What Is The SF DCCC And Why The @$%# Are 56 People Running For It?

Image: SF DCCC

You can already vote by mail in the March 3 California Democratic Primary, the one with Bernie and Biden and Buttigieg and Elizabeth Warren and various no-name billionaires battling for the right to run against Trump. Your mailbox is probably already filling up with goddamned mailers. But further down your ballot, there is this enormous list of people running for the something called the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee (DCCC), which many of us who have a life have never heard of. But this year being a big deal election, you’ll want to have some familiarity with what the DCCC is and who the fuck to vote for on this long list of dozens of mostly unfamiliar names. 

The DCCC is the governing body for the local Democratic Party, which does the mostly unglamorous “party-building” tasks of recruiting voters, raising money, and phone banking in swing states. It has traditionally been the realm of hardcore Dem activists up-and-coming political nerds, and usually it’s people you’ve never heard of. But this year, a ton of supervisors and well-known politicians are running for this obscure committee, primarily to get more control over the endorsements you see on those goddamned mailers clogging up your mailbox. 

The above video explains in detail what the DCCC is, narrated by Janice Li, who like half of San Francisco is running for the SF DCCC. San Francisco is broken down into two districts, District 19 (west side) and District 17 (east side). Which SF DCCC district you are in determines who is on your ballot.

Famous people you have heard of are not usually on this ballot, but this year you have sitting supervisors like Rafael Mandelman, Hillary Ronen, Ahsha Safai and others, plus Sheriff Paul Miyamoto and SF Public Defender Mano Raju. Don’t these people have enough power as it is? Why are they suddenly all crashing this little small committee? 

“It’s not strange to have supervisors interested in th Democratic party,” says Supervisor Mandelman, who is currently also on the DCCC (he was elected to it long before being elected to the Board of Supervisors. “This year it’s tremendously important that we support activists and turn purple districts blue. There’s a lot we can do as a local Democratic party to support efforts around the country.”

The endorsement of the DCCC is considered an extremely powerful thing, and this could be a way for elected officials to expand their influence. 

“Supervisors do have an interest in what happens with DCCC endorsements. Some people might want to be on there just to have a say in that,” Mandelman tells BrokeAssStuart.com. “Yes, it’s important to have newer folks who are just learning. You can have a mix of people on there and that’s not a terrible thing.”

This once-obscure committee now has a dream team of local political all-stars running for it. You’ll also notice that several people who just lost elections (Vallie Brown, Suzy Loftus, Nancy Tung) are also running for the DCCC, which certainly could be used as a way for them to get themselves that powerful endorsement when they inevitably run for office again.

The election is on March 3, and you can already vote by mail. Here’s how to vote in the Democratic primary if you’re not a registered Democrat.