Engardio flubs his case against the recall

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City Hall shuts down, more or less, in the depths of August (for just a moment, even the mayor is on a surfin' safari), but city politics continues—particularly with a recall election in D4 in just a few weeks. The Department of Elections has begun mailing ballots, which are due Sept. 16. 

The local Democratic Party hasn't issued an endorsement for or against the Engardio recall, in part, I am told, because the billionaires who funded and created the slate that now controls the party didn't have the votes against the recall.

So the whole thing got delayed, and the party will vote on Measure A on August 27—by which point a lot of the residents will already have voted.

On Wednesday night the Issues and Resolutions Committee heard from Sup. Joel Engardio and from recall proponent Selena Chu.

Engardio presented his case by saying two things: That traffic isn't that bad after the Great Highway closure (the issue driving the recall)—and that this shouldn't be on the ballot anyway, because he'll by up for re-election next year and recalls shouldn't be about a single disagreement on a single issue.

Committee Chair Lily Ho repeated that, saying that in many places (but not in California) recalls require some sort of malfeasance, not just a political disagreement.

Fair enough—except that Engardio rose to political prominence and probably won his seat by supporting two recalls, of School Board members and District Attorney Chesa Boudin, based entirely on political disagreements.

Boudin was elected on a reform platform, and after he won, he did exactly what he promised to do. Engardio and others might not have liked the fact that he won or his policies, but there was never a hint of corruption or impropriety; the recall was all about... disagreements on policy.

None of the School Board members recalled with Engardio's support did anything illegal or unethical; they disagreed with him and others on how soon and how safely schools could open during COVID. 

As Chu said, "he supported other recalls, where nobody committed crimes."

So that's going to be a tough argument for Engardio to make.

Also tough to tell the people who live in the Sunset that traffic is just fine: As member Jade Tu said, "my fucking commute is 40 minutes long, it takes me twice the time to get to work. I can't image if you have children or elderly parents."

I got little indication what the committee will recommend, or what the DCCC will finally say. But at this point, it may not matter: There won't be time or money to send a party mailer to the residents of D4 before the election is over.

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