While the fact that three San Francisco Supervisors are running for the Democratic County Central Committee (DCCC) in June has garnered the most attention, three qualified grass-roots activists are also on the “Hope Slate” who have never run for public office before. Moreover, all three are running in the 12th Assembly District (the West Side) – which is not a normal target for progressives. ACORN member Giselle Quesada, Sierra Club activist Michael Bornstein and education advocate Hene Kelly are all running for DCCC on their grass-roots experience with issue-based politics. And it’s that kind of energy that could transform the DCCC over the next two years.

“I’m running because the Democratic Party needs to hold people more accountable,” said Quesada – a technician who works for AT&T, lives in the Oceanview neighborhood and is an active member of ACORN. “There’s a sense of accountability that just isn’t there – while too many people view the DCCC as just a stepping stone to higher office. When I think of all the promises that politicians have made to our community, Oceanview is still a forgotten area. We need to hold people accountable for what they stand for.”

The DCCC is the official voice of the San Francisco Democratic Party. The Committee’s task is to build the Party though voter registration, turnout and fundraising – but it also makes crucial endorsements in contested municipal races. Twelve members are elected from the 13th Assembly District (the East Side) – which commonly elects progressive candidates. But another twelve are from the 12th District (West Side) – and its members have been more conservative and tied with the City’s top-down political establishment.

The “Hope Slate” – which Supervisor Chris Daly helped create after he and colleagues Aaron Peskin and Jake McGoldrick filed for DCCC – is largely made up of East Side progressive incumbents already on the body, along with other elected officials in San Francisco. But on the West Side, Giselle Quesada and two other candidates – Hene Kelly and Michael Bornstein – are running for DCCC on the “Hope Slate,” and are taking their years of community organizing to elect more progressives in the 12th A.D.

Kelly is a retired public school teacher and a longtime union activist. She currently works as legislative director of the California Alliance for Retired Americans – a statewide non-profit that advocates for seniors on social and economic justice issues. “I follow all the bills in the State Capitol that affect seniors and have campaigned hard against Proposition 98 to save rent control,” she said. “But running for the DCCC is an opportunity to get more involved at the local level.”

Kelly grew up in Hyde Park on Chicago’s South Side, a neighborhood whose progressive tradition got her involved at a young age. “When I was 18,” she said, “I walked precincts for John F. Kennedy. They gave me the only Republican precinct in Cook County – because no one else was crazy enough to do it. I went around, had tea with old ladies in the precinct, and ended up delivering 40% of the precinct for the Democratic Party.”

The wife of Dennis Kelly (president of the United Educators of San Francisco), Kelly is a longtime union activist -- having been a Labor Council delegate since 1971. On the DCCC, Kelly plans to raise money for the Party, register more Democrats and get them to the polls. “To make them Democrats – to convince Decline-to-State voters to change their registration,” she said, “you have to educate them about progressive San Francisco values. And as an educator, I take that role seriously.”

Convincing people to switch parties is something that candidate Michael Bornstein knows something about, having run a field canvass for Matt Gonzalez’s campaign for Mayor in 2003. “I have always told the Green Party that their time would be better spent as the Green caucus of the Democratic Party,” said Bornstein. “If you can’t win a primary, how can you win a general election? An organized Green Party could help take over the Democratic Party – or else be a powerful member in our coalition.”

Bornstein is Chapter Director of the San Francisco Sierra Club – where he’s been for the past nine years. Before that, he directed canvassing programs for the California League of Conservation Voters – and worked on anti-tobacco campaigns in San Mateo. In the mid-1990’s, he was Executive Director of the SF Democratic Party. “My job was to run voter registration, coordinate activities and run the coordinated campaign,” he said. “We did a workshop on how to run for DCCC – which doubled the number of candidates.”

Bornstein says he’s running “because our local Democratic Party is capable of being so much more – both in terms of organizational infrastructure for progressives locally, and in terms of providing real national leadership on the future direction of the Democratic Party. People have a perception of politics as something unsavory – a choice between Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum. By working on issues that matter, they can see that politics is about empowering individuals and their community.”

Working on neighborhood issues in her working-class community is what convinced Giselle Quesada to run for DCCC. A mother of five in Oceanview, Quesada has been frustrated at the City’s process in re-opening the Minnie and Lovie Ward Recreation Center. “A lot of youth in our community have nowhere to go,” said Quesada, “and the City has made promises that have repeatedly fallen through. There are parks in our neighborhood that need attention – it really comes down to a question of accountability.”

Quesada is an active member of ACORN – which has organized working-class families in the Mission, Excelsior, Bayview and Oceanview neighborhoods – and is also involved with the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition. A technician who works for AT&T, Quesada is also active in her union – CWA Local 9410. “I’m a strong Democrat,” she said, “and if elected I would bring accountability when it comes to the DCCC endorsing candidates. I will want to know – ‘what has that person really done for the community?’”

DCCC elections in San Francisco are notoriously competitive – with candidates raising sums of money similar to City Council races in other Bay Area communities. It’s also an obscure body that most voters don’t know about – so it attracts well-connected party regulars who have ambitions for higher office. The East Side never has a shortage of progressives wanting to run for DCCC, but the West Side is often left to the moderates. But this year, we have three progressives on the West Side with a grass-roots issue-based background. And that could change the make-up of the DCCC …