Progressive Convention Won’t Nominate a Candidate

But there will be no formal process for delegates to nominate a candidate for Mayor, followed by an actual endorsement from the convention. It’s more about “setting the stage” for a progressive campaign this year, he explained. At the same time, Daly has insisted that the Left must have a candidate – which will be him if nobody else declares at the Convention. Meanwhile, State Senator Carole Migden will be there to shore up progressive credentials for her re-election campaign while her opponent, Mark Leno, is tied up in Sacramento working on the state budget.

“It’s never been about a formal process for a nomination,” said Daly when I asked about the Convention's schedule. “From the start, I was careful to never use the term ‘nominate.’” In the mass e-mail that he sent out on May 11th to first announce the Convention, Daly invited progressives to “set the stage for our campaign this summer and fall” and “launch our candidate(s) for Mayor of San Francisco.” While the Convention will “launch” a progressive mayoral campaign, there will be no decision-making process among delegates to pick who that candidate will be.

For progressives planning to attend a Saturday kick-off, the whole idea of having a convention was to end months of speculation and – finally! – get behind a candidate who chooses to run. In a May 30th interview on KPFA, Daly said that the Convention will showcase the City’s strong progressive movement and “hopefully on Saturday we will have a strong challenger to the Mayor’s office.”

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