The Chinese American Democratic Club, one of the city’s oldest political associations for Chinese Americans and a vocal opponent of closing the Upper Great Highway to cars, voted on Thursday to withdraw support of Supervisor Joel Engardio. The supervisor faces a recall attempt brought by constituents angry over his co-sponsoring last fall’s successful ballot measure to close the highway, which runs along the Pacific shoreline in his district.
“It doesn’t mean we’re supporting the recall,” Josephine Zhao, the club’s president, said in Cantonese. She said the opposition vote simply signals that the club won’t back Engardio’s effort to fight the recall attempt.
The vote was decisive, with 26 of 31 participants electing not to support Engardio, but Zhao said the turnout was relatively low, with only 31 of 79 eligible members voting. The club has around 100 paying members.
It’s unclear if the club will take a position on the recall. Zhao said that for now, they want to “see how far the membership is willing to go” in their opposition.
One pro-recall member admitted that formally supporting a recall could be “political suicide” for those with ambitions in City Hall, but also argued that the club should take a stand on it sooner.
Engardio did not comment on the club’s vote but said it’s important for politicians to listen to the communities they serve.
“Every day, I hear from Chinese constituents who say they appreciate the entirety of my work and some have even written letters of support in the local publication the Sunset Beacon,” he wrote in a statement.
The vote followed presentations from representatives of both the recall campaign and the effort to keep Engardio in office. But the club’s sentiments were clear even before the vote, as most attendees — though not all were voting members — wore stickers and held signs supporting the recall. Tensions briefly rose when audience members used their question time to let the recall team directly challenge the pro-Engardio campaign.
“He betrayed us,” said Allene Jue, a former Engardio supporter backing the recall.
Though most club-member attendees that night opposed Engardio, the club endorsed him in 2022, when he successfully ran to unseat Chinese American incumbent Gordon Mar, winning by 460 votes and becoming the district’s first non-Chinese American supervisor in 20 years. But the relationship soured during the November 2024 election campaign, when the club took a strong stand against the Great Highway closure measure, Proposition K.
Proposition K was approved by 54% of city voters last November, though those living closest to the Great Highway voted against it. The following month, westside residents launched the recall effort. On Tuesday, Proposition K opponents filed a lawsuit arguing that closing the Great Highway to cars illegally bypasses review required under the California Environmental Quality Act. The road was slated to close on Friday.
“A lawsuit that was launched this week could change the outcomes of Prop. K, but recalling Joel Engardio will not change the outcome of Prop. K,” said Lian Chang, campaign manager for Stand with Joel, during the meeting.
Zhao recently told the Public Press that the club polled its members in December and found that 83% supported recalling the supervisor. About two-thirds wanted it to happen immediately, while 23% preferred to first attempt mending the relationship with him.
Yet the club did not rush to fully turn away from the supervisor, those findings show. Instead, it brought Engardio and state Sen. Scott Wiener, who also endorsed the proposition, to speak to the club’s board twice in recent months.
The challenge in making a decision, Zhao said, is balancing the interests of the club’s members with the risk of alienating Engardio and Wiener, who are considered powerful allies in political office.
Selena Chu, who strongly supported Engardio during his 2024 campaign, is backing the recall effort over his stance on the Great Highway closure.
“He is very powerful as a supervisor,” Chu said in Cantonese. If the recall fails, Chu said, it could prevent the club from winning support at City Hall on future issues. Chu previously volunteered some time to help promote the Sunset Night Market and advocated for a ballot measure recommending the San Francisco Unified School District reintroduce algebra for 8th-grade students, two initiatives Engardio spearheaded.
Zhao, too, once used the term “political suicide” to describe supporting the recall, though she later walked that back.
“Some might say that the CADC taking a stand on issues like this would be political suicide,” Zhao said. “But if that’s what our members want, we will prioritize that democratic decision first, even if it could affect the club’s political prospects.”
Editor’s note, 3/14/25: This story has been updated to more accurately describe Chu’s volunteer work for the Sunset Night Market.
