Occupy SF Has a Favorite Candidate — and Few Votes
Many members of the encampment can't — or won't — vote Tuesday
On Oct. 17, San Francisco Supervisor John Avalos served as late-night mediator between protesters and police, who had ordered members of the Occupy San Francisco encampment to take down their tents and tarpaulins.
“He put me on speaker phone, and called the officers to ask who their orders were coming from. He called the Department of Recreation and Parks, and he called and texted Ed Lee,” said Katt Hoban, a social worker who helps San Francisco youth. “This is a litmus test of how the candidates are going to respond to this protest.”
There’s no available evidence that Avalos himself kept the police at bay. But his commitment impressed protesters who are worried they could be evicted at a moment’s notice.
In interviews conducted Monday afternoon, many Occupy San Francisco demonstrators said Avalos was their favorite.
“He’s given full support to Occupy San Francisco, and he has my support,” said protester Miguel Carrera, 48, who works with the San Francisco Coalition on Homelessness.
In an election where voters have already been deluged with messages from politicians, Occupy San Francisco has become the city’s equivalent of New Hampshire, a place where it can sometimes seem hard to turn around without spotting a candidate.
At first glance, the encampment wouldn’t seem like a great place for local politicking. Many of the protesters are from out of town and not registered to vote in San Francisco. Others reject the current U.S. political system as inherently unfair, and don’t plan to vote. Nonetheless, candidates have visited, called and spoken on behalf of protesters in a show of support for the demonstrators' right to free speech.
“Candidates see the power in the message of, 'There’s this great economic inequity in the U.S. There are the very rich, and the rest of us are the 99 percent,'” said political consultant Jim Ross. “If you can tap into that movement, it could be a real powerful tool for a campaign.”
Only one leading candidate has not paid a visit to the encampment: interim Mayor Ed Lee. A spokeswoman for his office, Christine Falvey, said that the mayor has met with representatives of Occupy San Francisco at City Hall to discuss health and safety issues pertaining to the tent city.
State Sen. Leland Yee has visited the protest site and voiced his support of occupiers’ goals. His rivals David Chiu and Jeff Adachi have not only visited the encampment, but they have also handed out their cell phone numbers and vowed to protect protesters from possible eviction.
“Adachi gave me his cell number and said, 'Remember, I’m the public defender, and you can call me if there is every a problem,'” Hoban said.
None of the candidates seems to have reached out to Occupy San Francisco as aggressively as Avalos, who appears to be the protesters' chief contact at City Hall.
“My candidate, whom I’ve already voted for, is John Avalos,” said Dave Whitacker, 73. “He represents a coalition that goes all the way to the left.”
Avalos, however, says he hasn’t been trolling for votes at Occupy San Francisco. He says his progressive platform has made him the protesters' favorite.
“The rise of this movement happened to coincide with my work on the Board to start exploring the creation of a municipal bank in San Francisco — a policy solution that seems to resonate with folks down at Occupy,” Avalos said.
San Francisco State University political science professor emeritus Rich de Leon said in an email that candidates may be reaching out to Occupy San Francisco out of sincere affinity, in response to what he called protesters' “somewhat incoherent but moving cry for social justice and true democracy."
"Or maybe they chose to be there (or slavishly followed the instructions of their campaign managers to be there) in order to be seen to be there to snap up a few extra votes,” de Leon wrote.
Ross, the political consultant, said local politicians’ efforts to connect with Occupy San Francisco might go beyond mere political maneuvering.
“A few years ago many of them were activists themselves, and they come out of that world and movement, and they have great sympathy for them,” Ross said.
Did a political consultant say a candidate was acting out of sincerity and idealism?
“They have sympathy for them as a piece of a broader, more self-serving program,” Ross joked.
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