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The Power of Party Lines

STATE GOP CZAR ENDORSES LEE: The California Republican Party chairman, Shawn Steel, has endorsed nonprofit director Andrew Lee for the District 4 (Sunset) supervisor seat. The endorsement caused some consternation with the S.F. Republican Party, which wasn’t consulted about the nod to Lee — who’s a Democrat endorsed by two prominent Democrats, Mayor Willie Brown and Assemblyman Kevin Shelley. Republicans represent one-sixth of voters in the district.

Further, since candidates won’t formally file until Aug. 9, Steel may hurt a dyed-in-the-wool, Republican-registered candidate who could enter the race and receive the local party nod.

Lee is now in a position to contest for the Republican votes. In particular, Lee could hurt the closest candidate to being a Republican — Ed Jew, a former elected member of the S.F. Republican County Central Committee. Jew, a Burlingame homeowner who has “lived” in the district since only last September, resigned from the Republican committee and re-registered as an independent.

Finally, the two Republican Parties are quite different. Steel represents a much more conservative state Republican Party. Meanwhile, his moderate San Francisco Republican counterparts could endorse a Democrat or an independent if no Republican files to run for supervisor by the Aug. 9 filing deadline.

DEMOCRATS TO ENDORSE: The S.F. Democratic Party, which sends its recommendations to over 250,000 voters citywide, decided June 26 to endorse Democrats for supervisor races this fall. Two years ago, the party, through the elected Democratic County Central Committee, opted out of endorsing candidates. One major reason was that over a dozen members of the committee were considering running for district supervisor in the November 2000 election. To avoid an internal fight, the party decided to stay out of it.

The party is expected, after the Aug. 9 filing deadline, to interview and endorse candidates for Districts 2 (Marina/Pacific Heights), 4 (Sunset), 6 (Civic Center / Tenderloin), 8 (Castro/Upper Market) and 10 (Bayview/Hunter’s Point).

In particular, the party’s endorsement will impact the District 4 race that will decide the successor to Leland Yee, who will leave for Sacramento after he defeats the token opposition for the 12th Assembly District seat. Yee currently is the only Asian Pacific American on the board.

Out of the five seats up for election, District 4 is the most promising to elect an APA. Some 53 percent of the population is APA, and over one-third of all District voters are Asian. The bonus will be on the party to endorse one APA in district 4 from among the candidates — particularly Democrats Andrew Lee and Fiona Ma, an accountant who’s an aide to state Senator John Burton. If an APA is not elected this year, there will likely be calls to either change district elections or end it.

IT’S IN THE MAIL: Those qualified to vote and endorse a candidate at the Chinese American Democratic Club shouldn’t bother showing up. The notification for the group’s May 30 meeting was mailed five calendar days earlier during the Memorial Day weekend, and at least three members didn’t receive the card at all or received it the same day of the meeting.

“What could have delayed [it] is that Monday [May 27] was a public holiday,” said club president Sam Kwong, who denied the mailing was manipulated.

“If our records reflected someone had paid a membership this year, we sent [a notice] to the person,” said Hayden Lee. Lee is responsible for sending out meeting announcements.

Personally, I didn’t receive a notice, even though I’m an 18-year-long member. I sent in a renewal check on April 8, yet the check went uncashed until June 13.

The secretary, however, acknowledged that I had paid and was qualified to vote.

Lee could not explain why that happened. Kwong said that the club has 80 to 100 members. When he was asked about how many voters were qualified on May 30, Lee interrupted and said, “We don’t discuss that.”

A head count on May 30 showed that only 19 members voted on the endorsement.

Despite the dubious voting procedures, the club went ahead and endorsed an all-Ed slate: former Republican Ed Jew for supervisor in District 4 and Eddie Chin for Board of Education.

SPAM FOR SAM: Reach Samson Wong at samson@sfindependent.com.