San Francisco’s Democratic Party on Sunday evening coalesced behind Gary McCoy for District 8 supervisor in a fraught, three-hour emergency meeting necessitated by the withdrawal of prior endorsee Manny Yekutiel.
Yekutiel, far and away the favorite to win and the party’s preferred candidate, dropped out of the contest on the heels of a second on-the-record sexual assault allegation published on Oct. 1.
Tonight the party rescinded Yekutiel’s endorsement with a 29-0 vote. Then it endorsed McCoy by a 20-0 vote, with eight votes for no endorsement.
Following the most recent allegations against Yekutiel, Democratic Party Chair Nancy Tung apologized for the party’s earlier endorsement of him and its inability to appropriately handle sexual misconduct allegations. Critics, including some elected members of the local Democratic Party, have called upon Tung to resign or relinquish leadership.
Most of her fellow party members, however, let it be known prior to today’s meeting that they favored keeping her in her position.
In June, political organizer Brad Chapin claimed Yekutiel painfully grabbed his testicles at a house party in 2020. A Democratic Party investigation lasted five weeks, despite the rudimentary finding that Chapin’s allegation did not fall under the aegis of the party’s sexual misconduct policy.
On Aug. 26, Democratic Party members were given a terse, half-page note informing them that the policy was not applicable and stating that it could not be determined whether or not a sexual assault took place. On that same day, the party voted to endorse Yekutiel by a slim 12-10 tally.
Tung addressed the criticism she’s faced since the second sexual assault against Yekutiel and the implosion of his campaign.
She claimed efforts to push her out would ensure that nobody else would ever address the “messy problem” of sexual misconduct in local political circles.
“It’s very difficult to get right,” she said. “But there’s somebody that I made a promise to and I want to go back and center around the person who is most harmed by this policy and its failures. And that’s Brad Chapin.”
Prior to this evening’s meeting, Tung and Chapin had a conversation where they agreed to “continue working on this policy to make it better, to make it better for survivors, to make it better for for us in political positions, to make decisions, to make better decisions, and to make the process more transparent,” she added.
Before any endorsements were voted on or Tung responded to her critics, there were nearly two hours of charged public comments. Some speakers defended Tung and expressed their support for keeping her as chair; others called on her to resign.
Chapin made an appearance, urging the party to sign a “Believe Brad” campaign petition that would move his allegations to California Attorney General Rob Bonta.
Next, he asked for the party to sign a declaration that cites its support for Ivy Lee, the director of the city’s office of victim services, “and all of their requests for SFPD to make real changes to how sexual assault investigations are conducted in San Francisco.”
Despite critics and attendees who expressed during public comment for Tung to resign from leadership, no official efforts were made tonight to do so. One of those critics did step down, though: Democratic Party member Gordon Mar wrote an email to Tung at shortly before 10 p.m. announcing he was quitting — “effective immediately.”
The San Francisco Democratic Party “has become an absolute embarrassment to most people who uphold democratic values. And tonight’s special meeting is just the latest example of this,” Mar said at tonight’s meeting.
“Chair Tung, under your leadership and this billionaire-backed majority … the San Francisco Democratic Party has essentially become a protection racket for wealthy donors and political insiders.”
Tung was unmoved.
“If people do not want me to represent them as a Democrat in the leadership … I’m sure that I will be voted out at some point in time,” she said. “But for now, I am committed to remaining chair.”
