling if prop G fails- actually showing that even renters think this city is getting crazy. But I’m not worried. If the ridiculous ellis act payments got over turned in cour, prop G will suffer the same fate. 

And there you go. Sup Crapos’ legacy: two failed attempts to disrespect basic property rights. He is looking like a total idiot getting his crap rejected on constitutional grounds. So even if he wins tomorrow, will anybody in the CA assembly give a shit about this wack?  I doubt it. He will just be ignored as the weirdo from frisco. 

VOTE NO ON G TODAY!!!  All you mission techies, etc. get out there and vote!

Don’t worry y’all – my vote will cancel this guy out.

Oh, please. Keep your ass in Walnut Creek where your libertarian utopian views are less offensive to your neighbors.

WC?  Sorry, there’s literally tons of us in SF.  And FAMILY members who were pushed out by other interlopers are here btw.  History lesson for you, SF had tons of IRISH & ITALIANS in the Mission District, and Irish in the Castro District.  Most of them, like today, got EVICTED or bought out by the “newbies”.  And tons of AAs (African-Americans) got evicted from the Haight/Lower Haight/Fillmore areas.  Also Jews and AA’s got evicted by the Planning Commission.  SF always changes.  There was a big Jewish area in SF at one time.  Everything changes in SF, everything, and every one of the NEW people shift others out.  It’s the way things go.  Change or go, that should be your mantra.

4 generations of inbreeding sounds just about right for the production of a braying lout completely lacking empathy or common sense and unable to grasp even the simplest aspects of their own cultural history.

White flight is a term that originated in the United States, starting in the mid-20th century, and applied to the large-scale migration of whites of various European ancestries from racially mixed urban regions to more racially homogeneous suburban or exurbanregions.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_flight

While I agree with you, I don’t agree with you about Ted Gullixsen.  He was a NICE guy with good intentions.  Ted had no enemies on the left or the right because he was calm.   Even if you did not agree with him he was calm.  He never got upset.  He was really cool.

This is hilarious.  Looks like a win-win for those of us who can’t stand Campos.  If he wins, he’s replaced by someone way more moderate ,most likely, and if he loses….well, we get to relish in his defeat :).

Also, there’s very,very little chance of Campos ever being an effective legislator in Sacramento. He’ll be incapable of drumming up support from anyone not already coming from the same place, ideologically speaking.

Fuck the Mission. Why don’t you just secede from the city and leave the rest of us alone.

You have convinced me to hold my nose and vote Campos. His replacement would be our best chance to get a tech and developer friendly Supervisor in the Mission. Thank you.

I couldn’t vote for Campos after all. We just have to wait out his final 2 years until he’s termed out.

Interesting argument, but I think Tom Ammiano’s record has earned him enough trust that we should back his endorsement for his replacement. His seat should have a strong progressive in it to continue fighting for the working class, immigrants,  health care, etc… I think Chiu is more likely to get sucked into the Sacramento BS

And having a Lee pick as our supervisor will give us a great target for airing out our issues. I think you’re overestimating the power of incumbancy in the 9th district.I explain my choice more in my voters guide: bit.ly/VoteSF14

LOL, love your comment.  Campos needs to go for sure.  NOW.  I’d never vote for him though, ever.

Ed Lee is notorious for his campaign fraud