—– Forwarded Message —-
From: Plan C San Francisco
Sent: Monday, July 21, 2008 4:15:00 PM
Subject: ACTION ALERT - Ask Fiona Ma to Vote Wiener, DCCC Chair
Help re-elect Scott Wiener as DCCC Chair! This Wednesday, July 23, there will be an election of the chair of the Democratic County Central Committee. This obscure body is one of the most powerful in the city, because it controls the endorsements of the Democratic Party for candidates and ballot measures (including those on this November’s ballot).
Assemblywoman Ma may not vote for Wiener
The current chair, Scott Wiener, a longtime member of Plan C, is being challenged by Aaron Peskin. The vote is extremely close and we expect the deciding vote to be cast by Assemblywoman Fiona Ma. The assemblywoman is undecided, and may cast her vote for Aaron Peskin.
Scott Wiener has been an outstanding DCCC chair - fair, able and open-minded. His ouster from the chair of the DCCC would be a blow to quality of life advocates. Please call and email assemblywoman Ma and ask her to vote for Scott Wiener as chair of the DCCC. Phone Assemblywoman Ma at: 415 557-2312
Or click here
Mike Sullivan
Chair, Plan C San Francisco
www.plancsf.org
July 21st, 2008 at 11:37 pm
I think that anyone who spouts out the Orwellian “quality of life issues” term should be taken to task. Specifically, challenge the given candidate (that Safari character out in District 11 is the most blatant one) to define what that term means. If the given candidate spouts out generalities like “filling potholes” and “growing trees”, (which is usually the case) continue to challenge him or her.
Perhaps a decent response would be to say that there are larger issues at stake and to make a comparison. We shouldn’t let cynical, small-minded people dumb down the debate with superficial, feel-good generalities and petty inconveniencies. Gavin Newsom got elected by doing this and this should not be repeated.
July 22nd, 2008 at 12:19 am
If Assemblywoman Fiona Ma is the “swing vote,” progressives on the DCCC must have coalesced and Scott Wiener’s in trouble.
I like Scott, but his alliance with Plan C bothers me a great deal. And this e-mail pretty much confirms the hunch I had a while back:
http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=5808
July 22nd, 2008 at 2:03 pm
“Quality-of-life” issues have become a much more important issue to a lot of San Franciscans.
After all, we have 27,000 people on the city payroll (3x as many as Indianapolis, which has similar demographic) and huge tax revenues thanks to tourism.
Yet we can’t seem to get our parks cleaned of dirty needles or our public schools properly funded. Our sidewalks and roads are crumbling, and MUNI is dysfunctional, to put it politely.
July 22nd, 2008 at 3:09 pm
Barton,
Clearly, you’ve bought into the rhetoric. While you are concerned about pins and needles and keeping the grass green, I’m concerned about the war zone in the Bayview while fat, spoiled cops zoom past it in their patrol cars. I’m concerned about how families are being forced to leave the city wholesale. I’m concerned about San Francisco’s need to break it’s addiction to PG&E. I’m concerned about how small businesses are closing left and right. Grow some expectations.
Though you are making good points about MUNI and schools, you are barking up the wrong tree. If you really want to deal with those issues, try to recall the mayor (who has effective control over MUNI) and work to repeal Proposition 13. The Supervisors have little control over those two issues.
July 22nd, 2008 at 3:42 pm
I haven’t bought into anything.
I’m walking out my front door every morning near Valencia and 19th St. and getting a good whiff of human urine and traipsing around the same homeless guy grabbing at my leg who has been doing so for the last year and a half.
Yes, I do agree that small business owners need some help in this city and Proposition 13 should be abandoned.
But most of us could give a rats ass about whether PG&E or a bloated city bureaucracy supplies our electricity and gas. I want the bus to run on time to get me to work. I want criminals (whether illegal immigrant or native psychopaths) kept away from my children.
Jerry Brown once said that being mayor of Oakland was much harder than being governor of California because he had to deal with real-life issues affecting his constituents. What he meant was “quality of life.”
July 22nd, 2008 at 4:22 pm
Barton,
I don’t know what district you live in but, as a rule, vote for the opponents of anyone Newsom is endorsing. Otherwise, history will repeat itself.
Remember Care Not Cash as a solution to the homeless problem? How well is that working out for us? Project Homeless Connect? More of the same.
Who controls MUNI and whether buses run on time? The same guy that brought us Care Not Cash and Project Homeless Connect. There is a theme here.
How do we solve the homeless problem (and, by extension, the urine problem)? Give homeless people homes, pure and simple. This is something Chris Daly is trying to do this November with the Affordable Housing Charter Amendment, in spite of Newsom’s vehement opposition (surprise, surprise).
Want the crime problem to improve? Well, who is working on that one? Ross Mirkarimi was proposing foot patrols — a tried and true method — against (you guessed it) Newsom’s vehement opposition.
Being Governor is easier than running a city? For Newsom’s sake, I sincerely hope so.
July 22nd, 2008 at 5:35 pm
Matt,
I agree with you on many of these issues. I voted for your namesake in the mayoral reelection before last.
But I don’t think that building public housing for every homeless person in San Francisco (and, hence, drawing in more and more homeless people from around the country) and offering a free home to anybody in this city who wants one because of his or her own economic malaise or other misfortune is going to solve any of our problems.
I don’t think letting our bloated city bureaucracy (27,000 employees and counting) take over the grid is going to make electricity and gas cheaper in the long run.
I don’t think hiring more drivers and bureaucratic staff is going to make MUNI run better.
I do agree that getting police officers off their duff and back out into the street will push down crime rates. But the same applies for all public-sector employees. They cannot be fired, they have no adult supervision, and they don’t work very hard. Those are generalizations, of course. But the next time you go down to the DMV to get your license renewed, have a look around and see if I am not right..
Overall, I don’t think we can count on government to solve many of our problems, except a few simple things, a few simple things that make our “quality-of-life” better.
July 23rd, 2008 at 9:06 am
Barton — Comparing San Francisco to Indianopolis, is, I think, stretching the point. Whatever the population number is, they are two very different types of cities. The political discourse in S.F. would likely not even begin to take place in a city like Indianopolis.
July 23rd, 2008 at 12:29 pm
Barton,
My bottom line is that we should be swinging for the fences. The government is as good, as efficient, as effective and as responsive as we make it.