The Democratic Party and SF's progressivesBy Tim Redmond
Steve Jones and I had a lot to say about the election, but in retrospect, we left something out.
The progressive victories owed a lot to labor and tenant organizers, but also to the Democratic Party -- and since I haven't in the past been prone to praise the local party, I think it's worth special mention.
The progressives took over the Democratic County Central Commitee this year, and elected Aaron Peskin chair, and you can see the results: The party raised money and put out slate mailers in the key districts, supporting Eric Mar, John Avalos and David Chiu. With the barrage of downtown attacks in those districts -- and the close margin of victory in District 1 -- the party, by linking Mar, Avalos and Chiu to the Obama campaign, helped make the difference.
It's a new Democratic Party in this town, and that's one more thing to celebrate.
digg •
del.icio.us •
sphere •
google
•
Comments (1)
A year ago, Chris Daly authored reforms to the public finance system that more than doubled the amount of funds available to supervisorial candidates. The theory focused not on how to control big money spending. Instead, these reforms sought to give enough grants to qualified candidates so that they could get their message out in the face of heavy oppositional spending.
I haven't heard any anlaysis on how these reforms worked. From my vantage point, they worked as planned.
David Chiu, the D-3 winner, received $117,470 and may be eligible for more. John Avalos, the D-11 winner, received a grant of $83,895, $7,300 less than Ahsha Safai's grant of $91,188. In D-11, Sue Lee has received $79,356; still that is $9,000 more than the winner, Eric Mar.
This is powerful evidence that once a campaign is funded well enough to be heard, the question of who has the most money tends toward irrelevance.
All of this highlights the serious blow public financing received when Supervisor McGoldrick decided to establish the principle that the moneys set aside for public financing can be raided for other purposes. Just as San Francisco has achieved a solid system, his moves have put it at risk.
Fortunately, Rob Arnow -- who led the fight to establish our Mayoral public finance program -- is studying ways in which the voters can protect these fragile gains against future raids. But you folks owe the public an obligation to broadcast the fact that public financing allows campaigns to sink or swim on the basis of their message rather than their deep pockets.
Posted by Joe Lynn | November 13, 2008 06:08 PM