The San Francisco Democratic Party is facing division after narrowly voting to endorse a candidate for local office who was accused of sexual assault, drawing scrutiny from two political groups over the endorsement and the party’s handling of the allegations.
The San Francisco Latino Democratic Club lambasted the local arm of the Democratic Party — the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee — for endorsing Manny Yekutiel for the District 8 seat on the Board of Supervisors despite allegations of sexual assault.
The San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee narrowly voted at its meeting Wednesday to endorse Yekutiel. He was publicly accused in April of sexually assaulting political organizer Brad Chapin at a fundraiser in 2020.
Yekutiel has repeatedly denied the accusations and did so again in a statement Saturday in response to a statement from the San Francisco Women’s Political Committee.
“The allegations against me are false,” he said in a statement shared by a campaign spokesperson.
The Women’s Political Committee, a chartered club of the state Democratic Party, criticized the local party’s handling of the allegations and its investigative process. The group said the party’s investigator used language suggesting the allegation had been investigated and found unsubstantiated, when no investigation took place, according to Chapin and a letter made public before the endorsement vote.
Chapin attended the SFDCCC meeting to urge the party not to endorse Yekutiel.
“I’m really disappointed in your investigation,” Chapin told SFDCCC members during the public comment period.
He said he asked at the beginning of the process in April whether it would be a waste of time for him to participate because the alleged assault took place at an event that was not an official party event.
The SFDCCC ultimately determined it could not investigate the allegation for that reason.
“You should all be f**king ashamed of yourselves,” Chapin told SFDCCC members.
The Women’s Political Committee echoed that criticism in a statement Thursday.
“We are deeply troubled by their handling of the sexual assault allegation brought by Brad Chapin against District 8 Supervisor candidate Manny Yekutiel, and by the process failures that preceded last night’s SFDCCC endorsement vote,” the group said.
“We are alarmed by the language chosen to describe the outcome ‘as an inability to substantiate’ the allegation which implies an actual investigation was conducted and came up short. This is not what happened,” the statement said.
‘Unsubstantiated’ wording sparks criticism
The SFDCCC investigator’s letter said the committee could not look into the matter because the alleged crime did not happen at an official party event. The letter said the committee was not making a judgment about whether an assault had occurred.
But the letter also said it could not “substantiate” the allegation, wording Yekutiel highlighted in his statement accepting the endorsement.
“Both the SF Democratic Party’s and SFPD’s investigation were unable to substantiate the allegations made against me. That’s because they’re plainly untrue. Further questions about these investigative processes should be referred to the Party and to the Police Department, who conducted them,” Yekutiel said.
The Women’s Political Committee said the DCCC’s language cast doubt on the accusations and created the impression that the allegations had been investigated.
“Framing it as ‘unsubstantiated’ lends false credibility to doubt Brad’s account, when no investigation took place,” the group said.
A campaign spokesperson, Jeffry Pennock, declined Saturday to address questions about why Yekutiel continued to reference an investigation that the DCCC said it could not conduct.
The Women’s Political Committee asked the local party and its chair to respond to two questions about the process: why it waited several months to notify Chapin that it would not investigate the matter, and how it determined the allegation was outside its jurisdiction given its intention to endorse the accused candidate, regardless of whether the alleged assault occurred at an official party event.
The DCCC did not respond over the weekend to a request for comment on the group’s criticisms or questions about the process.
‘Racist double standard’
The San Francisco Latino Democratic Club criticized the handling of the matter as a double standard, arguing that the party has treated allegations against Latino candidates or officials more harshly.
It also criticized the process as incomplete.
“The DCCC cannot claim to center survivors when politically convenient and then retreat behind procedural limitations when accountability threatens an ally,” the Latino Democratic Club said in a statement on its website. “It cannot demand that some accused individuals prove their innocence while extending others the full benefit of every doubt.”
The statement, written by the Democratic Latino Club’s vice president of communications, Paul Aguilar, called the endorsement a “racist double standard.”