{"id":69215,"date":"2024-12-16T14:48:01","date_gmt":"2024-12-16T22:48:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=69215"},"modified":"2024-12-16T14:48:01","modified_gmt":"2024-12-16T22:48:01","slug":"san-franciscos-chinese-political-leadership-wanes-even-as-voting-power-peaks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=69215","title":{"rendered":"San Francisco\u2019s Chinese Political Leadership Wanes Even as Voting Power Peaks"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By<\/span>Peter Schurmann<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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David Lee (center) during a press briefing in San Francisco’s Chinatown on the growing power of the city’s Chinese American electorate. To his right is retired SF Superior Court Judge Lillian Sing and Henry Derr. At left is Ding Lee, former president of the Chinese Six Companies. (Credit: Peter Schurmann)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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SAN FRANCISCO \u2013 Early in his campaign, then-mayoral candidate Daniel Lurie located his headquarters in the heart of San Francisco\u2019s Chinatown. A nod to the voting power of the city\u2019s Chinese American community, that decision likely helped win him the election.<\/p>\n

But advocates say that even as the Chinese American vote reaches its peak in city politics, there are fewer Chinese elected officials today than at any time in a generation.<\/p>\n

\u201cLurie would not have won without the Chinese vote,\u201d says David Lee, an educator and head of the non-profit Chinese American Voters Education Committee. \u201cLook at where his top precincts are,\u201d notes Lee, pointing to a series of electoral maps highlighting where and how San Francisco\u2019s Chinese Americans voted. \u201cHe placed first in District 1\u2026 in District 2, 3, 4 and 7.\u201d<\/p>\n

All of them except District 2 \u2013 Lurie\u2019s home district \u2013 are heavily Chinese, Lee says.<\/p>\n

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Map showing how San Francisco districts voted during the Nov. 5 mayoral race, with red indicating votes for current Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie and green representing outgoing Mayor London Breed.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lurie\u2019s opponent, incumbent Mayor London Breed, meanwhile, only won in four districts, none of which have significant Chinese populations.<\/p>\n

\u201cLurie won because he was able to take away two very important pieces of Breed\u2019s coalition,\u201d explains Lee, \u201cwhite moderates and Chinese voters. That is the difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lee says spending on political ads targeting the Chinese community marked one of the highest expenditures during the November race,\u00a0some $1 million<\/a>\u00a0in total.<\/p>\n

He spoke during a recent press briefing held in the offices of the Chinese Six Companies in the heart of Chinatown, an historic site where the walls themselves exude the long history of the Chinese community\u2019s\u00a0fight for representation<\/a>\u00a0in San Francisco dating back to the mid-1800s. A large image of the early 20th<\/sup>\u00a0Century Chinese revolutionary leader, Sun Yat Sen hangs above.<\/p>\n

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The front entrance to the Chinese Six Companies in San Francisco\u2019s Chinatown. (Credit: Peter Schurmann)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

If you want to see where Chinese \u2013 about 20% of the overall population \u2013 live in San Francisco today, says Lee, just look at which districts voted \u201cno\u201d on Measure K, the ballot initiative that proposed to shut down a stretch of coastal roadway connecting the city\u2019s two westernmost \u2013 and heavily Chinese \u2013 districts, the Sunset and the Richmond.<\/p>\n

A series of green \u201cno\u201d votes punctuate swaths of the city, from the Richmond and Sunset in the west to the working-class Excelsior neighborhood in the city\u2019s south and, in the center of a large red patch of yes voters clustered to the east, a small green dot: Chinatown.<\/p>\n

The initiative, which ultimately passed, won despite near universal opposition from Chinese American voters, who argued the road\u2019s closure would wreak havoc on neighborhood streets and close off a vital artery connecting residents to nearby family, shopping centers and other important destinations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am very, very concerned about climate change. Having said that, I voted no on K,\u201d says Henry Derr, a veteran organizer and former executive director of the progressive group, Chinese for Affirmative Action. Calling the measure \u201cvery ill-advised,\u201d Derr says K offered no plans on how it would fund the building of a promised park, or how to manage the anticipated overflow of vehicles and its impact on surrounding neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

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San Francisco voters ultimately passed Prop. K, closing off the Great Highway that runs along the city\u2019s western edge. Chinese voters stood firmly against the measure, with no votes shown in green clustered in districts with large Chinese populations. Chinatown can been seen here as a small green dot in District 3.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

But beyond that was a sense that Chinese residents \u2013 a majority in the Sunset District, adjacent to the Great Highway, where voter turnout was 81%, above the city average of 78% \u2013\u00a0had been betrayed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAsians are very concerned about climate issues\u2026 but the way it was done, the whole process smelled bad,\u201d says retired San Francisco Superior Court Judge Lillian Sing, who faulted the role of billionaires in pushing personal interests over and above the interests of city residents.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost Chinese in San Francisco are working-class people,\u201d she says. \u201cThey are the descendants of immigrants who really live in the city. For billionaires, San Francisco is just a property in various places. They don\u2019t need to care about the locals at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Supporters of K included the outgoing mayor, Breed, as well as newly elected District 4 Supervisor Joel Engardio, who now faces a recall effort driven by Sunset residents, 64% of whom rejected the measure. Engardio\u2019s close links to tech-funded interest groups \u2013 which donated heavily to both Engardio\u2019s 2022 campaign and to Prop K \u2013 are also raising questions over\u00a0where his political loyalties lie<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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San Francisco\u2019s Great Highway (Via\u00a0Wikimedia Commons<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Still, progressive Chinese candidates managed to notch a couple of important wins despite well-funded opposition.<\/p>\n

\u201cBillionaire funders\u2019 number one priority was to knock off Connie Chan (in District 1) and Dean Preston,\u201d explains Derr. Preston, who represented District 5 \u2013 which includes portions of the city\u2019s Tenderloin neighborhood \u2013 lost his bid for re-election. \u201cWhile they succeeded in the case of Preston, Chan held her seat, thanks in large part to her support from Chinese voters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chan came out early against K, citing the concerns of her constituents, about half of whom are Chinese. Along with former labor organizer Chyanne Chen, who won her race for District 11, the two are the lone Chinese on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, down from three and even four in past years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was the first Chinese American elected to the board of City College of San Francisco in the early 1990s,\u201d Sing recalls. \u201cWe had three Chinese Americans on the college board at that time. This is the first time we only have one.\u201d<\/p>\n

That one is Alan Wong, who won despite lacking endorsements from key groups, including the Democratic Party. Instead, says Derr, Wong won on the back of a \u201ccoalition between the Chinese vote and progressive votes.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Retired SF Superior Court Judge Lillian Sing, with Henry Derr (L), former executive director of the progressive group, Chinese for Affirmative Action. (Credit; Peter Schurmann)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And for the first time in recent memory there is not a single Chinese American on the San Francisco School Board. Likewise at the state level, there is no Chinese representative for San Francisco in the state capitol.<\/p>\n

Lee, who ran and ultimately lost his bid to replace the outgoing Phil Ting for District 19 in the State Assembly, says the generation of Chinese American leaders that came of age during the civil rights battles of the 1960s and 70s \u2013 names including Ting, as well as former Mayor Ed Lee and the late influential political kingmaker, Rose Pak, among others \u2013 have retired or passed away.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re rebuilding,\u201d argues Lee, noting the success of Chinese leadership in pressuring California Governor Gavin Newsom from\u00a0scrapping acupuncture from Medi-Cal coverage<\/a>\u00a0earlier this year.<\/p>\n

It is, he says, an example of why representation matters, perhaps now more than ever, with San Francisco facing an\u00a0imposing budget deficit<\/a>\u00a0that portends potentially steep cuts to vital programs and with an incoming Trump administration that has a proven track record of inciting anti-Asian and anti-Chinese hostility.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe still face discrimination, racism,\u201d says Sing. \u201cAmerica and China are fighting a trade war that will affect us. We are still seen as suspicious, as maybe traitors\u2026 these are basic issues facing the Chinese American community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lee adds, \u201cSan Francisco\u00a0lost thousands of residents<\/a>\u00a0during the Covid 19 pandemic, but the Chinese stayed. We\u2019re still here. This is our home.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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