Moscone Center was a political junkie’s dream this weekend as politicians gave fiery speeches and wrote expletives on whiteboards (opens in new tab) dissing President Donald Trump. Meanwhile, aides let off steam with a few too many drinks at the event’s after-parties while protestors dressed as octopuses and snails, urging Democratic leaders to grow a spine against immigration raids and fascism.
Just another day at the California Democratic Convention.
By Sunday, the results were in on endorsements (opens in new tab). The most-watched contest — who the party would back as the replacement for Gov. Gavin Newsom — ended without a consensus, as none of the candidates reached the 60% threshold to secure an endorsement. Rep. Eric Swalwell came in first, with 24% of the vote, while former state Controller Betty Yee followed up with 17%. The figures show that with a little over three months left until the June primary, there is still no clear frontrunner in the crowded gubernatorial race.
Some came away with gold medals, though. State Sen. Scott Wiener received his party’s endorsement in the congressional race to succeed Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, a much-needed win after his opponent, Supervisor Connie Chan, secured endorsements in the last few days from former San Francisco mayors and labor unions.
But the real fun of the convention was, of course, the ragers that went down on Saturday night.
On the Marriott Marquis’ top floor, the coveted “Club Neon” hit capacity half an hour before it began at 10 p.m. (Dozens waited in the lobby until staff told them to leave if they didn’t have a room upstairs.)
Inside, cheap sunglasses and small bites covered tables while delegates and volunteers gossiped about campaigns and affordable housing. Women sat on each other’s laps overlooking the skyline. One unidentified man brazenly plucked broccolini from the buffet with his bare hand before popping it into his mouth.
On the dance floor, Kevin Arias-Romero, a delegate from Mendota in the Central Valley, wore cargo shorts and a t-shirt while dancing to Bad Bunny’s “Monaco.” Active in local commissions for years, he’s now running for his local school board. On his first trip to San Francisco, he embraced every “side-quest.”
“I’m having the time of my life,” he said, admitting he’d had a few drinks and endorsed Swalwell for governor. “We worked hard. Now we get to play hard.”
Back at Moscone, the “Big Dem Energy” party hosted by the San Francisco Democratic Party reeked of vodka and vomit, while California YIMBY Action’s “Yes, In My Bar-kyard” bash carried notes of tequila and buffalo sauce.
And don’t forget the California Billionaire Tax Reception, where Barisha Spriggs, a Black Caucus member who works for Oakland Unified School District, once again led the dance floor — as she has at every convention since 2017.
“Sometimes there’s a group, or sometimes I just start it,” she said, breathless as she left Moscone for the Powell Street BART station. “It’s my happy place.” — G.G. and E.W.
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TRUMP OR AFFORDABILITY: Speaking of California Democrats, the Commonwealth Club hosted a fireside chat Friday with local party chair Nancy Tung that saw nine of the gubernatorial candidates give their elevator pitches.
In the 15 or so minutes each candidate had to make their case, a clear dichotomy emerged: Some are focused on fighting President Donald Trump, and some prioritize finding solutions to the state’s affordability crisis.
Those leaning on the lowering-costs message include former Rep. Katie Porter, who, as a way to show her middle-class bona fides, was adamant that she buys the generic brand of milk over the name brand. She’s joined by billionaire Tom Steyer, who argues that taxing the rich is the best way to pay teachers and avoid more strikes. San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, former Assemblymember Ian Calderon, former state Controller Betty Yee, and former L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa are also in this camp.
Others are using Democrats’ revulsion of the man in the White House as their main ammunition. Rep. Eric Swalwell got a big round of applause after dunking on Trump over the Supreme Court’s strike-down of his tariffs. (“We just learned today that he’s been illegally taxing all of you for the last year,” Swalwell quipped.) He mentioned his role in the Russia investigation against the president, something that may play well in San Francisco but could create trouble with independents. Former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra spoke on his lawsuits against the first Trump administration as attorney general of California.
California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond is arguably taking the strongest path on both avenues, going hard on Trump by supporting the abolishment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but also issuing an ambitious (and maybe fantastical) plan to build 2 million homes by 2030. One of his ideas is to use school district land to build housing. If Thurmond is elected (he’s polling as a mega-longshot), Californians will be keeping a close eye on that goal. — G.G.
WHAT’S UP DOC?: Mayor Daniel Lurie has had his hands full lately with labor battles, charter reform, the teachers strike, and the proposed CEO tax. Well, another fault line might soon emerge, as labor defends against proposed changes to San Francisco’s small-business healthcare ordinance, which tasks employers with paying for medical reimbursement accounts or other forms of insurance.
The 2006 ordinance, the brainchild of former Supervisor Tom Ammiano, initially provided universal healthcare for city residents. But after the 2010 passage of the Affordable Care Act, some businesses began passing the crippling cost of employee healthcare on to consumers, with many restaurants tacking on an “SF mandate” or “health fee” to bills. Businesses have been lobbying Lurie and Board of Supervisors President Rafael Mandelman to tweak the law or toss it.
Those talks slowed down last year amid a dire budget season, but Ethics Commission filings show they’ve kicked back up. A lobbyist for the Golden Gate Restaurant Association met with Aly Bonde, the mayor’s deputy chief of staff, three times in January over the healthcare cost, Power Play has learned.
“We look forward to further talks. It’s been a long slog,” said Laurie Thomas, executive director of the restaurant association, noting that discussions have continued since former Mayor London Breed’s administration. “We want our employees to have good benefits, but it needs to be reformed so it can be sustainable.”
Eliminating the medical benefits outright is a red line for labor, we hear, especially after the Trump administration took a hatchet to (opens in new tab) Medicare spending. Private-sector union leadership may meet with Lurie’s team sometime over the next two months regarding the issue.
It’ll have to be soon: Roughly $240 million in unspent funds from the healthcare reimbursement accounts will transfer to the city’s general fund in April. For context, that’s a quarter of the city’s budget deficit. Labor wants to see those funds spent on worker healthcare. If it’s not, well, did we mention a potential new fault line? — J.F.R.
GAMEDAY, NOT SCHOOLDAY: Quiz time: What was San Francisco’s biggest priority the week of Feb. 2? If you answered “preventing the school strike that sent the families of 50,000 students scrambling for child care or education access,” we’re going to bet you’re not the mayor.
That’s because the same week negotiations between the school district and educators union fell apart, Lurie’s focus was almost entirely on hosting the Super Bowl. That’s according to at least one measure — his calendar.
Power Play requested Lurie’s calendar for that chunk of February, and the football-to-education tally isn’t even close. Our sports-loving mayor clocked 21 Super Bowl-related appearances, including chatting it up with Joe Shasky, Joe Spadoni, and Dave Flemming on 95.7 The Game and schmoozing with the Budweiser (opens in new tab) Clydesdales.
When it came to brokering deals with the school district and union, Lurie had exactly five calendar entries, including attending a Feb. 5 town hall on Zoom and a virtual check-in on Microsoft Teams with his school negotiation team — which includes Steve Kawa, a former top staffer in past mayoral administrations — on the same day as a flurry of Super Bowl evening events.
The San Francisco Unified School District’s negotiation timeline is illustrative: The morning the union gave the district its strike notice, Lurie was making free throws (opens in new tab) on Pat McAfee’s show. On Feb. 6, the day after negotiations stalled, the do-or-die weekend to come together to prevent a strike, Lurie had his one and only meetings with the district and union, separately.
He later darted off to attend a Super Bowl reception hosted by SV Angel, the investment firm of billionaire tech godfather Ron Conway, held at the 21st-floor Starlite bar, where you can order a cocktail called the “Porn Star Martini.” That was just one of half a dozen Super Bowl appearances for the mayor that day.
As the district and union were deadlocked Feb. 7 in their final night of negotiations before the strike, Lurie spent the night wining and dining NFL team owners — first at a dinner hosted at City Hall, then at the after-party at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium to catch a performance by country singer (opens in new tab) Chris Stapleton.
The looming strike did seem to disrupt Lurie’s movement at one crucial time — on Feb. 8, instead of attending the game, as one might expect the host to do, he and his staff were burrowed in City Hall, working on a Hail Mary pass (opens in new tab) to avert the strike. Alas, it didn’t connect.
San Francisco’s first educators strike in nearly 50 years hit the streets the next day.
Lurie’s spokesperson Charles Lutvak defended the mayor’s efforts that week, saying, “Even as Mayor Lurie led the city through a safe and overwhelmingly successful Super Bowl week that generated hundreds of millions of dollars for local businesses and our city, he helped restart stalled negotiations between SFUSD and UESF — bringing in experts to move negotiations forward, providing space for the parties to work and talk, and stepping in directly to support however he could.” — J.F.R.