San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Citing attack ads, Assembly candidate leaves race
“At the end of the day, I’m a mom. I have to protect my kids.”
For Giselle Hale, the decision to drop her campaign for the California Legislature came to a head during a recent family vacation to Germany. She said she noticed the toll the race had taken on her family, especially her two young daughters.
“My 5-year-old was regularly served one of my opponents’ attack ads while watching a YouTube kids’ show; and my 8-year-old told me that a classmate brought a negative mailer to school,” Hale tweeted Friday, in a thread announcing her exit from the race for state Assembly.
Her daughters, she added, “couldn’t comprehend grown-ups doing such things.”
Hale, the mayor of Redwood City and a progressive Democrat, shocked California political observers with the decision. In June, Hale just narrowly secured the second spot on the ballot to run for the 21st District Assembly seat in the Nov. 8 election.
Her race against Diane Papan, deputy mayor of San Mateo, was expected to be one of the most contentious Democrat-on-Democrat contests for the Legislature this fall. Now, Papan is all but guaranteed to be the next Assembly member to represent the district, which includes San Mateo County and several affluent Silicon Valley suburbs south of San Francisco.
Redwood City Mayor Giselle Hale says she has decided to end her campaign for an Assembly seat after seeing the effect attack ads were having on her family.
Papan finished first in the June primary, with 41% of the vote. Hale narrowly edged out Republican Mark Gilham for second place, with 19.8% of the vote, compared with 19.5% for Gilham.
Hale told The Chronicle that she had “compartmentalized the negative” attacks she faced during the past seven months of the campaign. It wasn’t until she and her husband took their daughters to Germany this month that she said the family had the chance to unwind and reflect. She said she realized her girls were suffering from seeing their mom attacked.
“At the end of the day, I’m a mom. I have to protect my kids,” Hale said. “I’m not
somebody’s who’s willing to sacrifice the people who matter to me to get elected.”
Hale said she faced the “full force” of a roughly $1.2 million negative ad campaign, including mailers that showed up in her mailbox almost daily. One ad criticized her for auditioning for “The Apprentice,” former President Donald Trump’s old reality TV show. Another criticized her for being registered as a “no party preference” voter in the past.
Hale said she auditioned for the show in 2005, when she was 26 and before she knew “the evil Trump would inflict.” She said her party registration was a mistake and that she was a “sleep-deprived
mom with a newborn” when she re-registered to vote after changing her name; she also suggested it could have been a clerical error on the DMV’s part. Her race with Papan was seen, in part, as a proxy battle between Yes in My Backyard activists who want the state to compel local governments to build dramatically more housing and Not in My Backyard forces who want cities to retain a high level of control in housing decisions.
Campaign filings show a group called Housing Providers for Responsible Solutions — which is bankrolled by state associations representing real estate agents and apartment owners — made more than $523,000 in independent expenditures to oppose Hale. She said those groups probably opposed her because they benefit from keeping the cost of rent and housing high.
Independent expenditure groups spent more than $840,000 to support Papan; none spent money to oppose her. Some of Papan’s largest backers included political committees supported by police unions, oil companies, charter schools, beverage firms and Pacific Gas and Electric Co.
Papan released a statement Friday that did not directly address Hale’s rationale for leaving the race.
“I want to give thanks to each and every one of the primary election candidates for putting their visions forward to the people of San Mateo County,” Papan said. “Now is the time to unify and work together.”
Meanwhile, labor groups and YIMBY activists supporting Hale spent about $79,000 in independent expenditures to boost her campaign. Her largest backers included unions representing nurses and health care workers.
That said, Hale did raise more money for her campaign overall, not counting outside spending. She raked in more than $766,000 through late May, compared with more than $583,000 for Papan.
Hale’s exit is a major blow to YIMBY organizers, who had hoped that electing her, along with a handful of other progressive candidates, could make it easier to pass aggressive prohousing bills in Sacramento. Still, many supporters offered sympathetic words on Twitter.
“In politics, there’s a lot you are subjected to & expected to take,” tweeted Alex Melendrez, South Bay organizing manager for YIMBY Action. “But at the end of the day candidates are human too.”
It was not immediately clear whether Hale’s name could be removed from the November ballot.
Hale, whose term as mayor ends in November, said she’s looking for a new job and won’t stop advocating for policies she cares about, especially building more housing. She said Friday she’s overwhelmed by the support she received.
“My phone is completely full with texts and messages and encouragement,” Hale said. “I’m grateful for that.”