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Stuff White People Don't Like: Replacing Incumbents
Now I finally have time to write about the DCCC meeting. But I’m not supposed to be working right now, so here’s the unedited, possibly offensive version. Enjoy!
Karen Babbitt and I got to the meeting early, but the place was packed by 7. Rick Hauptman said, “There are usually 3 people here besides me.”
Scott Wiener’s peeps were wearing Oscar Mayer stickers and wrinkle-inducing scowls. Behind us was a group of angry white boys who I thought were going to start throwing fruit at any minute. (Karen had just come from the farmer’s market, so I said, “You should have sold some tomatoes outside.”)
Two phrases that kept being repeated: “I am appalled” and “accountability.” Afterwards, we were wondering what the latter meant, and I think that was the Alice B. Toklas people tallying which DCCC members voted for Peskin.
Chris Daly was uncharacteristically quiet during the meeting. So was Robert Haaland. Afterwards, Debra Walker admitted to us that this was planned. She showed us an actual “Progressive Script” and joked about how she wanted to act it out the night before, but Daly and Haaland said no.
My least favorite person during public comment was this woman from Alice who said, “This isn’t the Green Party.” I was like, “The Green Party would’ve served some food at this shit!” SRSLY.
The swing vote ended up being Fiona Ma’s proxy, Susan Leal. This shocked everyone because Susan is not a progressive. In the beginning of the meeting, when they voted for temporary chair, Susan was booed and hissed at.
Susan stood up and told the audience about what she’d gone through after her accident and being fired from the PUC. She said that, although she was good friends with Scott and Peskin, Peskin had been her strongest supporter during that period. After Susan sat down Scott said, “Thank you, Susan. I was proud to support you in your run for mayor.” Ouch!
David Chiu and David Campos both voted for Peskin, which was a risk because they probably won’t be getting any edorsements from Alice. Laura Spanjian (who was on the Change Slate) and Jane Morrison both voted for Scott.
Arlo Hale Smith changed his vote from Wiener to Peskin at the last minute because the vote needed to be 18-16. He also suggested that everybody else change their vote to Peskin so that it would be unanimous. Then the people behind us started shouting “accountability.” It was scary.
Then Arlo started talking about being gay and supporting Scott Wiener because he’s gay, which pissed off Rick Hauptman because Arlo’s only been gay for like 4 years.
The final vote was 18-16 and a lot of the moderates walked out after that. I think they all went to Chevy’s or something.
I talked to Peskin’s wife, Nancy Shanahan, at the end and she said that she doesn’t normally attend these types of meetings. Then Peskin and I did a fist bump. The kids really seem to be into that stuff nowadays.
xoxo
PS: Some folks are still upset about that Change Slate mailer. One guy held it up for everybody to see during public comment, and Chris Daly and I looked at each other and laughed. Who saves those things? I mean, it doesn’t even have any pictures.
