United we sit: An almost full house
at Tuesday’s annual Democratic Party “Unity Luncheon”
held at the Saint Francis Drake Hotel.
Photos by Luke Thomas
By Hope Johnson
April 23, 2009
Good news first.
Paid attendance at Tuesday’s San Francisco Democratic Party luncheon was twice last year’s count, more than the annual event has ever attracted. Positive results are due, in no small part, to a positive change in leadership at the Democratic County Central Committee (DCCC).
Chair Aaron Peskin pledged a more active, influential DCCC. Stay tuned here. Doubling contributors to this event is evidence he’s delivering. According to Peskin, over $50,000 was raised, half the annual budget. Those funds help register more voters and build a stronger party. Over 8000 new voters were registered by the party last year.
On to, off the wall news.
Apparent lack of unity at the infamously titled “Unity Luncheon” is now a favorite butt of online jokes. But, open your mind to party unity achieved by an afternoon of consistently practicing disunity. Unity through disunity. Very San Francisco.
“This is what happens in our party,” said Peskin. “And, in the end, we put aside our differences and unite the way we did this last November to win our country back.”
San Francisco’s own Democratic mayor officially kicked off the disunity, announcing everyone could just go on and count him out of any unity stuff. He’s not been around much lately, but I sort of remember him and I think his name is Waldo, or Gavin, or something.
The San Francisco Building Construction Trades Council (BTC) offered up party divisiveness via an event picket line outside the Sir Francis Drake Hotel, where the lunch was held. Confusion set in as attendees pondering whether to enter the hotel also found it tough going to get a unified answer on the exact issue at protest.
Thou protesteth too much:
Local 38’s Larry Mazzola Jr., pointing his finger 180 degrees in the wrong direction.
 
While a befuddled Supervisor Chris Daly stands strong amidst the commotion.
Wedge opportunist Supervisor Sean Elsbernd revels in his divisive handywork.
Quid pro quo Supervisor Bevan Dufty to Mazzola:
Don’t forget I’m running for mayor!
Picketers wanted to tap that party unity through disunity action, too. Picket signs called for the resignation of Peskin and Supervisor Chris Daly but individual protesters offered a wide range of reasons for that request. FCJ volunteered at the lunch and attendees questioned couldn’t agree on why the construction unions were so upset. The majority believed the protest was over the Board of Supervisor’s refusal to support Local 38’s (surprise!) Larry Mazzola, Jr. for the Golden Gate Bridge District board; while others heard the issue was Peskin’s support for the voter approved Historic Preservation Commisson, established in November.
Even Board of Supes President and luncheon keynote speaker David Chiu had trouble deciphering the exact union complaint. Chiu told FCJ he had a “good conversation” with the picketers. However, his response to FCJ inquiry as to the reason for the protest was, “I don’t know.”
My favorite entry in unity through disunity was submitted by the hotel. Lunch at the event was a lovely cobb salad, served with careful attention that no food items on the same plate touch each other. Each ingredient was placed in its own distinct little pile around the plate, no mixing, no unity! Artsy food disunity. Very San Francisco.
Political Wedgies
Seriously, though, the construction unions’ picket line was successful at physically separating Democratic party members on Tuesday. Stay alert that this power play doesn’t turn into a misplaced psychological belief that progressives are at war with unions in general.
There are six progressives supervisors who are fighting to save union jobs amidst an unprecedented $576 million budget crisis.
By all appearances, including a lack of a strong specific statement on the picketers part, Tuesday’s picket line was less a protest than an attempt to divide the unity shown to date by the six progressive supervisors, who hold a majority on the 11-member board.
It also sets the stage for more tacky smear campaigns. Future candidates with solid labor support credentials will undoubtedly be labeled anti-union by finger pointers with little other substantive evidence for their claims. Wait, we wouldn’t do that in San Francisco, would we? Okay, you’re right, maybe at some of the more conservative local newspapers.
Remember, when you point one finger at someone, three fingers will point back at you.
“Our political opponents are looking to drive a wedge between progressives and labor,” Daly explained to FCJ. “We need to acknowledge that.”
Supervisor Chris Daly
Stay tuned.
Fun Fact
Pirate Cat Radio discusses the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District Board appointment with FCJ here (under Kings of SF podcast for April 17, 2009).
The Hunger Site
April 27, 2009 at 9:41 pm
OMG! The Fking comments are funny as hell, and right on it! Hope and Luke you’re too real for the masses. LoL!
April 27, 2009 at 9:08 am
The lunch was a fiasco because of the behavior of three bullying, patriarchal males, Larry Mazzola, Chris Daly, and Aaron Peskin. Each swaggers around, kicks up sand in the faces of everybody else, and wants the top slot on on the alpha-male totem pole.
The motto of all three is the Peskin principle, “Payback is a bitch.” It brings to mind the Nixon Principle: “You’ll pay, don’t think you won’t pay.”
Aaron Peskin and Richard Nixon were worlds apart ideologically. But their testosterone political style shared the same retrograde childishness and vindictiveness.
Much of politics throughout history has been conducted in this way. It won’t work anymore. The problems now facing the human race are too ominous, and the consequences too dire, to continue with Stone Age behavior in politics.
A step in the right direction would be for politicians to start acting like adults.
Imagine that.
April 26, 2009 at 12:51 pm
Ruth, you are so right about politics as usual. My brother and I are on the same page on wanting an investigation into torture, but he is already making excuses for the democrats, saying they were probably threatened with treason. I think he has been watching too much MSNBC.
April 25, 2009 at 9:08 pm
What we have now in SF is politics as usual, on all sides, and in all factions. The disunity unity luncheon proves this point.
Same with the rest of the world – politics as usual everywhere.
I’m beginning to wonder if politics as usual is good enough anymore – given the daunting problems that are now piling up on the human race, including San Franciscans.
Maybe we all need to start thinking outside the box about what politics ought to be.
The people who are least likely to make such a jump outside the box are the ones who are fighting to preserve their own careers, turfs, and perks.
Which is every politician and every wannabe politician in SF.
April 25, 2009 at 11:06 am
It is nice that Larry Mazolla Jr. provided some street theatre for C.W. Nevius and other right wing blogosphere flaks.
But let’s get real about Local 38’s endorsements in the last election: Sue Lee D1; Joe Alioto D3; Sean Elsbernd D7; Eva Royale D9 and Ahsha Safai D11.
As Mayor Alioto used to say, you can’t take a loser’s ticket to the winners window. Hard cheese.
It should not come as a shock for this union any other group that if they go negative against an incumbent in an election and lose, the object of the attacks will get payback. Unless someone is a masochist that is human nature.
April 25, 2009 at 8:46 am
Yeah Ruth,
There’s a problem and a solution right before us. We have some 100% real Democratic politicians out there. People like Jeff Adachi and Mike Hennessey. Daly’s real too. Problem is, they don’t get the play the pretty boy hustlers (Leno, Mirk, Dufty) get by kissing ass to the cameras and power brokers.
Seriously, look at events. The phony, ego driven politicos regularly attack those who are the real deal. Newsom is trying to foist the fact that he harbored an MS-13 murderer (Edwin Gonzalez) off on Hennessey. John Avalos’ first exercise of authority as Budget Chair was to attack Adachi for refusing to budge on adequate legal representation for the poor. You’re onto something there with the ‘who’s real and who’s milking it for personal gain’ thing.
Hey, I’m no Democrat (although I’m re-registering as one to negate the vote of some prick who posts on the Guardian – one election only). I’m no Democrat but the scene looks better than it has in 20 years in my own estimation.
h.
April 25, 2009 at 5:30 am
Ruth – it still is the good old days. The democratic machine still operates the same old way, except now it is run by Aaron and Chris, the new Willies. Progressives thought they would change the democratic party – it is actually the other way around. Chris is in bed with high-rise developers so they provide $$ that he can spread around and buy political favors. Aaron acts like Napoleon. Ahhh, the good old days.
April 24, 2009 at 12:32 pm
The disunity unity luncheon was a lot of fun to watch. All the politicians across the spectrum came across as cheesy, and then felt self-righteous about it.
It was just like the good old days in SF – before the rise of progressivism.
Anybody see a problem here?
April 24, 2009 at 9:45 am
“Kites rise highest against the wind — not with it.”
— Winston Churchill
April 23, 2009 at 4:49 pm
Larry Mazzola, Tim Paulson.?…..Harry Bridges is a’groaning in his grave.
Jabberwocky…..
….a poem of nonsense verse..literary nonsense.
April 23, 2009 at 4:05 pm
Keep bickering Matt, I love to see San Francisco’s Neo-cons er… socialist work themselves into a lather.
April 23, 2009 at 3:50 pm
How many people that honored the picket line asked for their money back? Just asking.
April 23, 2009 at 2:32 pm
Richmondman,
Feel free to use that excuse if it makes you feel better. In the meantime, GO SOCIALISTS!!! … By the way, it should be noted that Aaron Peskin is doing a FANTASTIC job as head of the DCCC and it seems that many labor unions agree since they were happy to cross the picket line and proudly stand by him and Chris Daly at the shindig. I actually feel embarrassed FOR Mazzola and his dinky crusade.
April 23, 2009 at 2:03 pm
Matt Stewart – “Labor protesting the Democratic Party because one influential person didn’t get what he wanted ” Chris Daly opposed Larry Mazzola because he (Daly) didn’t get what he wanted (labor support for his supervisorial run). Labor felt a slap in the face because “their” seat went to Critical Mass. There is war between the socialists and Labor. You’ll see it next election.
April 23, 2009 at 1:45 pm
When will California swing back to sanity?
April 23, 2009 at 12:36 pm
High comedy, when true believers come to power they end up bickering like the idiots they are. When will San Francisco swing back to sanity?
April 23, 2009 at 12:02 pm
Everyone knows that I am no longer a Chris Daly supporter. His refusal to support Mirkarimi for BoS president was my deal breaker and therefore, he will never have my support again-BUT- to see my labor brothers protesting and naming him and Peskin as “union busters” is quite disturbing. It is really a shame that this tactic is being employed. As not only a union member that works in SF, but one who has to live in SF without the benefit of a high wage, there are times when progressives are forced to make decisions that may be unpalatable to certain sectors of labor when poor people’s interests are at stake.The HPC was approved by the voters and surely was not created to kill jobs. I believe there is plenty of work to be done building REAL affordable housing, union jobs for labor and housing for the community. I am tired of young families and people of color exiting San Francisco. We need a meaningful strategy to resolve the housing crisis and the union jobs will follow.
April 23, 2009 at 11:11 am
Labor protesting the Democratic Party because one influential person didn’t get what he wanted … Does Mazzola really have that much support or is he just alienating himself amongst other people in the labor community? In any case, Chris is only going to be in office for one more year and Aaron Peskin isn’t even a Supervisor anymore. Mazzola needs a new phony issue.