The first Recall Chesa TV ad starts airing Thursday night, and tells you that “Chesa Boudin is failing.” It does not tell you which people featured in the ad are paid recall campaign staff.
The effort to recall San Francisco district attorney Chesa Boudin has won its place on the June 7, 2022 ballot, and according to the latest campaign filings, is sitting on nearly $1.5 million in campaign contributions. And with that hefty war chest, they’re going to start airing TV ads Thursday evening. According to a release from the Safer SF Without Boudin campaign, the ad below is “a six-figure ad buy airing tonight on a variety of cable stations in the San Francisco market.”
You’d think the ad would feature grieving victim families affected by paroled criminals, say, like the family of the New Year’s Eve hit-and-run victims, or last February’s fatal eight-car crash near Lake Merced. Does it feature victims’ families? Let’s go to the tape.
A woman identified as “Andrea Shorter, Safer SF Without Boudin” appears in the ad, and says, “I didn’t support the Newsom recall, but this is different.”
This is the same Andrea Shorter whom the campaign is paying $8,000, twice every month according to campaign filings, for a staggering $16,000 monthly salary. Nice work if you can get it! Shorter is generally identified as “spokesperson” for the recall campaign.
We also hear from Mary Jung, identified in the ad as “Former Chair, San Francisco Democratic Party.” She says in the ad that, “Chesa’s failure has resulted in an increase in crime against Asian Americans.”
That leaves out some important context, namely that Mary Jung is also the treasurer of the recall campaign, according to their filings.
Additionally, we hear from two disgruntled prosecutors who left the DA’s office under Boudin. “The safety of San Francisco is dependent upon Chesa being recalled as soon as possible,” says Brooke Jenkins, who left quite publicly over a case where Boudin took a plea deal where the killer pled insanity, and got herself a Heather Knight profile in the Chronicle after doing so. According to the press release, both prosecutors “joined the campaign as volunteer spokespeople.”
We do hear from one victim family member, Jason Young, father of a six-year-old who was shot on July 4, 2020. “I never in a million years thought that my son, let alone any six-year-old, would be gunned down in the streets of San Francisco, and not get any justice,” Young says in the ad.
But this is a little misleading. That case did go cold for a few months, but since then, an arrest was made in January, and the suspect has been charged with murder and attempted murder, among other felonies. A second suspect was arrested in August, but neither suspect has had their trial yet.
The ad does do its legal duty and disclose its largest donors, the bulk of which is more than a million dollars from an organization called Neighbors for a Better San Francisco Advocacy.
According to campaign filings, Neighbors for a Better San Francisco Advocacy is based in San Rafael.
Screenshot via Youtube
