Delivering the Knockout Blow

As the San Francisco Campaign Director for the Alliance for a Better California, I had the amazing opportunity to work with some of the finest people and most inspiring groups I have ever worked with. On Tuesday, we had over 1300 people on the streets, half from the community and half from Labor. Tuesday’s victory was not just a victory of Labor, it was a victory for all. And that is the way it should be. Fortunately for us, it was. As one writer put it, it’s about time that the League of Pissed Off Voters and the SF Labor Council work together towards a common goal. People who don’t usually talk to each other, let alone work together, were part of our coalition.

Who was part of this coalition? SF for Democracy, ACORN, A. Philip Randolph Institute, Democracy Action, Asian Pacific Americans for an Informed California Richmond Democratic Club, Democratic Party Committee members and activists, Teachers, Nurses, Firefighters, Green Party Committee members and activists, SF People’s Organization, Equality California, LACLA, Harvey Milk and Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Clubs , APALA, League of Pissed Off Voters, POWER PAC, Young Workers United, Pride at Work, the SF Labor Council, SF State Youth Activists, SEIU, NARAL, Planned Parenthood, volunteers from organizations like Coleman Advocates, Chinese Progressive Association, Asian Law Caucus, And Castro For All, Chinatown Community Development Center, Our City, UNITE/HERE Local 2, Senior Action Network, Code Pink, Working Assets, SF Tenants Union, Artists, Bay Area Organizing Committee and the countless individuals who I just want to say thank you to. Everybody worked so incredibly hard. So many people gave up so much of their time to ensure Arnold’s defeat.

I don’t know what to say except that we had some incredible people on the campaign. You guys are all rock stars…

Just look at what we did to Arnold:

In terms of the field operations, Levin Sy, the GOTV coordinator, had seven offices up and running on election day that managed over 1300 volunteers and our campaign was in over 360 precincts. A. Philip Randolph had been phoning and walking over 30 precincts in the Bayview and they did GOTV out of the Iron Workers Hall . ACORN had a volunteer operation that had taken on all of District 11 and a paid field operation that contacted over 20,000 voters in San Francisco. In the Sunset, Democratic Party Committee Member Mary Jung ran precincts out of State Board of Equalization Betty Yee’s campaign office . In the Richmond, Melanie Nutter, Executive Director for the SF Democratic Party, ran precincts out of her garage . The League of Pissed Off Voters ran precincts in the Haight, APA for an Informed California ran precincts in Chinatown and the Richmond. LACLA, under the direction of Frank Martin Del Campo, ran precincts in the Mission out of their office, and a coalition of the No on Prop 73 campaign, Equality California, and Alice B. Toklas and Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Clubs ran 60 of the most queer precincts out of the Castro Community Center at 18th and Castro and Kelly Dugan from Local 2 was the site coordinator.

Rock Stars Nora Dye and Nicole Yelich, SF Prop 73 coordinators
Picture by Bill Wilson

The mobilization that was mostly composed of Labor was out of the Plumber’s Hall and was directed by Kim Tavaglione, SF Alliance Field Director and Pilar Shiavo, the Political Director of the SF Labor Council. The phone banks were run out UESF and UHW. Amy Laitinen. Brandy Hunt and Alexis Gonzalez ably ran the operations at UHW. Nicole Derse, the Coalition Director, helped coordinate the sites and Levin Sy was the overall GOTV coordinator.

The mind boggles at how many possibilities there are at what we could do locally and statewide if we continue to try and work together. But in order to do that, we need to do our best to let issues inform our politics, not personalities. None of us are perfect in this regard, but we need to stop making our decisions based on who we hate or like. Letting political grudges dominate our decision-making hurts us in the long run. We needed everyone to be on board helping us to defeat these initiatives.

Next year when the far right wants to ban marriage equality and domestic partner benefits, the LGBT community needs many of these coalition partners to help defeat this regressive measure. Some are rightfully concerned that much of organized labor was silent on Prop 73, although I am proud to say that the SF Labor Council endorsed the No on 73 position and incredibly proud to have worked side by side with their campaign. We even had our victory party together, because not only is an injury to one and injury to all, but a victory for one is a victory for all.

Tim Paulson, Executive Director, SF Labor Council watching results
Picture by Bill Wilson

Assessing the Assessor’s Race

As you all know, my column is Queer Notes, and my goal is to comment on life and politics from a queer/transgender perspective. Recently, I read an anonymous commentary on the election that made me understand why it is important for there to be a queer perspective. The anonymous writer made a series of comments that need to be addressed. Comments that several prominent progressives have echoed over the last year. These comments simply reveal a lack of understanding of LGBT politics, culture, and life.

Ting’s election is a victory for Progressives

One of the main arguments was that the Milk Club abandoned progressive principles when they endorsed Phil Ting. That argument assumes that progressives don’t care whether transgender city workers (Local 790 members, by the way) get health care. Since health care benefits have been on every progressive or labor platform that I have seen, I find it distressing that the progressive writer has so little regard for health care benefits for transgender people. That argument also assumes that progressives don’t care whether there is transgender representation on the Police Commission. Since transgender people fall victim to police brutality all the time, I find it distressing that it isn’t progressive to care about this issue.

The good news is that the Milk Club does care about transgender people and does think that advocating for health care benefits is both progressive and pro-labor, that representation on Commissions is important as well. Support by the Milk Club for Ting was a critical component of his success. Over the last week, 20,000 door hangers of Milk Club endorsements were distributed. Support by Alice and Assemblymember Mark Leno was critical as well. A united LGBT community makes a huge difference for a candidate.

Assemblymember Mark Leno

Much has been said about the support of Labor and the Democratic Party but LGBT support was also a huge factor as LGBT activists were coordinating GOTV efforts in the 60 most queer precincts for the Special Election. In the weeks leading up to and over the last weekend, they distributed their literature through mail and by walking door hangers. Harvey Milk distributed 15,000 information cards and 20,000 door hangers, Alice mailed to 25,000 household and walked 12,000 slate cards. They even coordinated handing out slate cards at MUNI stops in the last few days. Clearly their end goal was to defeat Schwarzenegger and they spent election day working alongside the Proposition 73 folks turning out voters who were identified as voting no on Schwarzenegger’s initiatives, but moving all that literature definitely had an impact. The highest turnout neighborhoods were all queer neighborhoods. In large part, they were highly motivated to send a message to Arnold and they did.

On that day, I wasn’t a Coward

I took a lot of heat for voting for Phil Ting last August at the DCCC. Some have argued that I didn’t have the freedom to do this. I would say the question isn’t about freedom, the question is about courage. The question in my mind was would I have the courage to stand up for my community–meaning would I be willing to take the repercussions and the heat in order to stand up for the transgender community. Whether you can understand it or not, it isn’t always easy. There were other transgender people who felt similarly but didn’t want to get in front of the firing line. I understand that position. But I need to and will have conversations with those who don’t understand my decision, that my decision was based on labor and progressive principles when I voted at the DCCC.

The anonymous author also misses that even mostly straight progressive groups like the League of Pissed Off Voters and the League of Conservation Voters endorsed Phil Ting. Clearly having Mayoral support for Ting was huge, but other factors came into play as well . Reducing this down to a pissing match between the Board of Supervisors and the Mayor is an incredibly superficial and uninformed analysis.

Did Progressives Win Tuesday night?

If you worked on the Prop 73 or the Alliance campaign, which most progressives and labor activists did, then you were in 7th heaven at our party at Club Eight Tuesday night. If you were one of the 1300 people who volunteered, thank you. Thanks for all your work on behalf of teenage women and the working women and men of California. We can believe in and find the best in ourselves and each other. We saw it on our campaign and on Tuesday night. Tuesday night gave me a lot of hope about the future of coalition politics, of issue-driven, not personality-driven, politics. Thanks Arnold for all that you did to unify this large coalition. Let’s do it again.

Nurses protesting Arnold

Calvin Gipson, of Glide Memorial and former President of the Pride Committee, speaking at the African American Activists against Props 73-78 Press Conference, standing next to James Bryant, President, A. Philip Randolph Institute and District Attorney Kamala Harris

Representatives from Young Workers United, APALA, SEIU, and Nicole Derse, from the Alliance

Amy Laitinen of the Alliance signing in volunteers

Michael Goldstein signing in at the first mobilization in September

A.Philip Randolph Institute volunteers phonebanking along with Alice and Milk