The San Francisco Democratic Party deadlocked 11-11 and took no position on the recall of District 4 Supervisor Joel Engardio Wednesday night.
Six members abstained from the vote and four were absent, leaving Engardio, once an ally of the ascendant moderate Democrats steering the party, out in the cold.
The tie and resultant “no position” came as a surprise to vote-counters on both the pro- and anti-recall side, who were anticipating the county Democratic Party, dominated by political moderates, would narrowly side with the moderate Engardio.
A key factor in tonight’s shock outcome: Four voting members were not only absent, but did not send proxies to vote in their stead.
Among the six progressives on the body, four abstained and Jane Kim was absent. Gordon Mar was the sole progressive to cast a vote, and he opted for “no endorsement.” Assemblymember Catherine Stefani and Michael Lai joined the progressive bloc in abstaining.
With progressives — John Avalos, Connie Chan, Peter Gallotta and Michael Trung Nguyen — largely abstaining as a bloc, it was expected that Engardio would narrowly prevail. Abstentions reduce the total number of votes, which reduces the number of votes required to reach a simple majority. But the vote still ended in a draw, with 11 votes against the recall and 11 votes for “no endorsement.”
“There is no majority for any position. The party remains in ‘no position,’” party chair Nancy Tung announced following the 9:38 p.m. vote. The remaining crowd at the Ruth Williams Bayview Opera House, almost all recall supporters, cheered.
Crucially, three party members who could’ve potentially voted to spurn the recall were absent from the meeting: Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, Michela Alioto-Pier and Assemblymember Matt Haney.
Late vote, surprising outcome
The Sept. 16 recall election is a little over two weeks away. But, as of Wednesday, more than 7,000 people have already cast their ballots in an election with between 18,000 to 20,000 expected voters.
This is notable, because tonight’s endorsement vote was originally scheduled for July 30, but was postponed for nearly an entire month — until weeks after voting was underway.
The month-long delay was a consequential decision, made by Tung. She sent out an email to party members on July 21, days before a scheduled July special meeting, pushing the vote until August.
On Wednesday evening, some 100 people packed the Bayview Opera House, far from the Sunset District, to witness tonight’s vote and have their say; public comment lasted some two hours and was dominated by recall proponents.
“Time and again, candidates in the city have come to the Chinese community when they need votes. They come when they need campaign volunteers. They come when they want to win,” said Wilson Chu with the Chinese American Democratic Club, which supports the recall. “But when it comes to policy, when it comes to listening to our concerns and our voices, too often we are ignored.”
The San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee, known as the DCCC, is the local branch of the Democratic Party. It has the power to grant the coveted status of “Endorsed by the Democratic Party” on local matters in a city where Democrats far outnumber Republicans.
In past elections, the party has spent heavily to send out campaign fliers, take out ads, and mobilize volunteers for its candidates and ballot measures. Less-informed voters often follow the party’s voting guide to cast their ballots.
And, while the DCCC is largely composed of moderate Democrats, like Engardio, who took over the majority on the committee last March, its base is fractured on the recall.
Westside homeowners and more conservative Chinese voters are anti-Joel; YIMBYs and younger white urbanists are anti-recall. Both make up the moderate voter bloc, and members risk alienating one side or the other.
“Voters in the Sunset are still very angry, and there’s still an anti-establishment bent in their reactions to elected officials,” said David Ho, a political consultant who lived in the Sunset for two decades. “These recalls demonstrate: You gotta pay attention to your constituents, no matter what the agenda is.”
That was evident at Wednesday’s meeting: Dozens of Chinese American seniors sat in groups in the middle rows. A couple of them held signs supporting Engardio, but the majority of them boasted black-and-yellow recall signs. For almost every speaker who spoke in support of the recall — many spoke in Cantonese — the crowd let out a loud cheer.
Some of the same donors who spent handsomely to elect the new DCCC are supporting Engardio’s fight against the recall, like cryptocurrency billionaire Chris Larsen, venture capitalist Ron Conway, and the San Francisco Police Officers Association.
Too little, too late?
Even if the body decided to stand behind Engardio, it might not have affected the outcome after the month-long delay.
“It matters very little,” wrote political consultant Jim Ross of today’s vote. “With vote-by-mail, too many ballots have been cast, or [too many] people’s minds made up to make a difference.”
It is also not clear that the Democratic imprimatur means much to District 4 voters. In the last election, the local Democratic Party voted to endorse incumbent Mayor London Breed, but most District 4 voters ranked Daniel Lurie as their first choice.
It also endorsed Prop. K, which closed the Great Highway, but District 4 voters swung 64-36 against it. The party rejected Prop. C, which would create an inspector general, but Sunset voters greenlit it.
“I think the Democratic Party should just allow District 4 residents to decide on their own without further outside influence,” said DCCC member and former supervisor Mar, who lost his Board of Supervisors seat to Engardio in 2022. Mar stood alone among fellow progressives on the body to vote “no endorsement” instead of abstaining. In a tie vote, his decision loomed large.
Recall backers were pleasantly surprised by tonight’s outcome.
The DCCC is “obviously a more likely Joel crowd,” said Jamie Hughes, the recall’s campaign manager. “Even they decided to stay out of it. It just further diminishes Joel’s chance of surviving this recall.”
For Engardio, his plea to Sunset voters to do what the local Democratic Party would not do — reject the recall effort — continues.
“Recalls should be reserved for corruption or impropriety — not policy disagreements on a single issue,” Engardio said in a statement. “Voters should reject this unnecessary recall on Sept. 16 so I can keep focusing on what really matters.”
“Recalls should be reserved for corruption or impropriety — not policy disagreements on a single issue,” Engardio said in a statement. “Voters should reject this unnecessary recall on Sept. 16 so I can keep focusing on what really matters.”
Didn’t Engardio support the Boudin recall?
Correct.
That, and the flurry of recalls and attempts bankrolled heavily in the past few years.
The irony is incredible.
He pretends to be an advocate of low income housing, but guess who personally added the provision to strip basic rent control anti-eviction (or rent tripling) protections from ADU, accessory dwelling units expressly approved and made into law to help support low-to-mid income renters? Yes, the YIMBY hypocrisy and misplaced (developer dictated) priorities extremely backwards to their PR self-promotion themes. It’s night and day, albiet Engardio probably pretends to have invented those as well.
He came into office calling for MULTIPLE recalls, now he’s the victim! Poooor lying Joel, won’t someone save him from his own record and his constituency he lied to and ignored and continues to gaslight? The DCCC was 100% right to drop him like the radioactive shill he is.
Why on earth was this held in Bayview, of all places? Did they not want D4 residents to attend?
New current head of the hijacked corporate SFDCCC rolls like that. All kinds of shady moves snd funny biz from Nancy Tung. Watch the videos of the meetings. You’ll see.
Or attend a meeting in person and make public comment about how the billionaire & YIMBY funded “dems for change” slate has corrupted, weaponized the political body.
Exactly. He’s underwater in Sunset because we ALL KNOW he’s a liar and all he does is continue to gaslight and pretend everyone’s crazy for noticing, with Sam Singer and Jen Nossokoff acting as trained parrots of the Dark Money spigot.
Please stop with this “moderate” nonsense. It’s bafflegab. By implication, non-moderates are “extremists,” which itself is a bafflegab term. By this implication, FDR, who did more to improve the material conditions of more Americans than any other president by far, was an extremist.
“Moderate” Democrats are conservatives. They might be pro-choice or patronize various ascriptive identities, but when you watch what they do instead of what they say, they are clearly class warriors for the 1% against everyone else. They might use particular pronouns and endorse certain symbolic measures that lend them a “liberal”* veneer, but these “moderates” do little to nothing to improve the material conditions of anyone other than the 1% whom they serve.
In San Francisco, “moderate” simply means pro-big business, pro-landlord, anti-worker, anti-99%.
* The European definition of “liberal” is effectively “business-accommodating”; the American definition reduces to the all-but-meaningless “tolerant.” The function of the term “liberal” in both Europe and the US is to erase the centrality of economic class in discussions of political power. “Liberal”, even more so than “moderate,” is possibly the most abused, overused, and misleading definition in political science.
Pretty much correct.
“Moderates” parade themselves of rationality and white knights of “both sides” by doing literally nothing.
The terms are nothing more than cowardice or just self interest, just to confuse people from thinking about class.
Well said.
Agreed. This pull from the article says it all. “cryptocurrency billionaire Chris Larsen, venture capitalist Ron Conway, and the San Francisco Police Officers Association. “
Unfortunately this is not Shocking that folks picked to lead chose to not lead and abstained from voting. This is typical from pussy politicians scared to give their opinion. If you are too much of a woose to lead, get out of politics.
They’re only looking out for themselves … those “moderates.”
I do wonder where the “moderates” will stand when it comes to the sheriff’s race in 2028. Will they endorse our fascist-supporting incumbent, or take a principled stand against knee-jerk pro-cop alliances?
How much is this recall costing us?
Considering this city has budget issues, recalls maybe need to be decided by a judicial branch, looking for legal reasons.
We lived in the Richmond when voted decided to close JFK. Did any of these recall supporters vote in favor of that? It has been many years, but it had a big impact on residents. Oh wait. Most of the residents in that immediate area are apartment/flat dwellers and renters.
Great thread !
I’m wondering who ‘two beers’ is.
Real clarity and breadth.
I note that they get the de rigeur two thumbs down vote that anyone gets who strays a bit too far into the intellectual.
I’m gonna concede that D-4 get’s a new supe and was talking to a doc at Ft. Miley yesterday where I went to get some new shoes cause my feet are wearing out and we were well into talk when he outed that he’d lived in D-4 for 12 years and thinks Mayor should appoint Gordon Mar back to the post.
Hey, y’all are smart and thoughtful here and I don’t know D-4 from beach Solstice bonfires so who will Lurie appoint ?
Better yet, who do you think he should appoint ?
Go Niners !!
h.
How the rest of the city has a vote on the quality of life of the residents of the outer west side is beyond me. I only wish the District 1 voters could join the vote to throw the bum out. We need representation that will correct the massive street closures, Cabrillo, GGP’s south Lincoln Drive, and yes our Great Highway. We give up the ability to park and the serenity of our neighborhoods for a solid month of the summer. And where are all those millions of dollars going? Yes, to the eastern side of the park. Meanwhile our landmarks are steadily deteriorating. The Queen Wilhelmina windmill is shedding her shingles on a weekly basis, her fantail is missing slats, her cap gear is exposed to the elements and rusting. Any repair requests to city hall go ignored. The path ways are not walk-able due to tree root growth. The gravel paths are in urgent need of renewal. We on the west side are the goose that lays the annual million dollar eggs and we are left starving and featherless. While we need basic upkeep it burns our butt when the eastern side of the park gets golden pond dragons.
That windmill comes under Recs & Parks….not sure how much influence the Board has on that department. Meantime you should write them: https://sfrecpark.org/908/Golden-Gate-Park—Queen-Wilhelmina-Gard
Park and Rec, hmmm, Sand Dunes Park, hmmm, Park Alliance, something stinky
Done!
Be sure to let them know that bankrolling their graft and mismanagement in BART and MUNI with $3 per hour parking in and along our own taxpayer-funded PUBLIC PARK is not only ridiculous, it’s downright YIMBY-backed class warfare.
I voted for highway to stay open. I have a say so although I live outside the district because I use it all the time and care about all evacuation routes being available.
If y’all were such a wonderful, caring, concerned community, you would all volunteer together and fix that old, falling down junk yourselves. More rich people crying about traffic while they poison us all in their death mobiles! I go to that park every day and so does my whole family. People with no lives are so precious.
In the headline it says “stunner”, but the article says “shock”. What is it? Or do you actually mean just literally shocked, which is like, stunned, so it all makes sense? /s
Yeah, mea culpa how I’m still annoyed with the chicken-little clickbait language out there.
Sniveling cowards, showing their true colors.
On the other hand, Lady Karma is delivering a cruel blow to Joe Engardio, who I feel really does care about the people in his district.
The irony is inescapable.
Not surprised to see moderates strategically orchestrate a ‘no comment’ here. If the recall passes, then the moderate mayor will appoint a replacement, presumably one that won’t be weighed down by a Prop K position when the next general election comes around.
This story is really important in that it proves what many have been thinking and saying about the two-party system. It is shot itself in the foot and is hobbling around begging for funds to fix what it broke. Every message from the parties and its various counterparts asks for money. Not ideas to solve problems that (by the way) the parties created. Just money to continue on the unpopular path they hard set for themselves. The parties don’t need money. They have a heart transplant, if they can find one with a soul.
“In past elections, the party has spent heavily to send out campaign fliers, take out ads, and mobilize volunteers for its candidates and ballot measures. Less-informed voters often follow the party’s voting guide to cast their ballots.” How do you know that? Is there good data to support that statement? Else, it sounds dismissive of people who don’t vote the way you think they should.
The “Moderates” on the DCCC and their donors should be forewarned. The West Side may be supportive of public safety, clean, orderly streets, and sensible public school management, but they are not at all in favor of the Yimby Pro-Urbanist agenda. It’s a non-starter in D4 – and for good reason. Who wants to bring mass gentrification and traffic clogged streets to their hood?
Why should the party weigh in on Engardio when he’s a Democrat in name only?
Fair point is fair. What does “Democrat” mean when you sell out to dark money developer interests explicitly and gaslight and ignore your actual constituency? Why have district supervisors at all if they’re just going to be part of a BREED cabal?
There’s nothing “moderate” about Engardio. He’s a corporate conservative and someone long involved with pushing big real estate. Upzoning all the way, and he hopes that that will be reflected in his net worth in the future somehow.
Why it was not obvious to D4 voters that Engardio was all for the billionaires, I have no idea. But it has never had a good supervisor. D4 was deliberately modified to include Engardio’s abode. Is this a corrupt process or what?
Notice the Wiener model. Say one thing, do the opposite.
Incredibly weak organization at the moment. Joel unfortunately serves a district fearful of change and prone to fear mongering. He’s done a great job.
Sorry, he has not done a great job. If that were true, there would have been no recall. Part of a local leader’s job is to know their constituents, share their core values and work alongside them to achieve goals. Engardio could have led a phased approach to the road closure, addressing resident’s traffic concerns at key bottlenecks, etc – BEFORE 100% commitment to the full time park. He could have also focused his work on a housing policy that targeted affordability for first time home buyers, checked real estate speculation and banned displacement of small business. He could have amended bike infrastructure projects so that they promoted safe cycling but also preserved parking for small businesses. He could have even presided over new housing units welcomed in D4, but at lower heights than desired by big real estate – structures more in keeping with the dominant neighborhood character. This recall could have been avoided.
Your idealized view of what Engardio could have done pretty much describes what we had in Gordon Mar.
I think you’re right. They have a similar set of constituents and a similar batch of accomplishments, but where Mar was a policy wonk and a bit reticent to take bold moves that his constituency wouldn’t support, Engardio seems to lean in when the dark money funding essentially dictates that he do so. One came into office calling for recalls, the other was in office doing things other than claiming to have invented algebra and night markets. I think the difference is clear though, Mar would never have accepted 100% of his campaign donations from developer billionaires and techie-combinator groups and yet pretended to be a man of the people meanwhile. He’s not that keen a liar, unlike Joel.
That is the problem with “progressives”..at the local level, the state level and especially at the national level. They are afraid to state where they stand, they are weak, they are probably trying to save their own jobs (Good money) , they are like Deers caught on a road in the middle of the night. Don’t count on those so called “progressives” to combat the fascism from this administration. Don’t get me wrong, the others, members of the cult, also know as the old republican party (R.I.P), do not fare any better…on their knees in front of the orange wanna be dictator.