Features

When Beverly Hill chanced to open mail from the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce 10 days ago, she saw red—as in red state. The owner of Rainbo Graphix, just over the city line in Emeryville, she had been a proud member of the Berkeley Chamber for years. Knowing Berkeley, she took it for granted that the chamber, if it took political positions, would be as liberal as the whole city is. That’s not what she found.  

Instead, in the flyer she received, the chamber went down the line in support of the Schwarzenegger positions in Tuesday’s election. With no position on the anti-abortion Prop. 73, the Chamber endorsed 74 through 78, and was only against the two liberal initiatives, 79 and 80. Hill had seen enough. By return mail she sent a scathing letter to the Chamber, resigning her membership.  

Hill didn’t stop there. She e-mailed fellow members of the Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club, which has been actively campaigning against 73 to 78 and for 79 and 80. The club has been putting most available energy into precinct walking, but Hill and I started studying the Chamber and then contacting members.  

The Chamber’s members are a motley crew, as might be expected of Berkeley. In its top-ranked “Platinum Level of its Chairman’s Circle” are just three organizations: the pharmaceutical giant Bayer, the University of California and the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (The latter two, as taxpayer-supported institutions shouldn’t be taking political stands at all.) Far down the list, are the businesses most of us think of as such—places like Cody’s Books, Saul’s Deli, Picante Restaurant and Chez Panisse, as well as this paper, among others.  

So how did the chamber end up with the positions they took? According to Roland Peterson, head of the Government Affairs Committee of the Chamber, his committee met twice and finally voted for a mix of endorsements far different from the final ones. He says the Chamber only takes positions on measures it believes will affect businesses. When asked how that justifies taking a stand on Prop. 75, the measure to force public employee unions to get signatures allowing political expenditures from each member, he refused to comment. Anyway, the committee’s endorsements then went to the board of directors, heavily tilted towards big business, who then voted “something like 7 to 5” to support the full Schwarzenegger agenda.  

Small business owners in Berkeley tend to be too busy to have much time for politics. Still, Andy Ross of Cody’s took time out from opening his new San Francisco store to send a message to the Chamber’s CEO, Rachel Rupert. “I am loath to send this e-mail. But I must,” he began. 

“Apparently the chamber has endorsed a number of the state propositions that I feel are simply vehicles of the Republican party to score points against the Democrats,” Ross wrote. “I am sure that the membership would not support these propositions. I also have been getting flack from my customers for being a member of an organization with this kind of political agenda. In this instance, I would have to agree with my customers. ... the chamber’s position seems to be needlessly provocative.” 

Ross concluded, “I really don’t want to make a big stink and resign from the chamber. But I feel the chamber would be best served by changing their position on these issues to ‘neutral.’” 

Other businesses are likely to weigh in over the next few days.  

Michael H. Goldhaber is a member of the Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club.