The primary election June 3 to replace Assemblyman Tom Ammiano isn't a tale of two Davids. It's a tale of three.
There's one even-keeled David Campos. Then there's the temperamental David Chiu, who may have a "good-David, bad-David" disorder of two Davids living in a single body.
The Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club co-chairs' guest opinion in the Bay Area Reporter's April 10 issue made me laugh. It cited not one piece of LGBT-related legislation authored by Chiu. It claims Chiu deserves "reward" for merely "standing by" LGBT communities, and asserted Chiu's a "master of the legislative process." It failed mentioning he's also master at subverting legislative processes.
A week later, the B.A.R. published another guest opinion co-authored by a coalition of Latinos who endorsed Campos, presenting reasons why retaining the assembly seat with an LGBT candidate is crucial.
Chiu claims he's a "consensus builder" changing the "tone of local government." Chiu appears to have engaged in potentially highly unethical behavior while board president.
Take Chiu's role in the Park Merced development deal. On November 1, 2011 the Sunshine Task Force issued its Order of Determination finding Supervisor Eric Mar, chair of the Land Use Committee; board President Chiu; and committee members Supervisors Scott Wiener and Malia Cohen violated several sections of the Sunshine Ordinance by failing to provide the public with copies of 14 pages of amendments to the development agreement until just minutes before voting on them.
The task force referred the four supervisors to the Ethics Commission and district attorney, citing willful failure (to comply with the Sunshine Ordinance) and official misconduct.
Take Chiu's abuse of Board of Supervisors Rules of Order. As recently as February 20, 2014, Chiu submitted a "Presidential Action" memo transferring lobbyist regulation legislation from the Rules Committee to the Government Audit and Oversight Committee. The lobbying regulations should have been heard at Rules, but Chiu may have abused his discretion transferring the proposed lobbying amendments to GAO.
Take Chiu's treatment of members of the public who attend board hearings. Chiu is well known for arbitrarily reducing the number of minutes each speaker is permitted to testify, and remotely turning off the speaker's microphone when he doesn't like public testimony being presented. Chiu had a well-behaved member of the public fully within his First Amendment, free speech rights escorted out of board chambers by a uniformed sheriff's deputy �" because Chiu didn't like the testimony.
In contrast, Campos actively listens to public testimony and thanks presenters.
Chiu is notorious for moving the public comment period around during board meetings, making it impossible to estimate at what time during the board's Tuesday meetings public comment will be consistently heard, forcing the public to wait unreasonable amounts of time before allowed to testify.
Take Chiu's role in appointments to the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force. Weiner single-handedly eviscerated the Sunshine Task Force in May 2012 by refusing to permit reappointment of Bruce Wolfe, the task force's only disabled member. Wiener's meddling shut the task force down for almost six months, because without replacement appointees, the task force lacked a quorum, preventing it from meeting to adjudicate disputes regarding public meetings and public records.
Chiu should have stepped in and promptly resolved the matter. He didn't lift a finger.
Campos has had many legislative and advocacy victories too numerous to detail here. As chair of the Neighborhood Services and Safety Committee, Campos prevented the health department from privatizing San Francisco General Hospital's dialysis center by moving it to Laguna Honda Hospital's campus. Had the health department's plan succeeded, it would have placed an undue transportation burden on critically ill dialysis patients who would have faced fragmentation of their care from a single campus to multiple locations, requiring increased transportation time shuttling between campuses for healthcare.
When Mayor Ed Lee struck a deal with California Pacific Medical Center to build its Van Ness hospital, it was the leadership of Campos and Supervisor John Avalos who successfully forced the mayor into re-negotiating with CPMC. CPMC was forced to commit to rebuilding St. Luke�s Hospital, which the mayor appeared willing to allow CPMC to abandon.
The Bay Times also ran front-page, side-by-side articles by the two Davids on April 17.
In his Bay Times "selfie," Chiu mentions not one piece of legislation he introduced on behalf of LGBT communities. Chiu brazenly wrapped himself in assassinated Supervisor Harvey Milk's legacy, implying Milk's ability to build consensus and coalitions has somehow rubbed off on Chiu. Unfortunately, there was a whole lot more to Milk that appears didn't rub off on Chiu.
In stark contrast, Campos's piece clearly describes his initial legislative ideas for the LGBT community should he win the Assembly race. He also detailed why it's critically important to maintain LGBT representation in the Assembly.
Assembly District 17 has the highest proportion of LGBT voters of any state district, which is more important now than ever because LGBT representation in Sacramento is threatened by term limits that may shrink the LGBT caucus to just six members.
Campos's leadership will stand up for all of us. Chiu only stands by us. The choice for various LGBT communities is crystal clear: Chiu is running to represent the 1 percenters. Campos is running to represent the rest of us 99 percenters.
You won't know which of the two David Chius will arrive in Sacramento until he gets there. On June 3, mark your ballot for Campos.
Patrick Monette-Shaw is a member of California�s First Amendment Coalition, a columnist for the Westside Observer newspaper, and has operated http://www.stopLHHdownsize.com for a decade advocating for skilled nursing care for the elderly and disabled. He received a James Madison Freedom of Information Award (advocacy category) from the Society of Professional Journalists-Northern California chapter for his reporting in the Observer about Laguna Honda Hospital.