A Positive, Issues-Oriented Campaign for the Richmond

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

I’ve been running my campaign for Richmond District Supervisor since January of 2015, sharing my views and ideas for our neighborhood through meet-and-greets, community newsletters, longer-form Medium posts, social media, door-knocking, and much, much more. The vision and solutions our campaign has brought to the table have been well-received by voters throughout the neighborhood, and I’m thrilled that the unprecedented amount of personal voter contact we’ve engaged in over nearly two years has led to a fruitful dialogue about the pertinent issues of the day. (More on my take on the issues here.)

It is easy to anticipate the way campaigns turn in the final days. I want to do what I’ve done over and over in this campaign, and that is communicate clearly and often to get in front of the narrative so residents of the Richmond can have some clarity and some reassurance about what’s at stake: that is, what is “signal” and what is “noise.”

Four years ago, we saw a pretty negative campaign here in D1 between the incumbent Supervisor and his challenger. Hundreds of thousands of dollars flowed into that race from outside groups in a way that neither candidate could really control. While we’ve already seen the races involving the Mission (D9) and Excelsior (D11) districts turn negative, I am proud of all ten candidates in this race that we’ve been able to avoid taking a turn in that direction. Open-seat races, ranked-choice voting systems, and a big field of candidates all make a positive final month a real possibility.

In short, we have an opportunity right now to make a clean break from the negativity of the race four years ago and the races we see across the city today. We can do this!

Here Are the Things We CAN Control as Candidates

• Messaging from our Campaign. Over the next four weeks, you will receive a lot of mail and hear and see a lot of ads. Only messages that say “Paid for by Vote Marjan Philhour for Supervisor 2016” are coming directly from our campaign. If you get a piece of advertising that seems “pro-Marjan” but does not have this disclaimer, remember that we are forbidden from coordinating with the sponsors of that advertising on message and spending. See more on this below.
• Training our Volunteers. We train our volunteers to (i) refrain from arguing with supporters of other candidates — and to stay positive; (ii) never deposit flyers in mail slots — this is illegal; (iii) do not approach houses that display notices about sleeping babies, ‘No Solicitors’ or that display signs indicating support for our opponents; (iv) do not attempt to enter an apartment building via subterfuge (for example, ringing all the bells and entering when randomly buzzed-in); (v) do not meddle with storefront window signs, and other common-sense practices. We encourage our volunteers to follow these instructions, and so far we’ve had positive results. Even better, some of our volunteers have taken up the practice of photographing blighted billboards … we’ve actually made some calls and gotten a few fixed!

• Public Responses. We can make public statements about campaign issues through our public channels, such as this one. And among the most important things we can do is engage with neighbors in comments on social media and present our positions transparently. I will do a little of that below. Unmoderated comments sections bring out the worst in people — I strongly recommend that everybody remember that each person running for office is doing so at great private cost, and for the best of intentions.
• Campaign fundraising. Any candidate can refuse donations, and we all work our hardest to solicit only legally and ethically appropriate donations. Candidates have to make a choice about whether they want to be financially viable, something that typically involves raising over $100,000 in amounts of $500 or less. The vast majority of any candidate’s coffers are filled, as are mine, by donations from friends and family, followed by public matching funds. Despite attempts to spread misinformation about this, only a small fraction of my own Supervisorial campaign donations have come from people involved in housing production (and a few of these were from friends who focus on affordable housing). Certainly no donation I have ever received will change my point of view on the issues. My campaign contributions have been public since I first filed over a year ago, and can all be found online at sfethics.org.

Here Are the Things We Cannot Control as Candidates

• Outside Expenditures. If you review the public documents around expenditures in this campaign, it is easy to identify two candidates who have raised the most: Commissioner Sandra Lee Fewer, and me. Both of us applied for and received public financing early; this led to strict and transparent reporting requirements. Both of us have fundraised well, and now several independent groups have also begun to spend on the race. Neither the Fewer campaign nor my own campaign is permitted to coordinate messaging or spending with these groups. If history is any guide, it is not unlikely that both of these groups will put out negative advertisements — I can hope that they don’t, but I also am forbidden from just picking up the phone and calling them. Their contact information, spending, and even examples of their ads are easy to find at sfethics.org. But, ultimately, it’s their money, and the unfortunate state of campaign finance in the United States thanks to Citizens United means they’ll do what they want with it. I join many of you in looking forward to nationwide, progressive campaign finance reform.
• Individuals / Free Press. Recently, one of my nine opponents, Sandra Lee Fewer, was the victim of baseless negative (and, sadly, typical) campaign-year “whisper” attacks about her ethnic background. Commissioner Fewer is running with the honor and benefit of having served our community for eight years on the School Board. Anybody who is connected to the Richmond District community knows that some of her stances have been contentious, including but not limited to her position on the the JROTC program, and that there are some outspoken individuals who have long disagreed with her positions. This is just a normal byproduct of serving in elected office. Many of these same individuals have been cool towards my own campaign because of my full-throated support for rent control, in particular my public stance that it may be appropriate to revisit parts of the Ellis Act that allow some property owners to exploit evictions in the name of profit. A completely separate set of people, of course, oppose my own candidacy for a variety of reasons. Fair enough — I don’t expect to win every vote! :) Regardless of anyone’s political alignment, it is their right to engage in public speech, but it is my hope and desire that they act transparently and publicly and do not generate confusion regarding uninvolved campaigns. (And, certainly, that they do not engage in any inappropriate activities!) In a free society, there isn’t much we can do as candidates or campaigns about any of this other than decry it and do our best to present a positive campaign message.
• Actions of Supporters. I too have seen smears against my own campaign — for example, there is, unfortunately, no shortage of anti-Filipino sentiment in our community. I have also experienced harassment, including (presumably non-actionable) threats of violence from people who feel they are politically aligned with some opponent. These are unfortunately often a part of campaigning and relatively easy to ignore — I don’t attribute any of it to any particular campaign or candidate. Every candidate, myself included, has supporters with whom they disagree on a wide variety of issues. Attributing the beliefs and actions of supporters to a candidate when the candidate clearly believes something different makes a mess of our civil dialogue.

None of us will agree on every issue, but I think we’re all invested in moving the Richmond District forward. Let’s choose to presume goodwill.

So I think all of this begs the question — what can you do as a Richmond District voter to help keep the last month of this campaign civil? I think everybody knows in their hearts the right answer to this: focus on the issues; meet the candidates in person; attend upcoming forums and debates, and ask questions of us. My volunteers and I have canvassed the entire Richmond District, end-to-end, three times. I’ve held weekly coffees, house parties, and events for months upon months. I’m not hard to find, nor are the other candidates — here are my upcoming events. Get to know us as the ordinary people we all are.

Ignore the noise, focus on the signal. We can do this!

Marjan Philhour is a candidate for Supervisor in San Francisco’s Richmond District (D1). Visit her campaign website at www.votemarjan.com.