When Board of Supervisors candidate Trevor Chandler was selected to be on the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee’s new group to address sexual assault and harassment, he made his agenda clear: “For too long predators have used SF’s broken political status quo to shield themselves,” he wrote on Twitter. “Their time is up.”
Meanwhile, the founder of the firm to which Chandler has paid the majority of his campaign funds is facing a lawsuit alleging that he sexually assaulted a woman in 2001.
The lawsuit, filed in November of 2023, alleges that Duane Baughman, partner at political consultancy BaughmanMerrill, forced himself on the plaintiff, Petra Beter, while they were working on the 2001 mayoral campaign for candidate Mike Bloomberg.
Its timing is noteworthy for two reasons. Beter’s suit was made possible by New York’s “Adult Survivors Act,” which allows for prosecution beyond the initial statute of limitations. Also, her lawsuit came six months after Baughman and business partner Katie Merrill, who founded the consultancy BaughmanMerrill, sued for demafation first. They claimed that Beter and her sister, Josee, have been waging a “20+ year smear campaign” against Baughman.
Both their names and respective firms, including The Baughman Company Inc. (which does business as BaughmanMerrill) and The Merrill Strategy Group, were listed as plaintiffs in the June suit. Baughman was working with Chandler at the same time that he sued his accuser for defamation, according to city data.
In an emailed statement, representatives for Chandler noted that the campaign ended its contract with BaughmanMerrill and has worked solely with The Merrill Strategy Group since November 27. They also stated that while Baughman and Merrill’s firm did receive retainer fees for consultant work, other funds went to materials such as signs, literature, and a website.
According to the most recent city financial disclosures, Chandler’s campaign committee has paid $39,294 to BaughmanMerrill out of a total of $69,838 in payments. BaughmanMerrill is still listed as Chandler’s consultant in the city’s database.
“Duane stepped away from his role at the firm and I worked solely with Katie Merrill under her previous firm The Merrill Strategy Group. It’s my hope that this decisive action sets an example for how the political community should respond, and demonstrates the extreme seriousness with which I take this issue,” Chandler said in a statement to Gazetteer (which he later published on Twitter). “I’ve known Katie Merrill for 5 years. She was one of the first people I called when I was thinking about running, and when I decided to run, I hired her and her team especially as it is led by queer women. I remain committed to the work fighting sexual assault and harassment as well as ensuring this important conversation does not become a partisan political football.”
In an email to Gazetteer after publication of this story, a representative of BaughmanMerrill confirmed Baughman ceased working with Chandler when Beter filed the November suit, which they claim is "baseless and completely false."
"When the lawsuit was filed, Duane immediately stepped away from day-to-day client work to focus on proving the falsity of these scurrilous statements in a court of law," they wrote. "His business partner, Katie Merrill, stepped forward and took the lead in the client work through her previous firm, The Merrill Strategy Group, in which Mr. Baughman has no day-to-day administrative involvement nor ownership interest. Since that time, Mr. Baughman has received no financial benefit directly or indirectly from Trevor Chandler’s campaign.”
While Baughman may no longer be in the picture, Chandler's professional relationship with Merrill, who remains a plaintiff in the June suit against Beter, raises concerns about the optics of listening to some alleged survivors while his political consultant is on the legal offensive against another.
Multiple scandals involving sexual assault and harassment rocked the San Francisco Democrat political world in April, including allegations of abuse by former Tenants and Owners Development Corporation director Jon Jacobo and consequent revelations about potential misconduct from Kevin Ortiz, co-chair of the city’s Latinx Democratic Club.
The firestorm sparked a turning point for the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee, the party’s local governing body.
On April 26, the group announced the formation of a new “special committee on sexual assault and harassment.” It held its first public hearing last week, on May 2, where more than a dozen people spoke out on their experiences with sexual assault, harassment and being ignored by local Democrat figures and organizations when they spoke out.
The committee is composed of DCCC chair Nancy Tung and members Emma Heiken, Bilal Mahmood, Lily Ho, Carrie Barnes, and Chandler. One DCCC member appointed to the committee on sexual assault, Michela Alioto-Pier, stepped down after being criticized for writing a letter in support of Nate Ballard, a former staffer of Gov. Gavin Newsom who was convicted of domestic violence and child abuse.
The DCCC special committee is not designed to investigate claims, but rather track accusations and provide guidelines for the city moving forward, Tung said at the May 2 meeting. It will continue to meet until August, when the DCCC has to re-charter its clubs and can institute a new code of conduct, Tung said.
Jacobo has stepped away from his political roles, while Ortiz was put on “indefinite leave” by the Chinatown Community Development Center, the nonprofit where he served as board director. (Ortiz, through his attorney, has denied any wrongdoing.)
Elsewhere, Jay Cheng, leader of the powerful moderate group Neighbors for a Better San Francisco Advocacy, has been battling resurfaced claims of his alleged sexual battery case in 2010, when he was a student at University of California, Irvine.
Editor's note: This story has been updated to include a statement from BaughmanMerrill's representative and to make clear in the headline that Chandler is currently not working with Baughman.
