Editorials

Updated: Who's Behind the Wicks Mail Deluge? Who's Endorsed Her? A Sleazy Campaign Get Sleazier

Becky O'Malley
Friday October 19, 2018 - 05:18:00 PM

Last week I got an email from a friend in Contra Costa County who doesn’t usually read the Daily Planet:

“We've been getting negative ads about Beckles in the mail. I don't know if you've gotten them but they are playing with racism (implying that Beckles is crazy and badly behaved, etc). The tactic only serves to make mainstream democrats look bad (would Obama approve of them?), and could alienate progressives still further. Does Wicks approve of these mailers? I find it all very disturbing...”

My somewhat snarky response: You should read the Berkeley Daily Planet.

But really, I also find it very disturbing. In last week’s editorial, I reprinted Wicks’ email address from her website, prompting reader Chris Adams to send her this sarcastic letter with a copy to us:

Dear Buffy Wicks,

Congratulations on a terrific mailer.

First of all, congratulations on keeping your finger prints completely off of it. I am sure no one connects you to the East Bay Health…Affordable Housing, etc.PAC.

Second, the artwork is great, just enough shading on the dark pages that recipients will know Jovanka is Black.

And all the great hit facts that are here to read, way too late to give Jovanka time for rebuttal. I live in Berkeley and I know our leaders would NEVER allow a meeting to “stretch past midnight.” Really bad!

I hope you don’t mind if I send this in to the Lee Atwater Foundation for its annual Willie Horton Award for best campaign ad.


The piece my friend received was attributed to "Coalition for East Bay Health Care Access, Affordable Housing and Quality Public Schools, supporting Buffy Wicks for Assembly 2018," , an Independent Expenditure Political Action Committee whose management has been traced to a conservative Republican lawyer in Sacramento. That might have given Buffy plausible deniability, but so far she hasn’t renounced their support.

But the glossy item that came in my mail today was even more …well…depressing.

This one was clearly paid for by “Buffy Wicks for Assembly”. Banner headline: “Buffy Wicks for Assembly is endorsed by the East Bay Express...”

Now, that’s just a lie. A plain, flat lie.

Here’s what the East Bay Express’s website now says, one more time:


15th Assembly District: No Endorsement

This was also a tough choice for us. We co-endorsed Buffy Wicks, a former Obama White House aide, in the June primary with Oakland Councilmember Dan Kalb. But we've been greatly disappointed in several of her policy stances since then, particularly her decision to oppose Proposition 10, which would allow cities like Berkeley and Oakland to enact tougher rent control laws in order to reduce displacement of longtime residents who can't afford to live here. We view Prop. 10 as one of the most important issues on the ballot. We're also disappointed in her decision to accept independent expenditure help from billionaire, charter-school backers.

Lying has become the fashion in Washington, where Wicks has spent a lot of her time, but it’s still somewhat frowned on in the East Bay.

The piece also devotes a full 8x11 color page (one of four) to an equally dishonest misstatement of Jovanka Beckles’ positions, the same easily rebuttable fake facts, accompanied by authentic appearing fake footnotes to partisan op-eds on obscure web sites, one of which is the Richmond Standard, the FauxNewsSource PR mouthpiece for Chevron.

Yes, it’s disturbing all right.

I fear that Wicks will be elected to represent wealthy developers instead of East Bay citizens in the California Assembly, given the vast sums being spent by them on her behalf.

I’m going to leave last week’s editorial online below, since sadly nothing much has changed. Read it and curse if you want to.
 


Am I the only voter who is flabbergasted, not to mention repelled, at the flood of very expensive mail coming from or on behalf of one of the candidates for California Assembly District 15? Not to mention by the content of said mailings. But the one that came today takes the cake, or perhaps it’s the pie in the face of East Bay voters. 

 

First, let’s just notice that among about 50 words of text on this piece, “serious” is used three times. Why does anyone think we’d doubt her seriousness, given the heft of the big bucks she’s carrying around her neck? One is tempted to think that this is covert stereotyping, just because she’s a blonde, but not really…Buffy Wicks means business—seriously. The one that came yesterday also said that she’s “serious”. Okay, we get it, not just another Barbie, but “serious”.

If you weren’t already worried, “housing” and “crisis” are used twice each in today’s version. This might have gotten her some extra Brownie points from the only lobbying group listed on this piece, the organization AKA Yimbys, AKA SF BARF, now optimistically re-labelled East Bay for Everyone. (Perhaps Everyone might fit into the East Bay, but maybe some of Everyone might need to live in Mountain View or somewhere else, right?)

In addition to “housing advocates”, a group with only one member, EBFE, it’s claimed that three corporate newspapers “ENDORSE BUFFY!” That would be the Hearst Chronicle (no, really?) Dean Singleton’s East Bay Times (Quelle surprise!) and Whoever’s East Bay Express .

But wait! I looked that last one up on the internet, and not to be too harsh or anything, not quite true. In fact, false.

Here’s what they actually said about endorsements over at the Ex:

15th Assembly District: No Endorsement

This was also a tough choice for us. We co-endorsed Buffy Wicks, a former Obama White House aide, in the June primary with Oakland Councilmember Dan Kalb. But we've been greatly disappointed in several of her policy stances since then, particularly her decision to oppose Proposition 10, which would allow cities like Berkeley and Oakland to enact tougher rent control laws in order to reduce displacement of longtime residents who can't afford to live here. We view Prop. 10 as one of the most important issues on the ballot. We're also disappointed in her decision to accept independent expenditure help from billionaire, charter-school backers.”

What? Do the anonymous authors of this mailer, who list a Sacramento mailing address, think East Bay voters are fools? Yes, I know that the independent expenditure PACs that the Ex decries don’t need the candidate’s permission to lie on her behalf, but she should IMMEDIATELY disavow the Faux News that the East Bay Express endorses her, because it doesn't. 

About those PACS: I’ve just gotten a link to an amazing piece of sleuthing on the part of the Democratic Socialists of America, who claim, and I have no reason to doubt them, that one of the PACS which paid for this and other pro-Wicks mailers was secretly helmed by a right-wing Republican. 

Headline: Meet the Pro-Kavanaugh Republican Running the Newest Buffy Wicks PAC. by Frances Reade. 

 

“Voters in AD15 received a deluge of political mailers this week, so one in particular probably didn’t stick out. It's a glossy sheet 8.5" x 11" sheet with a huge picture of a frothing Donald Trump and a small picture of a smiling Buffy Wicks. The cover says, “With the Right Leaders, CA CAN DO A LOT TO STOP DONALD TRUMP.”  

“You can’t tell from looking at it, but this mailer, suggesting that Buffy can protect us from Trump, was conceived in an elite Republican law firm in Sacramento and paid for by an unholy alliance of right-wing billionaires, anti-public education crusaders, and big healthcare PACs. 

 

“The whole process was overseen by Ashlee Titus, president of the Sacramento Federalist Society, who recently signed a letter in support of accused sexual predator Brett Kavanaugh. “The mailer discloses it was produced by a PAC with the convoluted name "Coalition for East Bay Health Care Access, Affordable Housing and Quality Public Schools, supporting Buffy Wicks for Assembly 2018," an outfit which has spent $442,890.31 in the last 20 days on mailers, polling, and ads supporting Buffy, per its filings with the California Secretary of State*. It appears the PAC exists solely to coordinate the spending of other PACs' money on Buffy’s behalf in AD15. (And there is a lot of spending going on in AD15. Check our site buffywicks.money to learn who’s spending over $2 million on Buffy’s campaign.)  

“Taking a look into the backers of this Buffy Coalition PAC reveals an extremely disturbing cast of characters, none of whom have any intention of doing "A LOT TO STOP DONALD TRUMP." In fact, they are backing Buffy because in a deeply blue state, corporate Democrats like her are the best Republicans can hope for to accomplish their agenda.’ 

 

That’s just the beginning. This amazing piece of opposition research goes deep into the weeds of party politics, illustrating, if you have any doubt, that the East Bay Express was right in refusing to endorse Wicks because she’s in bed with these clowns. Read the whole thing—lots of names and numbers. 

 

It’s quite possible that in a parallel universe Buffy might be a fine candidate for something, perhaps Oakland City Council if Dan Kalb retires (she’s bought a nice house in Rockridge), but given the diverse texture that the East Bay prides itself on, she’s in the wrong place at the wrong time. The tons of glossy promos that arrive daily in our mailboxes are just plain annoying, featuring as they do her prize collection of selfies with every candidate who has ever employed her. 

She’s transparently the candidate of California’s calcified Democratic establishment. Jovanka Beckles, her opponent, is endorsed by the Democrats’ nascent progressive leadership, including Bernie Sanders, and now today by Kimberly Ellis, who recently came within an eyelash of being elected state Democratic Party chair. 

Here’s the press release containing the Ellis endorsement: 

 

“Today leading California Democratic Party Activist Kimberly Ellis issued a long statement endorsing Jovanka Beckles’ candidacy to represent Assembly District 15 in Sacramento. Her conclusion is ‘I’m voting for Jovanka because she is the most qualified candidate - with a voice and perspective that is desperately needed in our halls of power.’ “Kimberly Ellis has been called the most powerful unelected Democrat in California. In a close contest in 2017 she nearly won chair of the party on the basis of a strong campaign to establish single payer health care. She has served on the California Democratic Party Finance Committee and also on the California Democratic Party's African American Caucus as Recording Secretary.  

“Ellis was supported for Party Chair by the California Nurses Association, which supported Bernie Sanders in the Democratic Presidential primary, and by Our Revolution, which grew out of the Sanders campaign. 

“Ellis issued the following explanatory statement: 

“*** First, this is not a short statement - nor should it be *** 

 

‘For those who don’t know, I live in AD15. This is my home district. Not only can I endorse in this race, more importantly, I must decide for myself who is the best person to represent my neighborhood. ‘Our AD15 primary had an embarrassment of riches with respect to great candidates. As someone who doesn’t believe in putting a thumb on the scale, I wasn’t about to play favorites in the primary, believing instead that the voters should narrow this very crowded field.  

‘But with returning absentee ballots about to flood election offices next week, the time has come for me to make public my endorsement. 

‘Having been on the receiving end of a few dual endorsements in my Chair’s race, I gotta tell you, I’m not a big fan. And while I know both candidates to be capable and I have shared friendships with both, I’m only backing one of them in this contest. 

‘Hell, just me saying that both women are capable is gonna ruffle feathers. That’s OK. I’m a mom of two kids and sometimes Even/Steven ain’t possible. 

‘In their quest to make it to the state legislature, the two candidates clearly bring different talents and perspectives to this race. It’s no surprise that I’m not a fan of many of those currently in Sacramento, though there are some great exceptions (hat tip to Holly Mitchell, Lorena Gonzalez and Dr. Shirley Weber) - and these women are the types of leaders we need. Honorable MENtion to Rob Bonta. 

‘At the end of the day, life is all about making decisions: big ones; little ones; important ones; inconsequential ones. But decisions, nonetheless. 

‘Ultimately, when you have two capable candidates, the decision for me comes down to perspective... the life experience that each one brings to the current make-up of the decision-making table at which they will be seated. 

‘In short, I’m endorsing Jovanka Beckles because I believe her voice is most needed, especially at this moment in time. 

‘I believe that our life experiences form our judgments, and while I know that Buffy has a tremendous amount to contribute, elections force us to choose just one. 

‘From Oakland to Berkeley, Albany to Richmond, Assembly District 15 is the heart and soul of progressivism. We’re the district that keeps California honest. 

‘Jovanka has done everything we say we want our leaders to do... 

‘She has been an active and engaged member of the community for decades; she has served on commissions; she has run successfully for elected office (twice) and even served as Vice Mayor; she has helped spearhead the positive transformation of the city of Richmond. 

‘I know Jovanka’s tremendous impact because I’ve witnessed it firsthand as her constituent. 

‘And now, Jovanka is asking for a promotion. And she’s the right person to do the job. 

‘I’ve listened to the various reasons non-supporters give: she’s too radical; too extreme; too militant; too leftist; raises her fist too much; not polished or savvy enough. Doesn’t ‘get along’ with some people. 

‘As a Black woman who has run for office, I know that oftentimes these ‘reasons’ are code for ‘she’s not one of us’. 

‘Far be it from me to inject race into this conversation, but let’s be honest, for too many liberals, Jovanka is just too ‘Black’ (literally and figuratively). 

‘And if that’s the case, and some folks are more comfortable with and have a preference for white women in sensible shoes, then at least have the courage to admit it to yourself, if not to others. 

‘On Tuesday, November 6, I’m voting for Jovanka Beckles... not because she’s Black... or because she’s a woman. 

‘I’m voting for Jovanka because she is the most qualified candidate - with a voice and perspective that is desperately needed in our halls of power.” 

 

Amen to all that. 

 

 


P.S. Another glossy hit piece came Monday, even scuzzier than the above, a personal attack on Councilwoman Beckles. I looked up Ms. Wicks' web site, and scrolling way down I found this statement attributed to the candidate: 

 

I am happy to answer any additional questions you may have about me or my campaign. You can email us at hello@buffywicks.com or call me directly at 510–545–3997. 

Why not give Wicks a call and let her know what you think? Ask her if she's willing to disavow the support of this disgraceful right-wing PAC.