San Franciso Women's Political Committee

Hello SFWPC Members,

It has been a long road with many happy hours in which we have been able to hear the ideas and visions for San Francisco’s future from so many candidates for Mayor, District Attorney and Sheriff. Now, we get to vote for the best candidates for each office that embody the SFWPC mission and values.

If you are a current member and have attended 3 qualifying events, you are able and encouraged to vote for our slate. Here are the details:

Date: Wednesday, August 31st
Time: 5:30pm — 7:00pm
Location: Nobel Bar: 600 Polk Street at Turk

Please RSVP on Facebook

When you arrive, you will be asked to sign in and we will verify that you qualify to vote. Then mark up your ballot!

We hope that you can attend the meeting. See you Wednesday!

We’re halfway through 2011 and already it’s been an exciting year. SFWPC membership is flourishing, we’ve worked on some great projects and we’re gearing up for one of the most politically interesting citywide election to date, with our first open, ranked-choice voting Mayoral election.

Today, I write to you with mixed emotions. On Monday, June 6, I stepped down as  SFWPC President after nearly two years at the helm and seven years on the Board to pursue a graduate program at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government starting in July.  I am delighted to announce that Jaynry Mak, a long time SFWPC Board member and engaged community leader, has assumed the role of President.  SFWPC will assuredly thrive under Jaynry’s experienced leadership and the truly incredible team of Board Members devoted to our cause of engaging women in local politics.

Celebrate this transition at the annual SFWPC Summer in the City fundraiser on Thursday, July 7. It would mean the world to me if you considered sponsoring the event so I can jump on a one-way flight to Boston later that night knowing our movement grows stronger.  Make sure to come to the party! It’s always a great time and I would love to say good-bye personally.

But before I go, I can’t help but share a few thoughts about what I’ve noticed since working on gender balance in San Francisco. SFWPC has achieved some wonderful things over the years: building relationships with elected officials, co-creating the San Francisco Women’s Policy Summit, organizing the San Francisco Women’s Collaborative, joining the San Francisco Collaborative Against Human Trafficking, spearheading the Boards and Commissions website, engaging in the Interim Mayor selection, leading the 5for5 Campaign, sending nearly 100,000 carefully developed slate cards, mentoring countless women on our committees and board, the list goes on and on.

Yet, I continue to wonder at the statistical fact that, despite our best effort, women are 49% of the San Francisco population, yet are represented by only THREE (3) women, out of eleven (11) seats on the Board of Supervisors.

There is much work to be done.  As an organization devoted to engaging women in local politics and city government,  SFWPC has always tried to be a place of political realism and frank discussion, always acknowledging that much of the gender gap has as much to do with how women treat each other as anything else.  It’s a real challenge to navigate the political labyrinth of power, money and relationships balancing SFWPC core feminist values with political pragmatism. Yet, women must continue to stay engaged with each other and make connections across organizations to build a strong movement.  We must commit ourselves, no matter what, to a vision of equality and representational balance that simply doesn’t exist today. To think that it does exist, just because we are San Francisco, is to delude ourselves into complacency.

The political scene in San Francisco is a beautiful mess. It’s personal and passionate, rooted in a community that strives to be a place for all people to be themselves. I believe that through honest conversations, extreme patience and, most importantly, improved collaboration, San Francisco can be a place of true equality and balance for EVERYONE…including 50% of humanity.  It’s been a privilege to be a part of this community for so long. I will miss you all very much. But, in the words of no one in particular…I’ll be back.

Date: Thursday, June 9, 2011

Time: 5:30 – 7:00pm

Location: Noble Bar, 600 Polk Street, San Francisco, CA

RSVP on Facebook

We are excited to bring you the fourth event in our “Meet the Candidates” series, on Thursday, June 9, 2011 once again at Noble Bar on the corner of Polk and Turk streets. This location serves food, so your little ones are welcome to come and cheer on the candidates with you.

The candidates are eager to meet our membership and discuss the challenges they will tackle in their races.

Bevan Dufty for Mayor

Bevan Dufty was elected to represent District 8 on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 2002 and re-elected in 2006. Supervisor Dufty had been recognized as a champion of civil rights. Prior to his election, Mr. Dufty served the City as Director of the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services and Legislative Aide to former Supervisor Susan Leal. His career in public service began as an intern, and later, Legislative Assistant to Representative Julian Dixon of Los Angeles. Mr. Dufty earned his Bachelor of Arts at the University of California, Berkeley.

Find out more about Bevan here: www.bevandufty.com

Michela Alioto-Pier for Mayor

Michela Alioto-Pier is a Democratic leader who has fought against entrenched interests in support of health care and disability rights. Michela has been a San Francisco Supervisor since 2004, where she led critical health care fights, including the protection of essential health services, support of stem-cell research and the creation of high-paying biotechnology jobs. She has also worked to protect all San Franciscans by outlawing smoking in city parks and through the technological upgrade of San Francisco’s emergency preparedness system.

Find out more about Michela here: http://www.michelaformayor.com/

David Onek for District Attorney

Criminal justice expert and former Police Commissioner David Onek is organizing a campaign for San Francisco District Attorney to make our city safer and fairer by forging strong partnerships between law enforcement and the community.

David is a Senior Fellow and founding Executive Director at the Berkeley Center for Criminal Justice. He also hosts the Criminal Justice Conversations – engaging with fellow criminal justice leaders from San Francisco and throughout the nation.

Find out more about David here: http://www.davidonek.com/

You can find out about our candidate events on our Events page or on Facebook, which will be updated as events are finalized.

REMEMBER: in order to qualify as a voting member in our endorsement slate, you must be a member in good standing (dues paid in full) and have attended 3 events or meetings within a calendar year, prior to the endorsement meeting.

SFWPC is very excited to pass along this great news. Mayor Lee has launched a centralized online database of City boards and commissions including vacancies and appointments to advisory bodies for the City and County of San Francisco. This creates an amazing opportunity for the many smart, driven women that would like to get involved and lead San Francisco in the right direction.

SFWPC has made it a goal to get women into the local government “pipeline” and make sure that collectively our voices are heard. This new database is a perfect tool to use for this great cause.

To search the centralized online database of City commissions and boards, go to www.sfgov.org/commissionsdatabase or call 3-1-1.

Thank you to everyone who came out to our March 2011 Happy Hour at Ma’Velous Coffee & Wine Bar! We had the pleasure of hosting two very inspiring and dedicated public servants, Board of Supervisors President David Chiu, and Acting City Administrator, Amy Brown. We also had an opportunity to informally kick off our “Meet the Candidate” event series with David Chiu’s recent announcement of his candidacy for Mayor.

DCCC Member Leslie Katz, City Administrator Amy Brown, Director of the Department of the Environment Melanie Nutter, Board of Supervisors President David Chiu, SFWPC President Heidi Sieck, Board of Supervisors Member Malia Cohen

SFWPC President Heidi Sieck, City Attorney Dennis Herrera, Michelle Myers, Rosie Dilger, Max Szabo

Find more photos from the event on our Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=7833489654&aid=298495

We look forward to seeing you all at our April 14, 2011 “Meet the Candidate” event, featuring Dennis Herrera for Mayor and Sharmin Bock for District Attorney. You can find out more information about our events at our Events page.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Contact: Mayor’s Office of Communications, 415-554-6131

*** STATEMENT ***

MAYOR EDWIN LEE’S STATEMENT ON WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH

Mayor Edwin M. Lee today issued the following statement for March 2011, Women’s History Month:

“San Francisco is committed to improving the human rights of women. San Francisco is the first, and still only, city in the world to have enacted a local ordinance reflecting the principles of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). As a city, we invest over $3 million annually in providing crisis services to women survivors of violence and their families, from emergency shelter to legal advocacy to prevention education. Our City’s groundbreaking policies of universal healthcare access through Healthy San Francisco, paid sick leave, and parental leave are models for the rest of the nation, and the world.”

In celebration of Women’s History Month, Mayor Lee and the Board of Supervisors will join the Commission on the Status of Women and the Friends of the Commission on Tuesday, March 15th, at 3 p.m. in the Board Chambers to honor 12 exceptional women leaders.

In December, an excited an vibrant crowd came out to celebrate the holiday season with San Francisco’s most notable political women. We’ve all had an admittedly tough election cycle, so we needed a good party to remind us how many passionate, viable, capable and strong candidates there are who identify as women, and that we need to continue our work to gender-balance San Francisco.

SFWPC thanks Co-hosts NARAL Pro-Choice California, Good Ol Girls, Emerge California, Planned Parenthood Shasta Pacific, and Sponsors State Senator Leland Yee, City Attorney Dennis Herrera, Assessor-Recorder Phil Ting, Board of Supervisors President David Chiu, Commissioner Leah Pimentel, Platinum Advisors, The California Group, Hope Road Consulting, Stearns Consulting, Mary Silver, Joanna Rees, Caroline Rodman, Andrea Dew Steele, Rebecca Prozan, Heidi Sieck, Catalina Ruiz-Healy, Summer Graham, Benj Jurcisin and Mera Granberg for another great holiday party that annually celebrates women in politics and policy!

If you already know that you want to be a part of next year’s Women’s Holiday Party, please email Jaynry@sfwpc.org for details.

Jaynry Mak, Supervisor Malia Cohen, Jacquelline Piccini

Sheila Chung Hagen, Alix Rosenthal

Senator Leland Yee, Leah Rowell

See more photos here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=267207&id=7833489654

On Wednesday, December 1, 2010 SFWPC delivered the following letter to each Supervisor and Supervisor-Elect in order to remind them about the jarring discrepancy in the percentage of women voters and the percentage of women in elected office, and to highlight important policy issues that affect women and families city-wide.

Dear Supervisor:

The San Francisco Women’s Political Committee (SFWPC) commends the members of the Board of Supervisors on realizing the gravity of the upcoming selection of an Interim Mayor. A seamless transition is essential to the safety and well being of all San Francisco citizens, businesses and visitors. We applaud the time and thought put into developing an open selection process scheduled for December 7, 2010.

SFWPC is committed to being a positive partner in the San Francisco political family. We seek to promote issues that are important to keeping women and families in San Francisco as well as our core values:

– Appoint and elect women to public office and positions of political leadership
- A political process that is transparent, accessible, and responsive to better serve the needs and interests of women
- Safe, livable and green communities
- Livable wages and pay equity for equal work
- Accessible quality public services, including education, health care, senior services, and child care
- Reproductive freedom
- Elimination of violence against women
- Eradication of all forms of discrimination against women and girls

We know that diverse perspectives are essential to good policy, especially when ensuring that the voices of women are represented. That is why we are perplexed by the last few weeks of media coverage and reports of internal discussions regarding candidates for Interim Mayor.

Women make up 51% of the population, yet have represented nearly zero percent (0%) of the candidates named as serious contenders for Interim Mayor. There are many talented, accomplished San Francisco women who are qualified to serve in the position. These women must be considered and vetted.

We strongly suggest that, as the Board of Supervisors makes their nominations on December 7, 2010, thirty to fifty percent of those nominations should be viable female candidates and the entire list of nominations should reflect the diversity of our city population.

We are speaking to establish the presence of women in the selection of Interim Mayor and to point out the glaring absence of these perspectives. SFWPC has not currently endorsed a particular individual for the position. We are happy to work with any of you willing to discuss our list of possible candidates.

San Francisco has been a worldwide leader in so many important social equality issues from CEDAW ratification to same-sex marriage. We must take a powerful stand to ensure that all voices are heard in the process of government.

Sincerely,
SFWPC Board of Directors
Heidi L. Sieck, President

cc: Members of the Board of Supervisors
Malia Cohen. Supervisor – elect
Mark Farrell, Superviser – elect
Jane Kim, Supervisor – elect
Scott Wiener, Supervisor – elect

San Francisco’s long-awaited summer is finally here, which means that our political season is in full swing! In just 36 days, you will head to the polls with fellow San Franciscans to make critical choices about the direction of our great city. This November, we have the opportunity to elect the kind of leadership San Francisco needs right now: a diverse, gender-balanced Board of Supervisors that will ensure that going forward, our city runs like clockwork. We can’t afford to wait another 4 years.

Last month, at SFWPC’s August general membership meeting, our members voted on a fantastic slate of endorsements that highlight the common need for improvements on both the local and state levels. We are incredibly proud that this election cycle, our membership voted to endorse five inspiring, strong women candidates for the five Board of Supervisor seats.

Join the Campaign.

We know you stand behind Janet Reilly, Carmen Chu, Debra Walker, Rebecca Prozan, and Malia Cohen because you recognize how essential it is to shake up the Board of Supervisors – business as usual just won’t do anymore! But many voters out there are still in the dark about our candidates, and that is where you come in.

Show your unwavering support for gender parity in San Francisco’s leadership: email us your contact details, tell us who you are especially passionate about, and we will plug you into this epic campaign!

SFWPC has mounted an true field campaign to get these five best candidates elected. We are knocking on doors and calling voters to get the message of progress – the right kind of progress – out to the public. We need your help more than ever to get this done.

Each one of us needs to adopt a candidate and pick up the phone or hit the precincts today. SFWPC will be hosting the following evenings with candidates:

Monday: Janet Reilly

So will you help in District 2, 4, 6, 8, or 10? Email us at 5for5@sfwpc.org to join this one-of-a-kind campaign to bring gender balance to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

Make sure to email us to get credit for volunteering with SFWPC. Your time in the field counts towards voting in the next election cycle, and we will recognize our most vigilant volunteers at the 2010 San Francisco Women’s Holiday Party.

In August, you spoke decisively in favor of new political leadership, gender parity, and actualized equality in San Francisco. Now it’s time to put these five women on your calendar, because if we don’t make time to get them elected now, the opportunity to create substantive change will be lost.

With a little over a month left until election day, we need to pull out all the stops and show up up for our candidates.

We’ll see you out in the field.

The weekend of August 28th, SFWPC’s Endorsements Committee met over a rigorous round of candidate interviews and ballot measure debates in order to provide endorsement recommendations to our membership for a vote, which took place on Tuesday, August 31st.  The Membership vote was very well attended, as usual, and the overwhelming majority of the Endorsement Committee recommendations were approved.

Endorsements Chair Frances Hsieh, Endorsements Committee member Summer Graham, President Heidi Sieck

Eileen Kivlehan, Jane Morrison,  Gimmy Park Li, Robin Brasso

Andrea Shorter, Vice President Catalina Ruiz-Healy, Rebecca Prozan, Malia Cohen, Angelique Mahan

Melanie Nutter, Janet Reilly

For more photos, please see our Facebook page.