While some Mission residents have a troubled relationship with tech companies and their employees, most have no issues with tech products and using them to amplify their voices. There’s probably no need for another blog about life in the Mission, but one of the reasons I started The Mission Position was because I noticed that the majority of sites were representative of only one particular point of view: the loud, irrational subset of the Mission that so many of us who live here can’t stand. Most Mission blogs certainly don’t speak to my experience.

Case in point: the progressive defender of juvenile diabetes Tom Temprano, who writes a “column” called Tom’s Town for the “news” website 48 Hills. Tom’s Town supposedly describes my neighborhood, but it resembles nothing of the sort. That’s because Tom is part of SF’s Extreme Left, who simultaneously live here and in an alternate universe. It’s a natural fit for 48 Hills, which is a news site in the same way Carrot Top is a comedian.

In the latest edition of Tom’s Town, Temprano congratulated himself for lasting ten whole years in San Francisco by reflecting on how the city has changed since he first arrived. Like so many transplants of his political ilk, Tom believes that San Francisco was perfect the day he arrived, and all the changes (and people) that came after him are an abomination. Thank Zeus he’s fighting to protect SF from all the arrogant bearded hipster bastards who think they have a right to come and establish a life here. Tom did lament about one thing that hasn’t changed:

“Despite moving here eight months after he left office, I have never lived in a San Francisco where Willie Brown wasn’t the mayor. While Gavin and Ed’s names may have technically graced the plaque outside of Room 200, we all know who the real boss has been.”

Putting aside the validity of this trite observation for a second, let’s dovetail on this point. Because for the last six years in the Mission, I’ve had to live with Chris Daly as my Supervisor, and there’s no end in sight.

Even though he left the Board of Supervisors three years ago, Daly, who now runs the powerful SEIU 1021 union, continues to dictate an extremist agenda for San Francisco’s Far-Left Tea Party. Daly decides what San Francisco’s so-called progressive elected officials say and how they vote, including the Mission’s Supervisor David Campos. Campos may technically be our neighborhood’s representative in City Hall, but we all know Daly is the real boss.

This was on full display last month when Campos conspired with other Far-Lefties on the committee for San Francisco’s local Democratic Party in voting to not endorse the upcoming election for BART board. For those unaware, James Fang, San Francisco’s representative on the board for BART for the last two decades, is the only remaining Republican who still holds office in our city. Democrat Nicholas Josefowitz is currently challenging Fang for the seat. Despite being the only Democrat in the race (and a good one at that), Josefowitz was denied the endorsement of the local Democrats, to the disbelief of many political observers and party members. Fang’s campaign seized the moment and immediately sent out an email highlighting Josefowitz’s “rejection” from his own party (for a SF election like the BART board, the party’s endorsement can mean the difference between winning and losing).

Isn’t it odd that David Campos, who portrays himself as the most progressive guy in City Hall, our neighborhood’s self-anointed champion of the little guy, voted to support a Republican candidate over a Democrat? Maybe he and his buddies have finally gone so far left that they circled around and ended up on the right?

The truth is that Campos voted against a member of his own party because Chris Daly told him to. Republican James Fang sided with the BART workers during last year’s drawn-out strike that overloaded MUNI, snarled traffic, and quadrupled our commute times. The union that represents those BART workers? Chris Daly’s SEIU 1021. The vote to deny Josefowitz the approval of the Democratic Party was the type of backroom politics that Progressives are supposed to abhor. Chris Daly owed James Fang a favor for his support last year. David Campos made sure that favor got paid, and San Francisco’s only Republican gets to keep his job.

One shady deal deserves another of course, so Chris Daly is also working behind the scenes to make sure Campos gets elected to the Assembly in a couple of weeks. If Campos wins, Daly has a puppet for ostensibly another 12 years. It would be a coup for Daly, who has entrenched himself as the de facto leader of SF’s Extreme Left. He has parlayed his control over SEIU (along with their $$$ and votes) into a scary amount of influence over opportunistic politicians eager for his support. Campos’ Assembly campaign website (wisely) doesn’t list him as one of his official endorsers, but it only takes a few seconds with Google to see how heavily Chris Daly has been involved in running Campos’ campaign.

If you recall, an obscene amount of campaign mail littered the Mission in the weeks before the primary election last June. These pamphlets were so comically negative that you could hear the evil piano music as you read them. A group calling themselves “Nurses, Teachers and Working Families United to Support David Campos for Assembly 2014” bombarded my mailbox. I was curious to see what kind of arrogant political group could claim to speak for nurses, teachers, and working families, so I looked up the address listed on the bottom of the flyer. Lo and behold, that address is also listed as Chris Daly’s office. It was only a surprise because he’s usually slicker than that. Let’s also distinguish the actions of self-aggrandizing union leaders like Daly from the views of their members, as well as labor leaders who are actually focused on protecting workers from abuse. Most “nurses, teachers, and working families” I know are apolitical, let alone concerned with putting an uninspiring, do-nothing shill like Campos into higher office. Daly exploits his members, collecting and misspending their union dues to dole out personal favors to friends like Campos, who represent a guaranteed return and automatic vote for ridiculous and unsustainable policies.

So who suffers in the end? We all do. Whatever you want to say about power brokers like Willie Brown, you can say about power brokers like Chris Daly. Different name, same game, sprinkled with a little Progressive self-righteousness. The far-left who criticize this type of pay-to-play politics, but turn a blind eye to the hypocrisy of their own leaders should be ashamed. “But he’s OUR crony” is not a good excuse.

How’s this for a revelation? I don’t want a forever mayor OR a forever supervisor. I don’t want someone who wasn’t elected by my community and doesn’t even live in my city, to have so much sway over someone who was elected to represent my interests, but has done nothing but trade favors with his boosters. Local labor leader and green housing advocate Michael Theriault wrote this recently about the problematic relationships between SF’s Extreme Left leaders:

“I cannot recall an instance of when a Campos vote departed from what had been declared ‘Progressive’ by the arbiter of the moment, be it Chris Daly or the Bay Guardian. I have often noted here and elsewhere that in matters of Trades work the default ‘Progressive’ position in San Francisco is profoundly conservative, one of preserving the present physical character of the City, no matter the cost to working people. Campos has been a good soldier for that conservatism.”

Along with their quid pro quos, Daly and his crew have done their damnedest over the years to stop any improvements and investments in our neighborhoods, playing a huge role in the housing crisis we’re facing now. Years of making consequential policy decisions based on personal favors between NIMBYs have created a crescendo of inescapable problems.

Unless you want to believe their narrative that Google and Twitter are responsible for all of our city’s issues.

Why else would Tom, Daly, and Campos constantly blog and tweet about how tech ruins everything and contributes nothing? It couldn’t be misdirection could it?

Hmm…

TL;DR

In order to expand influence and power, the Far-Left in SF rely heavily on granting each other political favors, even if it means throwing everyone (including their own party) under the bus. Chris Daly has been the ringleader in recent years, using elected officials like David Campos to lead the “blame tech” movement. SF will continue to suffer if we allow this type of cronyism.