I spoke tonight at the RDDC against Propositions C (redevelopment/housing trust fund), and G (corporate personhood measure), and against state Proposition 35 ("human trafficking"). There were fewer people there than a couple weeks ago when I was there for their general membership meeting, maybe about 20 including myself and others there to speak.
They are a fairly liberal group for the Richmond, apparently -- Eric Mar came and spoke in his bid for reelection as District 1 supervisor, and they gave him their unanimous sole endorsement on the spot. Many also had negative things to say about the guy who's apparently his main opponent, David Lee. I really don't know anything about Lee, except that he didn't win himself any popularity points with the group by not returning their calls or coming to their meeting, and he (or people presumably allied with him) are running an aggressive anti-Mar campaign.
Mar stayed and took questions for a bit, and I got a chance to ask him on the way out about supporting the Patrol Specials (the topic of "public safety" had come up). He was non-committal, but said he'd talked to Hanley Chan, who IIRC was one of the aspiring Specials who'd had his application sat on by the SFPD, so he seems at least aware of some of the issues. Said he wasn't aware I was "connected" with them; I explained that they were better than the SFPD on civil liberties, and practiced the kind of "community policing" people want, and at much lower cost. I mentioned SF having the highest-paid police chief in the U.S., and he said he'd heard about that (I think the article was in the Huffington Post recently, again IIRC -- Greg Suhr makes over $300,000 a year, more than president Obama).
One of the club members was complaining about his neighbor's cigarette smoke on his patio, and wanted Eric Mar to try to tighten the anti-smoking ordinance. Mar was sympathetic, but also said (in a comment that made me want to laugh), "I'm trying not to be the guy who bans things right now"(!) I'll bet he isn't -- from what I hear he is in a tough fight to keep his seat, and that reputation hasn't helped him much.
I didn't find out how the club voted, but they seemed sympathetic to my pitch on Prop. 35. The local measures, probably not so much, but I think I might possibly have made an impression talking against C -- kind of hard to tell.
Unfortunately missed libertarian congressional candidate John Dennis's TV commercial filming down at the Ferry Building this afternoon -- apparently only a couple people showed up to be filmed, and he took off after a half hour or so in order to go meet with the Log Cabin Republicans. But he is planning to do more filming of these short clips of people saying why they support him at different locations around town, so stay tuned. John is also interested in speaking to local neighborhood groups and such, so if you hear of any upcoming meetings of such groups, please let him know. Even if they are Democratic clubs. They can't endorse non-Democrats in partisan races, but could still potentially invite him to speak, which might win over some individual members. I asked at the RDDC (Rob Thomas?) and he said he'd have to ask their board about it in two weeks, so I gave him my contact info and asked him to let me know.
Love & Liberty,
((( starchild )))