I am not a member of the pro-developer Plan C organization, but I do subscribe to their email list to keep tabs on what’s going on. And if yesterday’s email is any indication, the rumors surrounding a quid pro quo between Assemblywoman Fiona Ma and Board Member Aaron Peskin may be true.  

The rumor (and we know how they fly around my beloeved city) is that Fiona Ma has agreed to vote for Aaron Peskin for DCCC Chair in exchange for legislation favorable to a business owned by Ma’s boyfriend (I have no idea who he is). Hence, the below email I received yesterday.

Help re-elect Scott Wiener as DCCC Chair!

This Wednesday, July 23, there will be an election of the chair of the Democratic County Central Committee. This obscure body is one of the most powerful in the city, because it controls the endorsements of the Democratic Party for candidates and ballot measures (including those on this November’s ballot).  

Assemblywoman Ma may not vote for Wiener

The current chair, Scott Wiener, a longtime member of Plan C, is being challenged by Aaron Peskin. The vote is extremely close and we expect the deciding vote to be cast by Assemblywoman Fiona Ma. The assemblywoman is undecided, and may cast her vote for Aaron Peskin.  

Scott Wiener has been an outstanding DCCC chair – fair, able and open-minded.  His ouster from the chair of the DCCC would be a blow to quality of life advocates.  Please call and email assemblywoman Ma and ask her to vote for Scott Wiener as chair of the DCCC.

Phone Assemblywoman Ma at: 415 557-2312

Or click here to be taken to her website to send an email (see left side column under “Contact Me” in the yellow bar).

There must be a kernel of truth somewhere for Plan C to hit the panic button like this. I may even try to show up and watch the action for myself. Do you think they allow popcorn?

I have been looking over the candidates for District 3 Supervisor and, at this point, I am leaning toward supporting Lynn Jefferson as my first choice. Joe Alioto is no option, Wilma Pang is out to lunch, Claudine Cheng seems too closely tied to the Downtown developers and I have serious doubts about David Chiu’s readiness (nothing related to the unfortunate swiftboating). From what I have read and heard thus far, Jefferson seems like someone with the right balance. “Moderate” seems to be a nasty word in the City, but thre is a differnce between moderation and Carmen Chiu’s reactionary voting record.

But before I commit to anyone, I need a Devil’s Advocate, someone to make the case against votoing for her. Yes, I know she is a member of the North Beach Chamber of Commerce but I don’t think business is inherently bad. Here is the one message form her website that really stands out.

I strongly support preserving our neighborhood character and have spent countless hours before the Planning Commission fighting to keep our neighborhood character vibrant and unique. But the zoning policies pursued by our current leadership have gone beyond keeping chain stores out and have hurt the very businesses that make District 3 the neighborhood residents and visitors love so much.

When zoning policies are driven by narrow special interests, we end up with vacant buildings and storefronts that no one can afford to operate a business in. We can keep our neighborhood character and ensure the success of small businesses that serve the needs of residents and visitors.

It IS out of hand. Too many building are left vacant because there is always one group ready to object to a certain kind of development and we let the perfect become the enemy of the good. So there it is. Who do you think is the best choice out there?

The scuttlebutt online is that it is shaping up to be a close race for DCCC chair between Aaron Peskin and Scott Weiner, according to San Francisco FYI.

Inaugural meeting of the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee

When: July 23, 2008 – Wednesday 7 p.m.

Where: State Building, 455 Golden Gate Avenue, Milton Marks Auditorium, San Francisco

What: Will elect its officers . (this is huge – battle for Chair between Scott Weiner and Aaron Peskin – I hear the vote is very close)

So is it close? How are these two different? What new direction, if any, should the DCC take?

When I lived in Michigan, it was easy to know where to put your focus on politically. National and state races, of course, took place as always on November of even numbered years. Local elections typically take place in odd-numbered years with school board election orruring annually during the summer. Under that system, it was easy to focus on a given set of elections. Now, I live in San Francisco.

Even for a national election, I have never seen anything like 2008. We have what I think is the most important presidential election in history (and I don’t need to go into all of the historical ramifications). Some 70 Congressional seats are competitve as are at least a dozen seats in the Senate and three gubernatorial races are red hot. That’s a lot right there.

But I live in San Francisco.

On the local level there are four vacant Board seats with a big push by “Downtown” to move it to the right. District 3, where I live, is probably Ground Zero in this struggle as it is shaping up to be a three way fight between David Chiu, Claudine Cheng and Joe Alioto. Four seats are up for the School Board and everyone anticipates an ungodly number of ballot proposals. Oh, did I mention there is yet another anti-gay proposal on the state ballot?

You would think this is heaven for a political junkie like myself, but enough is enought. It’s July and I’m already exhausted. But there are too many important races going on and I do not know the Board and School Board members well enough to decide. How are my fellow San Francisans faring?

Let’s say someone comes to your house, has a good time, asks for your support and takes a lot of money with her when she leaves. Someone else drops by and says something stupid. But the first friend who dropped by doesn’t just insult the other guy, she has to use your place as a prop with which to launch her attack, knowing that a lot of folks in the neighborbood do not like your house to begin with. Well, that’s how it feels to be after hearing Hillary Clinton’s remarks the other day.  

I cannot find the quote, but to paraphrase, she said “Senator Obama can go to SAN FRANCISCO (and yes she emphasized it in her own way), raise a lot of money and insult Middle America. So she wasn’t endorsed by Gavin Newsom and Dianne Feinstein? She didn’t raise a lot of money here? She and her husband have been here frequently? She doesn’t hang with the DC cocktail circuit? She didn’t go to Wellsley College for Women?

To those in The City who have not maxed out their contributions to her, I would recommend you ask her a few questions before you open that checkbook again. And to Gavin Newsom, I would ask if he is not tired of being made a fool of by everyone ranging from Hillary to the Olympic Planning Committee. But then again, courage may be the last thing to expect from Feinstein’s golden boy.

For a fleeting time at the beginning of Supervisor Carmen Chu’s accidental term as San Francisco Supervisor, it looked as though she might be more independent minded than many had feared, but since then, she contnues to disappoint.

No no no no. At every measure introduced by a progressive supervisor, Chu, along with Sean Elsbernd and Michela Alioto-Pier, she votes “no”. And yesterday, according to Fog City Journal she did so even though it meant turning her back on the people of District 4.

When Chris Daly, someone I often disagree with, introduced a resolution in protest of the Chinese Government’s crackdown on Tibet, the Three Reactionaries voted in league with Mayor Newsom.

A symbolic but controversial resolution addressing human rights concerns when the Beijing Olympic torch is welcomed to San Francisco next week passed the San Francisco Board of Supervisors Tuesday, but could meet with resistance from a mayor who has called for the event not to be politicized.

By an 8-3 vote, the board today approved Supervisor Chris Daly’s resolution to loud cheers, and some tears, from an audience of Bay Area Tibetans, Chinese and others who have protested outside City Hall for the past few weeks, opposing the torch’s arrival and calling for international support for human rights in Tibet, Burma and Darfur, and for Falun Gong practitioners in China.

Supervisors Michela Alioto-Pier, Sean Elsbernd and Carmen Chu – all Mayor Gavin Newsom appointees – voted against Daly’s resolution.

I realize that Chinese-American politics are more complex underneath the surface. I also know that Chinese American Chamber President Rose Pak is closely allied with the Mainland government. But considering that San FRancisco, especially the Chinese neighborhoods, is full of people who arrived here to escape opression, and considering Chu reresents a portion of the city that was represented by human rights champion Tom Lantos, her vote a is a slap in the face of those who suffered, fled and worked so hard to build a better life here. I hope people think about this in November when she aeeks their votes for the first time.