Nov. 10, 2023 (SFChronicle.com)
A well-connected candidate has already raised $100,000 in the crowded race for a seat on the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee, a little-known but powerful group that hands out key party endorsements during election season.
Former state Assembly candidate Bilal Mahmood, who is running to unseat Supervisor Dean Preston in District 5, touted his fund-raising milestone during an announcement this week that he is running for a seat on the local “D Triple-C” to bring “big ideas” to the party platform.
Already dozens of Democrats, including Mahmood, have thrown their hat in the ring for 24 open seats on the committee out of 32. The race has become a key battleground in the March election ahead of the November 2024 election between moderates and progressives for the Board of Supervisors. Often candidates run for a seat on the DCCC because unlike in city elections there are no limits on campaign contributions. Because the DCCC is governed by state laws, the election is not beholden to the city’s $500 donation limit.
Mayor London Breed is also up for reelection in November 2024.
“Our politicians have fallen out-of-touch with the very people they are elected to serve and the result is often terrible policy or no action at all,” Mahmood said in a statement. “We need to return the Democratic Party to its roots — a Party of Ideas and Results for renters and workers families, not Excuses and Finger Pointing.”
It’s unlikely Mahmood will join the moderate slate: While Mahmood aligned with moderates on some issues, he also supports progressive policies on others. Mahmood has also been vocally opposed about what he says is ideology seeping its way into the local Democratic Party.
A victory for the moderate slate could ensure that the committee moves further to the center.
If elected, new moderates would join ideological allies like U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Assembly Member Matt Haney and state Sen. Scott Wiener. The slate is supported by a group of San Francisco tech individuals plotting to spend millions to influence public policy over the course of decades, according to the San Francisco Standard.
Trevor Chandler — who is running for a seat in “D-trip” as well as the District 9 supervisorial seat representing the Mission, Portola and Bernal Heights — said the race for influence in the local party in March will have a direct effect on how the November 2024 election will shake out. He said the party has been taken over by “ideologues” who have caused “toxic fights” among local Democrats.
“I want to get back to building up Democrats and not tearing each other down,” Chandler said. “We elect people in name only and then all they do is sit around and not build up the party. It shows what a parody the San Francisco Democratic Party has become of itself.”
Chandler’s opposition to the status quo at the DCCC is shared by other moderates who have jumped in the race. Moderates are incensed about the local party in part because of a battle earlier this year to set up a new Democratic Club on the west side that questioned who counts as a Democrat in San Francisco.
But progressives are also launching their own slate with political heavyweights like former Supervisor Jane Kim, who won her DCCC seat with the most votes of any candidate in both 2016 and 2020. Progressives need 17 seats to secure a majority on the committee and potentially endorse more progressive candidates running in November.
Kim said she’s confident that her slate will win because she doesn’t believe that voters in San Francisco are interested in moderate policies. She said the Labor and Working Families slate she is a part of speaks more to San Francisco values as a city that protects tenants’ rights, is skeptical of corporations and ensures affordable housing is built along with market-rate housing.
“We have a great track record of winning,” Kim said. “There’s always been a business-friendly, business-aligned slate every year that I’ve seen DCCC on the ballot. Same money, different name.”
Kim said she doesn’t take the money pouring into this little-known race lightly. She said that voters, regardless of their positions on a range of issues, have been united in the past to say money from billionaires and corporations doesn’t belong in San Francisco politics.
“Twenty years ago it was the Jobs PAC, then the Golden Gate Restaurant Association, and now there’s a different set of PACs,” Kim said. “It’s just a struggle we get to play out every election cycle and everyone’s engaged because we don’t know the outcome. But money doesn’t always win. That’s the hope.”
Reach Aldo Toledo: Aldo.Toledo@sfchronicle.com
Written By Aldo Toledo
Adalberto “Aldo” Toledo is a city hall reporter with The San Francisco Chronicle covering the mayor and Board of Supervisors. He is a Venezuelan American from a family of longtime journalists.
Before joining the Chronicle in 2023, he reported on Peninsula governments and breaking news for the San Jose Mercury News. He also has bylines in the Dallas Morning News, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Champaign, Illinois News-Gazette.
Raised in Texas, he studied journalism with a print news focus at the University of North Texas Mayborn School of Journalism, where he worked as News Editor for the North Texas Daily student newspaper.
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