The Greenberg Brief: San Francisco’s GOP Party Paralysis

There are thirty-five thousand registered Republicans in San Francisco, but you’d barely know it, under the guidance and rule of the local party’s leadership committee.

Representing nearly six percent of the eligible voter base of San Francisco’s total five hundred thousand registered voters, the SFGOP is in shambles and has been for years. Little meaningful money flows in, and even less flows out, needed to support what few candidates run for key offices locally anyway. Infighting, massive ego inflation, contentious monthly meetings featuring legal chest puffing and a floundering executive committee ensure the party will remain irrelevant in local politics for the near future. Will it improve? After all, thirty-five thousand is a truly significant voter block.

What’s even more puzzling is how the twenty-five member local party leadership committee (known as the San Francisco RCCC, the “Republican County Central Committee” or SFGOP) continues on the path in supporting its own internal leaders amid platform paralysis and sustained insignificance to the voters. Who’s in charge, and why?

John Dennis is the chairman of the county SFGOP. There’s a curious love-hate relationship with him, if indeed the city even knows him by name at all. He took the reins of the party in 2019 when previous chair Jason Clark suddenly resigned to take a job in Washington DC, leaving party leadership in disarray- resulting in infighting, backstabbing, and further descent into insignificance. Ruling the party with an iron fist and constant threats to expel committee members, many elected and appointed delegates of the RCCC quit due to Dennis, including yours truly, in 2020 and more recent.

At such a critical juncture in time in San Francisco’s rollercoaster history as today, when residents and business owners are disgusted with city hall leaders, with the lack of meaningful action on crime, serious fiscal mismanagement and corrupt officials indicted, the potential of influence by (and options to voters for) conservatives in San Francisco should seem a no-brainer. Arguably, there has been no better time than right this moment for moderate, reasonably-viable Republicans to run for the city’s elected offices. I’m talking key offices, such as mayor; for any of the six available seats on the city council (Board of Supervisors); for city attorney, and more. Some political strategists even profess a value of running a Republican placeholder candidate, just for show, for exposure.

Contrary to popular belief the San Francisco Republican Party is not a branch of the national Republican party (the RNC). There is no financial nor leadership connection. The SFGOP receives no guidance from national party chairwoman Ronna McDaniel. No political donors’ funding trickles down from the RNC to San Francisco’s leadership committee. You’ll be hard pressed to even recognize any of the names on the roster of SFGOP delegates, and there is a great internal schism today over support for-and disdain for – Donald Trump. Yet local party leaders fail, time and time again, to make this important distinction, especially when pressed (or insulted) publicly. For example, the SFGOP openly accepts and embraces the LGBTQ issue yet local voters don’t know this. The Democrats exploit this, succeeding in pounding the GOP into the dirt on the issue.

Previous SFGOP chairman Jason Clark warned delegates prior to John Dennis’ rein that unless serious efforts were undertaken to make the local party relevant, with exposure in the local media, with courting of journalists and meaningful outreach to voters, the party will be doomed. He asserted the SFGOP would become a mere social club. And that’s where they headed. For an example: Under Clark, the SFGOP created a special “rapid response team”: Key media-friendly committee members who were comfortable speaking on camera and writing press releases would monitor news in San Francisco, ready to react to developing stories with a mere moments notice. Keeping the SFGOP in the headlines (and in Republican voters’ inboxes) is, of course, an easy way to gain exposure and relevancy. But once new chairman John Dennis took control, he dismantled rapid responses in favor of a one-person reactionary voice: himself. Dennis made it very clear it was he alone authorized to speak to media.

Five times, five attempts, Mr. Dennis tried over the years to knock Nancy Pelosi out of office in Washington D.C. Concurrently serving as both a delegate on the RCCC and more recently as chairman, he ran quixotic campaigns which essentially caused neglect of SFGOP party chairman’s priorities, in favor of utilizing resources and efforts to pretend he had any chance in hell to unseat the insanely beloved Speaker Emerita. The few SFGOP fundraisers which have been held feature Dennis (to boost his profile) alongside the varied keynote speakers, and netted paltry donations above event break-even cost. Generally, there’s little money to support any local Republican candidates, and an SFGOP endorsement garners little attention across the city.  They don’t sponsor ballot measures nor organize rallies at city hall. They make little to no honest effort to promote change for the good of the city. Myriad opportunities exist, yet they essentially coordinate nothing. There’s just too much internal strife, leading to sustained failure.

We are again approaching another important election season. You can make a difference as a San Francisco registered Republican specifically. Cross-party, independent, and NPP voters are not eligible. The SFGOP party leadership elections (Primaries) to be held March 5th, 2024 are solely for Republican party-registered voters, which will see an actual opportunity to voice approval (or not) of the choices of elected delegates to the RCCC. Believe me, this is an often-overlooked opportunity to have direct influence. The current SFGOP leaders can be found here: [ https://www.sfgop.org/about ].

San Francisco is divided into east side and west side representatives for AD17 and AD19 (assembly districts). The list of current candidates can be found here [https://sf.gov/reports/march-2024/candidates-march-5-2024-presidential-primary-election#republican-county-central-committee-ad-17 ] and here [ https://sf.gov/reports/march-2024/candidates-march-5-2024-presidential-primary-election#republican-county-central-committee-ad-19 ].  Chairman John Dennis is running in AD19; send him a message at his publicly-listed GOP site email address: chair@sfgop.org .