Smearing for IRV

The supporters of instant runoff voting promised that their system would reduce negative campaigning.

Well, hypocrisy rhymes with democracy.

IRV supporters are conducting a nasty campaign to smear the Chinese American Voters Education Committee, a group concerned about IRV’s potential to confuse and disenfranchise more than 15,000 voters who use Chinese-language ballots.

CAVEC filed a complaint May 23 with California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley to prevent IRV’s final certification for San Francisco’s November election.

If Shelley certifies IRV, CAVEC will likely sue to halt the use of IRV in this fall’s election.

For filing the complaint, CAVEC, a voter education and rights organization since the early 1970s, is being characterized as an unwitting stooge for Gavin Newsom’s mayoral campaign and allies. Pro-IRV people contend that CAVEC and other groups are trying to deep-six IRV because it they think it would weaken Newsom’s mayoral candidacy.

Because of its tax-exempt status, CAVEC cannot endorse candidates, but the group can take a stand on voter-rights issues by, for instance, contesting IRV.

Pro-IRV forces promised that IRV would limit negative campaigning. Yet, hypocritically, they’re conducting a smear campaign to discredit the nonpartisan CAVEC.

For example, the Bay Guardian, unabashedly advocating in its stories and editorial pages for IRV’s implementation, published a July 2 story titled “Who’s Fighting Election Reform?” The story said about CAVEC, “It’s the same crew that backs Gavin Newsom for mayor.”

In pro-IRV commentary published in the June 19 edition of AsianWeek, San Francisco Board of Education members Eric Mar and Mark Sanchez wrote that a “disinformation campaign has begun and unfortunately (CAVEC director) David Lee has become part of it.”

In an attempt to show guilt by association, Mar and Sanchez described Lee’s lawyers representing CAVEC in its complaint as “longtime associates of Willie Brown.” Along with CAVEC, the A. Philip Randolph Institute (an African American voter-registration group) and San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee member Mary Jung co-signed the complaint.

David Lee hasn’t taken this lying down.

In a July 11 AsianWeek rebuttal, Lee angrily chastised Mar: “Earth to Mar: It’s not about your silly Willie (Brown) world conspiracy theories, it’s about your misguided effort to screw Chinese Americans out of their votes in service of your political agenda and on behalf of your candidate, Tom Ammiano.”

Weeks before, Lee demanded that the Bay Guardian “produce any evidence to support (the) groundless charge” of being aligned with Newsom, Mayor Willie Brown or a “political machine.”

CHECKS AND BALANCES: The charges by pro-IRV advocates against CAVEC are ludicrous, given that executive director Lee is accountable to a three-member board of directors: lawyers Adrianne Tong and Douglas Chan, and Supervisor Fiona Ma.

The nonpartisan, nonprofit group can’t support Newsom, given the internal checks and balances. Ma is supporting Susan Leal for mayor (Leal supports IRV). If CAVEC even tried to pull strings for Newsom, Ma would likely blow the whistle on any such activity.

At CAVEC’s annual fund-raiser this spring, Newsom introduced the keynote speaker, Senator Dianne Feinstein. However, the committee also gave equal time to Leal, who was on stage to present an award.

One might contend that CAVEC could be a pro-Ma group. That hypothesis won’t hold up, either. Board member Doug Chan endorsed one of Ma’s opponents, businessman Ron Dudum, in the race for supervisor.

Meanwhile, board chair Adrianne Tong is a deputy city attorney who works for Dennis Herrera, who as city attorney is no longer able to endorse candidates for mayor.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I was chairman and director of CAVEC during the 1980s and in 1994. Now I’m the editor of AsianWeek, which supported IRV last year but recently editorialized that implementation should be deferred until 2004.