cawacko
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With 'San Francisco moderate' Gavin Newsom leaving the Mayor's job a year early to take the Lt. Governor's job the progressive (and by progressive it means left of liberal) Board of Supervisors gets to appoint a new Mayor for the remainder of Newsom's term.
For those of you with a couple of million dollars burning a whole in your pocket looking to move consider this. San Francisco is a City of about 800,000 people with not one elected Republican in the City (actually I believe there are none in the nine county Bay Area). Republicans make up one in every nine registered San Francisco voters so its rare you'd even have to talk with one. In fact people are more likely to tell you they are gay here before they tell you they are a Republican.
Come join us in our little patch of heaven!
Progressives jockey for 'holy grail': S.F. mayor
The solid left majority on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors has an opportunity to do what city voters haven't done for more than two decades: put a progressive in the mayor's office.
Not since the election of Art Agnos in 1987 has a progressive served as mayor, and his tenure ended four years later when he lost his re-election bid to Frank Jordan, the more conservative former police chief. The only progressive mayor before Agnos, George Moscone, was assassinated in 1978, three years into his first term.
Now, with Mayor Gavin Newsom, a San Francisco-style moderate, set to leave office in early January to become lieutenant governor, the Board of Supervisors can appoint his replacement to finish his last year.
"This is a golden opportunity for the progressives," said David Lee, a political science lecturer at San Francisco State University who heads the Chinese American Voters Education Committee. "Mayor is the holy grail of city politics. ... This is their moment."
At the same time, he said, the progressives must make sure the appointment isn't perceived as a raw power grab and end up alienating voters heading into next November's mayor's race.
Fall election an issue
A big part of the supervisors' calculation selecting an interim mayor is whether the person will run for election next fall or whether he or she will serve as a caretaker who will leave office after a year. It will take at least six votes on the 11-member board to appoint an interim mayor, and supervisors cannot vote for themselves. If no one is selected, the board president - a post now held by David Chiu - will fill in as acting mayor while continuing to serve as supervisor.
The Board of Supervisors is expected to discuss the nominating process today. Newsom is scheduled to leave the mayor's job Jan. 3.
Struggle on the left
Progressives came close to winning the mayor's race in 2003, when Supervisor Matt Gonzalez, then a Green Party member, almost beat Newsom. Gonzalez won on election day, but lost once all the absentee votes were counted.
To succeed in next year's mayoral election, progressives will have to focus more on the absentee vote and corral the factions that make up the city's political left - from labor activists and tenant advocates to those fighting for neighborhood empowerment and immigrant rights, said political scientist Rich DeLeon, author of "Left Coast City," which tracked San Francisco's progressive political movement from the mid-1970s to the early 1990s.
But the next mayor will be in for a rough ride, given the tough economic climate, he said. The projected deficit for the new fiscal year that starts July 1 is at least $400 million.
"There's not going to be room for a lot of grand ideas and ambitious agendas," DeLeon said. "Under these conditions, people have to ask themselves what can they really gain?"
A lot, said Gabriel Haaland, political director of the largest city employee union and an architect of San Francisco's progressive agenda.
"My hope is that we would have a mayor who would constructively work with the Board of Supervisors," he said. Priorities include preserving essential city services, such as health care and education, he said.
"The way to do that," he added, "is through raising revenue."
The tax divide
The issue of taxes has been a major dividing line between San Francisco's progressives and moderates. The other issues include development, tenant-landlord, criminal justice and homeless policies.
Part of the board's left flank, Supervisor David Campos is interested in the job of interim mayor and said appointing a progressive to the job would provide "an opportunity to move an agenda forward."
The prospect of having a mayor and board work more collaboratively, he said, "would make the government a lot more effective."
What voters want
But is it what voters want?
In the late 1990s, when Willie Brown appointed the majority of supervisors by filling vacancies on the board, his power at City Hall was unrivaled, and he pushed through his pro-development policies with ease. In 2000, voters rebelled, ousting almost all of Brown's allies from the board and ushering in a new system of district supervisors and a left majority led by Chris Daly and Aaron Peskin. They followed through on their campaign promises to blunt the mayor's power.
Ben Tulchin, a pollster who has worked for Newsom, said San Francisco voters have tended to elect a mayor and a Board of Supervisors that serve as counterweights to one another.
"They want balance," he said.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/11/23/MNNU1GG11D.DTL&tsp=1
For those of you with a couple of million dollars burning a whole in your pocket looking to move consider this. San Francisco is a City of about 800,000 people with not one elected Republican in the City (actually I believe there are none in the nine county Bay Area). Republicans make up one in every nine registered San Francisco voters so its rare you'd even have to talk with one. In fact people are more likely to tell you they are gay here before they tell you they are a Republican.
Come join us in our little patch of heaven!
Progressives jockey for 'holy grail': S.F. mayor
The solid left majority on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors has an opportunity to do what city voters haven't done for more than two decades: put a progressive in the mayor's office.
Not since the election of Art Agnos in 1987 has a progressive served as mayor, and his tenure ended four years later when he lost his re-election bid to Frank Jordan, the more conservative former police chief. The only progressive mayor before Agnos, George Moscone, was assassinated in 1978, three years into his first term.
Now, with Mayor Gavin Newsom, a San Francisco-style moderate, set to leave office in early January to become lieutenant governor, the Board of Supervisors can appoint his replacement to finish his last year.
"This is a golden opportunity for the progressives," said David Lee, a political science lecturer at San Francisco State University who heads the Chinese American Voters Education Committee. "Mayor is the holy grail of city politics. ... This is their moment."
At the same time, he said, the progressives must make sure the appointment isn't perceived as a raw power grab and end up alienating voters heading into next November's mayor's race.
Fall election an issue
A big part of the supervisors' calculation selecting an interim mayor is whether the person will run for election next fall or whether he or she will serve as a caretaker who will leave office after a year. It will take at least six votes on the 11-member board to appoint an interim mayor, and supervisors cannot vote for themselves. If no one is selected, the board president - a post now held by David Chiu - will fill in as acting mayor while continuing to serve as supervisor.
The Board of Supervisors is expected to discuss the nominating process today. Newsom is scheduled to leave the mayor's job Jan. 3.
Struggle on the left
Progressives came close to winning the mayor's race in 2003, when Supervisor Matt Gonzalez, then a Green Party member, almost beat Newsom. Gonzalez won on election day, but lost once all the absentee votes were counted.
To succeed in next year's mayoral election, progressives will have to focus more on the absentee vote and corral the factions that make up the city's political left - from labor activists and tenant advocates to those fighting for neighborhood empowerment and immigrant rights, said political scientist Rich DeLeon, author of "Left Coast City," which tracked San Francisco's progressive political movement from the mid-1970s to the early 1990s.
But the next mayor will be in for a rough ride, given the tough economic climate, he said. The projected deficit for the new fiscal year that starts July 1 is at least $400 million.
"There's not going to be room for a lot of grand ideas and ambitious agendas," DeLeon said. "Under these conditions, people have to ask themselves what can they really gain?"
A lot, said Gabriel Haaland, political director of the largest city employee union and an architect of San Francisco's progressive agenda.
"My hope is that we would have a mayor who would constructively work with the Board of Supervisors," he said. Priorities include preserving essential city services, such as health care and education, he said.
"The way to do that," he added, "is through raising revenue."
The tax divide
The issue of taxes has been a major dividing line between San Francisco's progressives and moderates. The other issues include development, tenant-landlord, criminal justice and homeless policies.
Part of the board's left flank, Supervisor David Campos is interested in the job of interim mayor and said appointing a progressive to the job would provide "an opportunity to move an agenda forward."
The prospect of having a mayor and board work more collaboratively, he said, "would make the government a lot more effective."
What voters want
But is it what voters want?
In the late 1990s, when Willie Brown appointed the majority of supervisors by filling vacancies on the board, his power at City Hall was unrivaled, and he pushed through his pro-development policies with ease. In 2000, voters rebelled, ousting almost all of Brown's allies from the board and ushering in a new system of district supervisors and a left majority led by Chris Daly and Aaron Peskin. They followed through on their campaign promises to blunt the mayor's power.
Ben Tulchin, a pollster who has worked for Newsom, said San Francisco voters have tended to elect a mayor and a Board of Supervisors that serve as counterweights to one another.
"They want balance," he said.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/11/23/MNNU1GG11D.DTL&tsp=1
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