Mission Local is publishing campaign dispatches for each of the major contenders in the mayor’s race, alternating among candidates weekly until November. This week: London Breed. Read earlier dispatches here.
Almost all the members of the newly ascendant wing of the San Francisco Democratic Party were in the Palace Hotel on Thursday night, gathered in the Gold Ballroom alongside a few hundred people drinking and schmoozing beneath faux white-and-gold Corinthian columns, and toasting a change: This ain’t the same San Francisco Democrats.
“I want to thank all the members of the new Democratic Party,” Mayor London Breed said, starting off her speech about an hour into the program of the Democratic County Central Committee’s annual, semi-formal fundraising gala. The landslide victory that changed leadership of the party in March was a cause for celebration on Thursday, and Breed joked that the party should put up a sign: “Under new management.”
Breed was, spiritually and physically, at the center of the proceedings. She received the largest applause of any speaker — folks like City Attorney David Chiu and California Controller Malia Cohen — and a standing ovation from the crowd of politicos when she rose from Table No. 5 (the closest to the stage, in the middle of the front row) and took the mic to welcome a changing of the guard.
“Congratulations to all the new members of the D-triple-C,” she said, using the local party’s moniker, as the crowd settled and the applause died down. Breed then turned to a theme repeated by several speakers that evening: How, despite the “different shades of blue” in San Francisco, local Democrats must unify to fight on national issues — namely, defeating Donald Trump and supporting the Democratic nominee.
“Let’s help the Democratic Party and let’s unify and stick together outside the city and county of San Francisco,” Breed said. “The party is counting on us, and I’m going to be counting on you this November.”
But inside the room, a particular wing of the local political class was represented.
A giant screen behind the speakers advertised the party’s top donors. Four tech executives, including Y Combinator CEO Garry “Die Slow Motherfuckers” Tan and Ripple chairman Chris Larsen, were “presidential” sponsors of the event, meaning they gave $25,000 or more.
Tan has become the bête noire of progressives in San Francisco, whom he often castigates as “corrupt,” “cronies” or “doom loop accelerationists.” Larsen, meanwhile, is the city’s top law-enforcement donor and bankrolled March measures to ease police oversight and drug-screen welfare recipients to the tune of $785,000, but he also backed the former progressive district attorney, Chesa Boudin, and opposed his recall.
Yelp CEO and YIMBY patron Jeremy Stoppelman was a top sponsor as well, alongside Y Combinator partner Jared Friedman, tech venture capitalist Ron Conway, and the Northern California Carpenters Union.
Mark Farrell, the mayoral contender and venture capitalist (who defines himself as a small-business owner), did his rounds and shook hands, his wife in tow. Several supervisors were there, including Myrna Melgar, Rafael Mandelman and Matt Dorsey, as well as candidates for supervisor — Roberto Hernandez for District 9, Bilal Mahmood for District 5, and Michael Lai for District 11, among others; Lai, himself a new member of the DCCC, was the emcee for the night.
Individual tickets were $200, and guaranteed you a small salad, a serving of either filet mignon or cauliflower, and copious pours of Michaela Alioto-Pier’s vintage wines. Dessert was chocolate cake and strawberries.
Almost no progressives were in attendance. Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin was meant to show, but said he got caught up elsewhere at the last minute. When elected officials were introduced near the beginning, Peskin’s name received very muted applause, eliciting more than a few laughs.
Lobbyists from the San Francisco Association of Realtors to the California Nurses Association had reserved seats or entire tables. The leaders of big-money groups like Neighbors for a Better San Francisco, TogetherSF, and Grow SF made their way around the room, chit-chatting. Jay Cheng, the Neighbors director, bounced around in a trademark puffer vest, despite resurfaced allegations that he sexually assaulted a classmate in college and the Democratic County Central Committee’s ongoing look into sexual misconduct in political circles. Cheng has fervently denied the allegations.
“I don’t believe it was made as a big-tent event within the party,” said John Avalos, one of the few progressives who retained his seat on the central committee in the March election, in a text message Thursday night. He did not attend the gala, but said speakers were concealing very real policy differences on municipal issues.
The party was “hiding beneath the presidential crisis,” he said, but wanted to continue a “status quo” locally: “A mayor strong on deregulation and market-based solutions … and ineffectual on crime prevention and addressing runaway inequality.”
“Look at the main funders,” he continued. “They have real animus towards progressives. It’s a very corporate, venture crapitalist [sic] event and I don’t really feel welcome.”
Nancy Tung, a prosecutor and the newly elected chair of the party chapter, acknowledged it was difficult to maintain unity after such an electoral change. “It’s always hard,” she said. “The divide’s been deep-seated for a number of years.” But, she said, everyone had been invited and the door was open — and she remembered that, when she was in the minority during progressives’ control, “No one asked me to do anything.”
Speakers themselves did not stoke division; they honored nonprofits, including the affordable housing developer Mission Housing and the violence-prevention group United Playaz, and urged those present to get more involved in the party. Rep. Nancy Pelosi gave a five-minute pre-recorded talk from D.C. on the dangers to democracy, and Lai opened and closed the ceremony with a call-and-response chant: “When I say S! You say F! When I say SF! You say Dems! We don’t agonize, we organize!”
Breed, for her part, engaged in some retail politics. Wearing a glimmering blue dress and hoop earrings, she went table to table to shake hands, greet supporters, and pose for photos. When she sat down at her table next to campaign staff, she put her head together with Todd David from Abundant SF, another deep-pocketed and tech-funded group, and chatted. Breed’s campaign manager sat to one side, and her head of Asian outreach sat on the other.
And, while her speech did largely reference national threats like abortion rights and climate change, Breed of course shouted out her run for Room 200: While saying that there were “a lot of fights” in San Francisco politics and “a lot of people running for a number of different offices,” she was going nowhere. “I definitely plan to stay as your mayor of San Francisco,” she said, as the crowd hollered.
Breed remained for more than an hour, and then left for yet another event.
Garry Tan hosted an event in May about “Christian theology” with Peter Thiel, a Trump supporter who has said he left SF because it was too unfriendly to conservatives, and that he “no longer believe[s] freedom and democracy are compatible.”
This is far beyond the usual moderate vs progressive squabbles. When your sponsors are people like that, the “new” Democratic Party has been captured by right-wingers.
Whether on the local or national stage, the “new” Democratic party is the same as the old Democratic Party– except that its aims are shifting farther rightward… and dragging every pseudo-leftist and “progressive” with it.
In San Francisco, the Democratic Party is an exclusive club run by “swells” and ambitious political “insiders”.
These people are first in line to express gratitude for the munificence to Mother Earth of the Ramaytush Ohlone peoples.
They will be last to take responsibility for accelerating class inequalities, wars, and genocide.
Those of us who struggle to live in an increasingly precarious world must have a limit to how much hypocrisy we can tolerate.
Politico and lobbyist for market rate development and proud YIMBY Todd David is also Scott Weiner’s former campaign strategist. Todd David now leads the newly formed and Tech funded Astroturf group AbundantSF and remains the king of dirty politics in SF. His chief disciple and lobbyist for market rate development Corey Smith filed a frivolous and headline grabbing suit against the current D5 Supervisor. The suit is a nothing burger because 11 supervisors vote as a body on development; one cannot tease out which units were built by a specific supervisor and Corey Smith knows this. Will Smith also sue London Breed for lying about her own housing record and failing to build hundreds of units of affordable housing? No. Didn’t think so.
I’m kind of glad I am older and if lucky I will not see these rich tech bros turn San Francisco into their libertarian hell hole they want, vs the place many of us came to be free.
Breed’s corruption in the open is the new model for the DCCC?
Send her packing to a NEW job – in the private sector.
The party may survive her corrupt regime if we don’t double down on it again.
SHAMEFULL!!
Do not forget Breed hired Tumlin who has made it difficult to do daily errands whether it be on muni or car.West Portal is about to be destroyed because of 1 accident caused by a bad driver who as I have been told was habitual in her horrible driving. Breed wants to put more housing on the Westside while cutting muni service at West Portal making a transfer to another muni line to go downtown.Smart.Stealing public parking for rent a crap bikes does not help businesses of any kind.Pushing through The Irish Cultural Center without public input is her idea of fairness.The only notice was small pieces of paper on their side door.The city pushed this fake neighborhood notification with the Coastal Commission.$ 5.5 million so a small number of people have a free food store is not an economical way to distribute food.(I have read open 2 days a week).Ferris wheel deals where SF make tiny $.Parks not maintained well.Anti family,senior,business and disabled insane Taraval muni rebuild. Yea we need more of this.
I’m not a fan of Breed’s, did not and won’t vote for her, but have you spent time in Parks or taken Muni recently? Both are the best I’ve seen in 30+ years in SF. Franklin Square park is cleaned 7 days a week and is impressively nice given how use it gets and how much people trash it.
Muni is running faster and better than I’ve ever seen it, possibly due to the new red bus-only lanes on major streets. On the routes I take (9, 33, 27) it seems to be on time too. Neither of these is Breed’s doing, I think Phil Ginsburg has been in charge of Park and Rec for much longer than her administration. But in terms of the City government getting something done, I feel like those tax dollars are mostly working.