#cavec

Step Right Up Ladies and Gentlemen! It's Three Lies for the Price of One!

THE LIE: So the David Lee campaign had itself a little event today as part of it's "50 Ways" schtick. We are especially fond of "#16 Democrats for David" rally to show of his broad range of support from local Democrats. 

Who makes up this large coalition of local Democrats? That would be

Alice B. Toklas Democratic Club

City Democratic Club

Westside Chinese Democratic Club

Irish American Democratic Club

Asian Pacific Islander Democratic Club

Wow! That's certainly a lot of support! Just look at this collage of organizations.

The support is so massive that they might need another one just to contain all of those endorsements that he has rolling in.

But seriously, while Alice B. Toklas has some major political muscle, and Westside Chinese and API's membership includes most of the who's who of the Asian American Democratic leaders, that's actually a tiny list considering that there are actually 22 Citywide Democratic clubs that have been officially chartered by the San Francisco Democratic Party.

Three of the five endorsing David are considered to be some of the most moderate to conservative Democratic clubs around and the other two Westside Chinese and API are great Democratic clubs, but they also answer to David Lee's fairy godmother and State Assembly Speaker Pro Tem, Fiona Ma. And in addition to Ma, Lee has former two former San Francisco Mayors, US Senator Dianne Feinstein and Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom backing him. With all due respect to these three fine politicians, they all have a record of siding with developers, corporations, anti-tenant groups, downtown interests, and just about every other evil 1%er that you can think of. 

THE TRUTH: Meanwhile, in the land of reality, incumbent Supervisor Eric Mar has a ridiculously impressive long list of Democratic club and organizational endorsements which can partially be found on his campaign website which also includes an lengthy list of former and current Democratic leaders and elected officials, among them more than a dozen current and former members of the Board of Supervisors, everyone's favorite Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, and State Senator Leland Yee. But the real salt in the wound is that only one candidate received the sole endorsement of the neighborhood Richmond District Democratic Club and San Francisco Democratic Party . . . and that person would be . . . wait for it . . . Eric Mar. 

And speaking of the San Francisco Democratic Party, we've been hearing some rumors that moderate matriarch and current Party Chair, Mary Jung, is a little upset that David Lee used a picture of her and her name to list as a supporter. But because we're all about facts here at Fact Checking David Lee, we won't pull a David Lee and officially confirm that a truthful statement. But we promise that once we do have a credible source, that we will update the fact checker from 5 lies to 6. 

But we can confirm one gem of information that was recently published in the San Francisco Bay Guardian's Endorsement Issue, based on publicly available election records. Aside from the 100,00 voters that his organization, the Chinese American Voters Education Committee (CAVEC), David claims to be lifelong Democrat who is absolutely dedicated the values and inclusiveness of the Democratic Party . . . so much that he's forgotten to vote in several recently past elections. And after the current ethics violation complaint that he used CAVEC as his personal tax free piggy bank for the last three years, all we can say about that is WHAH! WHAH! 

So let's recap:

Lie #1: David has broad Democratic support standing behind him. False

Lie #2: David is the choice candidate among San Francisco Democrats. False

Lie #3: David Lee is a committed Democrat who values the voting process. False

People Who Live in Glass Houses Shouldn't Throw Stones

THE LIE:  About a month ago, D-1 voters received several push poll calls that were paid for by independent expenditures supporting David Lee. The poll asked several “whisper campaign” questions implicating several “facts” about Supervisor Eric Mar that were either grossly exaggerated, misconstrued, or completely and utterly false. One question implied that Mar has failed to pay his property taxes and as a result has had a lien put on his house. We can’t really refute or comment on the details of this claim; but only because there’s never actually been any prior public information or press on the matter. Nonetheless, it doesn't help Mar to win over some swing voters.

Well played David Lee, right? Or not.

THE TRUTH:   According to an October 4th article in the San Francisco Chronicle:

“Filed Monday with the San Francisco Ethics Commission by Friends of Ethics, the complaint alleges that Lee didn't properly disclose his income from the Chinese American Voter Education Committee from 2008 to 2011 while he was a Recreation and Park commissioner.”

So how exactly much income did he fail to report? Well, in 2010 alone, his income as the Executive Director of CAVEC was $92,000. In all, the claim states that his income for the whole three year period totaled $600,000. What the what!?!?! 

Of course, David Lee’s campaign consultant, Jim Ross tried to smooth things over calling it a “mistake” that Lee eventually tried to correct. But Bob Planthold, who filed the complaint doesn’t buy it.:

“That’s similar to a bank robber saying ‘oh, I”ll just give the money back,” he said. “If you’re in public office, you should be held to a higher standard of reporting.”

To make things worse, David Lee responded to the complaint in an email and campaign blog post where he actually blames Eric Mar and his evil supporters, based on a rumor that he heard (and we all know how David feels about rumors). David even has the nerve to deny the facts with the following statement:

"This invented attack is not surprising, but it is disappointing.” 

Wait a second … Really dude? There is no such thing as inventing publicly accessible tax records. But what we'd really like to know is how exactly does one even overlook earning $92,000 a year? Please enlighten us.

So what David Lee is implying is that it’s totally cool to manipulate invent “facts” about Eric Mar's tax records. But then when the tables are turned, then it’s all just a big conspiracy to disparage his good name and the integrity of CAVEC … notwithstanding public records of course.