On June 3, progressives won a remarkable victory on the Democratic County Central Committee, with members of the so-called Hope slate winning 18 of 24 seats. This victory was important because it lays the foundation for progressive victories in the fall. The stakes will be high in November, with affordable housing, revenue, and public power measures all likely to come before the voters. Perhaps more significantly, with a number of the incumbents on the Board of Supervisors termed out, the November election will determine whether progressives are able to consolidate and build on the gains of recent years or whether the city will revert to the cronyism and mediocrity that defined so much of local politics in the days before district elections.
The first item of business when the newly elected DCCC meets on July 23 will be election of a new leader. Two weeks ago the Bay Area Reporter published an op-ed piece calling for the re-election of Scott Wiener as chair. While we respect the loyalty of the letters' signatories to Wiener, it is clear to us that at this important moment in local politics Aaron Peskin is the best choice
Going back to the Tom Ammiano write-in campaign in 1999, Peskin has been at the forefront of many of the progressive victories that have defined the last 10 years of local politics. Whether fixing our city's broken planning regime, reforming Muni, protecting tenants from speculators, advancing ethics reforms, or simply providing steady leadership at the board, Peskin has been a true leader. Peskin may not be queer, but he has played an incredibly important part in the reform movement that our community helped launch.
Furthermore, Peskin has been there on our issues, providing a critical vote for transgender medical benefits when several of his colleagues were waffling or running for cover, standing strong against the Human Rights Campaign and for an inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act, and appointing and re-appointing a long list of queer leaders to city boards and commissions.
The Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club was founded at least in part in reaction against the reluctance of some in the community to aggressively promote queer power. But the Milk Club has never simply been about putting queers into positions of power. Today queer San Francisco is in crisis. With rising housing prices making our city unaffordable to growing numbers of queer youth, seniors, youth, families, and indeed anyone not earning a six figure income, keeping a queer in this or that office is frankly less important to our community's survival than advancing the values of social and economic justice for which the Milk Club has always stood.
With Democrats nationally poised to elect Barack Obama, with Californians choosing whether to embrace marriage equality or not, and with local progressives fighting for the soul of our city, local Democrats are looking for something more than merely "capable" and "efficient" leadership. We believe this is the time to elect a progressive champion as chair of our Democratic Party. Aaron Peskin is just such a champion, and we urge his colleagues to elect Peskin chair.
Robert Haaland, Criss Romero, and Debra Walker co-wrote this piece. The authors are current and former presidents of the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club.