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He Can’t Hear You

ARE ASIANS SUPPORTING YEE?: One political axiom goes: While you’re running for higher office, you should avoid supporting candidates in other races — especially ones with lots of candidates. Why? You’re trying to build support to win, not alienate important constituents.

For example, state Senator John Burton, whose daughter Kimiko is running for public defender next March, stayed out of the city attorney’s race. John is not playing favorites for now, as his daughter will need support from the city attorney, whoever that may be.

There is no point in alienating some potentially powerful allies. Steve Williams, Neil Eisenberg, Jim Lazarus and Dennis Herrera are among the city attorney candidates. Lazarus is a protégé of Senator Dianne Feinstein, who might have something to say about the public defender race. Herrera is a member of the important S.F. Democratic County Central Committee, which will concur with the S.F. Democratic Party on its endorsement of either Kimiko or Jeff Adachi, the former chief trial attorney for the public defender’s office.

That brings us to Leland Yee, who has attracted competition in his race for the Democratic nomination in the 12th Assembly to succeed Kevin Shelley. School Board member and former Yee colleague Dan Kelly has entered the race, as has Jeffrey Chen — legal counsel for the S.F. Neighbors Association. They are running in a district that is 44 percent Asian Pacific American. Yet this large population only has a 24 percent voting bloc.

Yee has groomed his Chinatown liaison, Ed Jew, to be his successor on the Board of Supervisors. Jew has already resigned from the S.F. Republican County Central Committee and changed his party registration.

Well, that didn’t sit well among some APA organizations whose silence in this race is deafening. Adding to the intrigue, some major APA Democrats — disenchanted with Yee — egged on James Fang, a Republican BART Director and publisher of AsianWeek, to enter the race against Yee.

To compare, at the start of summer, two gay candidates in the liberal east side 13th Assembly District received the early blessing of two major gay clubs. The Alice B. Toklas Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Democratic Club anointed Supervisor Mark Leno as their candidate to succeed Carole Migden as Assembly member. The Harvey Milk GLBT Club weighed in with former Supervisor Harry Britt.

Meanwhile, in the 12th District, the Chinese American Democratic Club, Westside Chinese Democratic Club, Asian Pacific Democratic Club, Chinese American Citizens Alliance, S.F. Francisco Neighbors Association and other APA organizations have not budged an inch.

CADC, for one, early last year gave Yee a very lukewarm “early” endorsement for supervisor. This reluctance comes because Yee hasn’t been proactive on minority business contract issues — a staple of the club. Additionally, Yee has rediscovered his love for Mayor Willie Brown, who’s supporting Yee and not exactly loved by CADC. Some of the club’s emeritus presidents stepped up to bat for Judge Lillian Sing’s own brief assembly candidacy early this year. Sing’s former supporters have badmouthed Yee for trading his support of the mayor for his endorsement.

Then there’s the S.F. Neighbors Association, led by powerhouse Julie Lee of the Housing Authority. Lee’s son, Andrew, has given all indications of running to succeed Yee with his mug shots on every Health and Energy Fair poster and flyer as a liason for the mayor in the Sunset and Richmond districts. Julie Lee also has Jeffrey Chen as a horse in this race. Chen served as her counsel and chief instigator of the recount on behalf of Mabel Teng, who eventually lost her re-election for supervisor. Lee, while not helping Yee, cheerfully helped Teng’s race for assessor by sponsoring five tables at her 50-table event at Far East Café last month.

Then there’s the newly formed Westside Chinese Democratic Club, whose president, Fiona Ma (AsianWeek entertainment columnist), has hit the ground running for supervisor by sending out mailers to lock up endorsements and checks. Ma, an aide to state Senate pro tem President John Burton, is an accountant, whose expertise might be helpful with the city budget facing deficits down the road.

While APA political support is placid, one of the first organizations to endorse the race — the Democratic Women’s Forum — voted “no recommendation” last week. Yee fell a few votes short of the 60 percent required for endorsement.

SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY: David Lee of the non-partisan Chinese American Voters Education Committee observed that the Chinese American Democratic Club was trying to help Rose Tsai by courting liberal candidates. Unfortunately, their plans didn’t work.

The defeat of Measure I, which would create a municipal utility district and take over power distribution from PG&E in San Francisco and Brisbane, rendered the results of the five MUD ward candidates in the Nov. 6 election moot.

CADC supported Municipal Utility District candidates Joel Ventresca (Ward 3), Joe Alioto Veronese (Ward 2), Garrett Jenkins (Ward 5) and Medea Benjamin (Ward 4) in hopes that their coalition building would bring liberal votes to conservative commentator Tsai. The CADC endorsement may have helped Ventresca, Veronese and Jenkins, who won, while Tsai finished fourth place in Ward 1. Meanwhile, by collaborating with Ventresca, Phil Ting ended up in second place. The anti-mayoral CADC refused to endorse Ting, since the Ward 3 candidate chaired a commission under Willie Brown. And CADC’s support for Jenkins hurt Leanna Louie’s chances in Ward 5.

I DO THE CLUB CRAWL: If you have a meeting to announce or cover, e-mail me at samson@sfindependent.com, call 359-2899, or fax me at 826-5371.