September 25 2002

SUP. CHRIS Daly has been taking a huge amount of flak lately. The big landlords and the Committee on Jobs, the henchmen of the downtown interests, are targeting Daly this fall by promoting an "Anybody But Chris Daly" campaign, and the anti-tenant San Francisco Examiner is helping lead the way.

There's a reason for that "ABCD" effort – and it has nothing to do with Daly's personality and everything to do with the issues he has consistently taken on and the causes he has consistently supported.

Two years ago the San Francisco Board of Supervisors was full of the mayor's lackeys, who were rubber-stamping development and destroying District Six. Evictions of seniors, artists, immigrants, and people of color were rampant. District Six needed someone who had progressive values to run for supervisor, to shape the issues of the election and demand that elected officials protect the city's residents from loophole evictions and unbridled development of million-dollar lofts.

Chris Daly did just that. A longtime community organizer at a nonprofit called the Mission Agenda and cofounder of the Mission Anti-Displacement Coalition, Daly was the one candidate that progressives rallied around. When he entered the race, Daly changed and ultimately shaped the debate in District Six. He excited and energized people about what they could expect from their elected officials and reminded District Six residents that this city is our city, this district our district. Cloearly it was a value his constituents shared; Daly won the runoff with more than 80 percent of the vote.

As a supervisor, Daly brought people to the table who had never been invited to City Hall, let alone asked to sit down and help shape policy. He reined in big developers, clamped down on special interest, stopped illegal evictions, and provided protections for artists and seniors. In his time on the board, his votes and actions have been consistently progressive, and we've never had to worry that he wasn't going to be there for us.

Several recent events demonstrate what we can expect for the next four years if Daly is reelected – and why he is public enemy number one for downtown special interests and big landlord groups. Last year Daly voted against settling a lawsuit by downtown interests over the city's business tax. The deal cost the city millions and gutted its ability to tax big business. The downtown interests were pushing hard for it. When the settlement passed anyway, Daly helped replace the lost revenue by proposing a tax increase on the sale of property worth more than $1 million – rather than cutting funding for essential social services.

Furthermore, when the mayor tried to lay off the city's poorest workers, immigrants and women of color-laundry workers at Laguna Honda Hospital, Daly helped save their jobs with an innovative 911 phone fee increase.

And now, we all have a chance to get a pro-tenant, pro-consumer advocate who truly cares about us reelected to the Board of Supervisors. Daly has demonstrated over and over again that he will stand up to big landlords, real estate speculators, and downtown special interests. He is the one, progressive candidate we can depend on, and we have to let him know that we will support him when downtown interests target him.