SEIU 1021 on board with Republican BART director Fang "Fang, although generally not seen as a labor ally, actually walked the picket lines with the striking workers."

SEIU 1021 on board with Republican BART director Fang "Fang, although generally not seen as a labor ally, actually walked the picket lines with the striking workers."
http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/SEIU-on-board-with-Republican...
By C.W. Nevius

October 17, 2014 | Updated: October 18, 2014 6:22am

Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle

BART Director James Fang, left, is being challenged by Nick Josefowitz in S.F.
We know that politics makes strange bedfellows, but this couple needs an intervention.

On the left we have the stalwart champions of the left, Service Employees International Union Local 1021, whose members, in trademark purple T-shirts, can often be seen walking the picket line and chanting for worker rights in front of downtown high-rises.

And to their right — way right — is James Fang, who is that rarest of political birds around here, an elected GOP public official. Many San Franciscans have never seen an actual Republican in the wild.

“It’s an odd thing,” said Supervisor Scott Wiener. “Here you have this uber-progressive union, yet they are supporting a Republican candidate in San Francisco against an environmental progressive.”

The latter is Nick Josefowitz, a political newcomer who’s taking on Fang for a seat on the BART Board of Directors. It was definitely predicted to be an uphill slog. Fang was elected to the BART board in 1990 and has successfully fended off challengers for six terms.

“When I first met Nick and he told me he was going to run, I said “You’re crazy,’” said former San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos. “But he’s young and new enough to be crazy.’’

However, Josefowitz has unexpectedly lined up a wide range of endorsements from all over the political spectrum. He’s supported by seven of the 11 San Francisco supervisors as well as The Chronicle, the Examiner, the Sierra Club and the Alice B. Toklas Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Democratic Club.

“I’ve been endorsed by everyone from the Bay Guardian to Mark Farrell,” he says.

Fang counters that he has the support of political warhorses House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Dianne Feinstein. However, Agnos says that’s more a reflection of his family’s political clout. The Fangs have owned several newspapers, including the nationally distributed Asian Week, which supported Pelosi and Feinstein and campaigned against Agnos.

Courtesy Photo

Nick Josefowitz
“The Fang family has a well-earned history as a political powerhouse in the city,” he said. “There is the support of Pelosi and Feinstein as political reciprocity, I suppose.”

All of which brings us back to SEIU, which isn’t only supporting Fang, but contributing to some pointed campaign handouts.

A website called The Millionaire Carpetbagger says Josefowitz “only moved to San Francisco from Great Britain two years ago, but he already wants to buy his way onto the BART board, and is expected to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on negative attack ads.”

Although the site says it’s paid for by “Fang for BART,” Fang says he’s never seen it.

“I haven’t looked at it yet,’’ he said. “I’m too busy campaigning.”

I’m sure you’ll be surprised to hear that all this is the result of a wink-wink deal between SEIU and Fang cut during last year’s BART worker strike. Fang, although generally not seen as a labor ally, actually walked the picket lines with the striking workers.

“Until now I would characterize Fang’s relationship with labor as benign neglect,” Agnos said. “This is one of the few times he’s been in support of labor. He took advantage of this strike because it was an election year.”

Fang insists his support of the workers was altruistic.

“It may seem a little odd, but in the end it is always about what is good for the people,” he said. “I thought management was beating up on the workers.”

Although the leadership of SEIU must surely be holding their noses as they support the Republican, they’ve doggedly held up their end of the deal. At the Aug. 13 meeting of the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee, union organizers pushed through a 17-10 vote of “no endorsement” in the BART race.

Which would have been considered classic San Francisco hardball politics, if Fang hadn’t taken it a step farther, sending out literature trumpeting the vote as “San Franciscans Reject Josefowitz.”

“That crossed the line,” Wiener said.

With that in mind, some DCCC supporters of Josefowitz are putting forward a resolution this week calling Fang out for “unauthorized use of the (SFDCCC’s) name ... to attack his Democratic challenger.”

Frankly, the smart money says the resolution doesn’t have the votes. But it does keep the issue, and the election, in the news. As the election approaches, expect the attacks and sniping to increase.

“The way people try to divide people in this city is crazy,” Fang said.

He would know.

C.W. Nevius is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. His columns appear Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. E-mail: cwnevius@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @cwnevius