The election is less than a week away and, as usual, some campaigns and independent groups supporting candidates are taking the low road by issuing hit pieces. While they may not be October Surprises, these negative attacks are built around a kernel of truth and then extrapolated into character assassination.
Exhibit one is a mailer by Nick Josefowitz, a Democrat running for BART board who hopes to unseat Republican incumbent James Fang. Josefowitz's mailer includes Fang among "The 5 Most Corrupt Politicians in San Francisco History" because of a 23-year old campaign finance violation for which Fang paid some $22,000 in fines. And who is Fang compared to? Well, there's Eugene Schmitz, a former mayor who served five years in San Quentin for accepting bribes; Frank Egan, a public defender who served 25 years in prison for murdering an elderly woman who had named him in her will; Russell Wolden Jr., a city assessor convicted of taking bribes in exchange for not collecting property taxes; and suspended state Senator Leland Yee, who's been indicted on federal corruption charges. When compared to those characters, Fang's funneling of $2,000 to then-Mayor Frank Jordan's 1991 campaign is small potatoes. What's more, that happened more than two decades ago. San Francisco voters are smart enough to see through such desperate tactics.
Josefowitz, a newcomer to San Francisco politics, has employed a scorched earth strategy throughout his campaign. He has tried to make much of Fang being the city's only elected Republican while ignoring that Fang has been an effective member of the BART board and has garnered support from Democratic heavyweights like House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, California Democratic Party Chair John Burton, and Mayor Ed Lee. The Bay Area Reporter also endorsed Fang earlier this month.
Among independent expenditure groups, both candidates for Assembly have been tied to not-so-progressive causes. In the case of gay candidate David Campos, groups supporting candidate David Chiu have tried to portray Campos as being in the hands of "big oil" because he supports community choice aggregate for public power. Major funding for that mailer was provided by tech investors Reid Hoffman and Ron Conway.
Labor unions, including the California Nurses Association political action committee and Service Employees International Union Local 1000 poured money into a mailer opposing Chiu, saying that since a former political firm he co-founded did contract work for the Republicans, therefore Chiu supported former President George W. Bush. Those are "elephant bones" in Chiu's closet, the mailer states, referring to the GOP connection. It goes on to conclude that Chiu is against same-sex marriage, is anti-choice, and anti-climate change.
None of those allegations for either candidate are accurate. We endorsed Chiu in the Assembly race, but don't like the attack mailers on either side.
These attack mailers are not helpful in clarifying the candidates' position on the issues. But because all the candidates differ little on the issues, some of them, like Josefowitz, and the outside groups, resort to shorthand ad hominem attacks that obscure the real politicians and their effectiveness. Ultimately, the mailers deprive voters of real discussion and do not focus on the issues.
There are no winners when elections sink to this level. The voters should be smart enough to see through these smear tactics.