Tomorrow night the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee (DCCC) will select which candidates will get the Democratic Party endorsement for mayor, sheriff, and district attorney in this November’s election.
The DCCC has 32 members. Eight of those seats are occupied by elected officials who are members of the Democratic Party and also live in our (mostly San Francisco) Assembly Districts 12 or 13. Right now, they are: Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Congresswomen Nancy Pelosi and Jackie Speier, State Attorney General Kamla Harris, State Senators Mark Leno and Leland Yee, Assemblyman Tom Ammiano and Assemblywoman Fiona Ma.
Last month, DCCC chairman, Aaron Peskin, had Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom taken off the committee because Newsom no longer lives in San Francisco. The move was both justified and savvy: the committee is pretty evenly split between progressives and moderates so getting rid of Newsom’s moderate vote helps the progressive vote count. Tomorrow night’s meeting will hopefully answer two questions.
First, whether the committee will continue its enthusiastic quest for irrelevance by again endorsing candidates with no chance of winning?
Second, whom are the elected officials endorsing? A vote from Pelosi, Feinstein, or Harris would be a welcome boost to any campaign. And with former supervisor Bevan Dufty as the only mayoral candidate with significant support in the gay community thus far (though Herrera gets points for his work on behalf of gay marriage) Leno’s endorsement will be especially valuable.
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