Maybe Next Time
December 22, 2000
Learning from the loss of Asian Americans on the Board
By Neela Banerjee
With all the votes counted, San Francisco’s new Board of Supervisors is being heralded by progressives for its majority of independent candidates and neighborhood activists who aren’t beholden to the so-called Willie Brown political machine. But this victory is tempered by the loss of diversity on the Board — which now has one African American woman, one Asian American man, two Latino men and seven white men.
“I think this is definitely a setback,” said David Lee, of the Chinese American Voters Education Committee. “There is no other way to look at it.”
For San Francisco’s 37 percent Asian American population, the Board’s loss of incumbents Michael Yaki and Mabel Teng means a severe setback for diverse representation. This blow is especially significant in a year when district elections were revived after over two decades to put power back into the hands of the people of San Francisco and some 15 Asian American candidates who ran for office.
But the switch to district elections jolted some candidates who were accustomed to the widespread support they could garner in citywide elections.
“Some of the Asian American candidates were just not prepared for this kind of election,” Lee said.
Asian American candidates like Teng had strong support from Asian Americans, especially Chinese Americans, across the city. But as seen from last week’s results, district elections proved to divide the city and its ethnic communities.
Teng found herself representing a primarily white district where, during runoff campaigns, she struggled to assert her position on neighborhood issues, instead of focusing on her Board record. Teng has been a supervisor since 1994.
Dismal voter turnout, a 30 percent average for the city with some districts showing as low as 23 percent, was the main factor that affected this election. And for some candidates, last minute campaign choices made a big difference. One staff member from the Teng campaign conceded that they failed to address absentee ballot voters during the final weeks leading up to election night. “Hall got all the absentee ballot votes. We went door-to-door, and to shopping centers. We didn’t spend any big money on advertising or mailers,” said Sherman Tang on election night.
Teng received 12,673 votes in the November election, but only 9,294 in December.
“My question is what happened to those 3,000 voters,” Lee said. “There are people who voted specifically for her in November. Now, why wouldn’t they come back out?”
Lee said many candidates may have underestimated how important voter turnout really was in this election and may have become complacent.
In District 1, Jake McGoldrick was not considered a big threat to Yaki, who has been on the Board since 1996.
“Frankly, I’d never heard of the guy,” said San Francisco State University political science professor Rich De Leon. “But he was really known in the neighborhood and that is what really meant something this time around.”
In District 3, Lawrence Wong won all of the Chinatown precincts but lost all of North Beach and Nob Hill to Aaron Peskin.
“Wong did do better this time around because he seemed to have gained all of the Rose Chung votes,” Lee said. “But he just couldn’t cross-over to the white voters.”
Wong received 2,910 votes in November and Chung received 2,186. During the runoff, Wong’s count went up to 5,212, whereas Peskin’s numbers in both races stayed the same.
“Chinatown voters actually had a healthy turnout,” Lee said. “It could have been higher but it seemed like equal numbers of people really came back.”
Wong seemed to gain Chung’s votes in the runoff election, even though Chung had endorsed Peskin. This was a pattern among Asian American candidates defeated in the November primary: in District 1 Rose Tsai endorsed McGoldrick instead of Yaki, and in District 4 Tom Hsieh endorsed John Shanley instead Yee.
Even the Chinese American Democratic Club endorsed McGoldrick, and had no endorsement in Wong’s District 3 or Teng’s District 7.
“In every case, the defeated Asian American opponent then supported the white candidate,” Lee said. “There needs to be a real recognition that district elections are not forgiving and any negative campaigning really affects the vote.”
De Leon said this election showed a move toward ideology-based choices instead of identity-based ones.
“The whole issue of growth is what really mobilized voters this time around,” De Leon said. “Anyone rightly or wrongly associated with Willie Brown was swept out.”
Lee said that even though the Board no longer looks like the rest of San Francisco, members must understand that they are accountable to the Asian American community, especially because half the Board will be up for election in two years.
“The Asian American community will be watching to see if these new Board members will be hiring Asian and bilingual staff members” Lee said. “We will be watching to see what community events they attend and how they stand on issues that are important to us.”
Both Lee and De Leon said in the long run district elections will offer more freedom and diversity on the Board.
“We’re going to have to ride this out,” Lee said. “We’re not ready to indict district elections yet — we should see how the community is served first.”
Lee added that the new Board and the loss of Asian American representation has already begun to mobilize the community.
“I’ve already been getting calls from people saying that we need to get out there and register our voters, that we need to get candidates that can win a district election,” Lee said.
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