Mayoral candidates David Chiu and Ed Lee. File photo by Luke Thomas.
By Luke Thomas
October 12, 2011
The San Francisco Chronicle yesterday defied conventional expectations in its sole endorsement of Board of Supervisors President David Chiu over interim Mayor Ed Lee in the race for mayor.
“As candidate for mayor, the 41-year-old Chiu shows every indication that he is ready to take his knowledge and skills to the next level,” the editorial states. “In debates and in his meeting with our editorial board, Chiu has projected an energy, a specificity and a commitment to ‘shake things up at City Hall’ that distinguishes him in a large field of experienced and polished politicians.”
The much coveted Chronicle endorsement is expected to provide Chiu a significant boost to a flagging campaign while diminishing confidence in the frontrunner status previously attributed to Lee.
Responding to the sole endorsement, Chiu campaign spokesperson Addisu Demissie told FCJ, “We think it’s a game changer. Endorsements don’t win elections, but having the support of the city’s largest newspaper will certainly cause many voters to take a hard look at David as one of their three choices for Mayor. We’re confident they’ll see what the Chronicle saw – that David is a pragmatic, principled problem solver who is going to challenge the status quo at City Hall.”
In its comparison between Chiu and Lee, the editorial notes, “It’s hard to imagine Lee going into the bureaucracy he managed for two decades and radically streamlining the workforce structures and contractor relationships associated with a government of 26,000 employees. We certainly haven’t see it during his time in the mayor’s office. Lee has talked about a goal of reducing the city workforce by at least 5 percent, but one would think he would be pitching the idea with more forcefulness and detail if it were a top priority.”
In addition to throwing the ranked-choice race wide open, the development may be seen as an unsaid repudiation of Lee, whose candidacy was tainted when he broke his promise of not seeking a full term. The Board of Supervisors appointed Lee in January to complete then Mayor Gavin Newsom’s final term on the expressed condition Lee would not exploit his interim “caretaker” status and seek a full term.
Before Lee officially declared his candidacy in August, a Chronicle editorial in July, entitled “SF Mayor Ed Lee should stick to his word, not run,” hinted at being disturbed by a change in tone and rhetoric from Lee.
“But there is an even more important reason Ed Lee should not run: He said he would not,” the July editorial noted. “Yes, we’ve been hearing about the hedges and hints that others have gleaned from their conversations with Lee. We wanted to know whether they were extrapolating their wishes from the mayor’s words … or whether he really was thinking of breaching the assurance he made from Day One that he had no intention of running for office.”
In other words, integrity means something, especially in politics.
“It seems the Chronicle endorsed David Chiu because they dug themselves into a hole with Ed Lee and couldn’t endorse him after doing that,” reflected former Supervisor Chris Daly, who vowed in January to politically haunt Chiu for what Daly called a betrayal of progressives over Chui’s swing vote in support of Lee over Sheriff Michael Hennessey for interim mayor. “The main aim of the Chronicle is to do in progressive politics and so they’re elevating Chiu because he sold out progressives.”
Ironically, it was Chiu who later felt betrayed when Lee officially announced his candidacy to seek a full term. That feeling of betrayal, however, was partially assuaged when Chiu, during a mayoral debate, exposed former Mayor Willie Brown and Chinatown powerbroker Rose Pak’s role in persuading Lee to break his word to the Board and run.
Brown and Pak were the engineers behind the controversial Run, Ed, Run campaign and enjoy lobbyist influence over Room 200 while not being registered as lobbyists. Brown is also a contributing Chronicle columnist.
Honorable mentions
In the Chronicle’s “honorable mentions” category, Lee gets some plaudits for balancing the budget, for making favorable appointments and cutting a deal with public employee unions over pension reform, as well as successfully pushing for a corporate tax break for Twitter as an inducement to keep the social media company from relocating, but “our preference would have been for him to serve out his interim appointment – continuing to seize on the goodwill accorded him from across the political spectrum – then return to his job as city administrator, which he has performed so well over the years,” the editorial opines.
City Attorney Dennis Herrera and Public Defender Jeff Adachi also received honorable mention plaudits. The Chronicle praises Herrera for his efforts in reducing violent crime via controversial gang injunctions, his defense of same-sex marriage, as well as his leadership in helping to close the aging and polluting Mirant power plant. But the Chronicle didn’t like Herrera’s opposition to Arizona’s controversial immigration laws saying he went too “far afield for political statements.”
On Adachi, the Chronicle glowingly notes, “Talk about courage. One of the city’s most liberal politicians took on labor over the bedrock issue of pensions. He lost in his first attempt last year, but is back with a revised version after he wouldn’t back a compromise measure also on the ballot. He’s been unfairly vilified by much of the city’s political establishment for daring to raise the pension problem that others preferred to ignore.
“His campaign shows he’s more than a one-issue candidate. He has a clear grasp of a variety of issues ranging from homeless policies to taxes. His independence is unassailable. The question is whether he has become too divisive a figure to be an effective mayor.”
With various polls showing no candidate with a winning majority, victory in November will likely be decided by those candidates who can field the largest get-out-the-vote campaigns. Though endorsements can make a difference in a competitive race, visibility and establishing boots-on-the-ground connections with voters are considered the most effective means to win voter approval and support.
Luke Thomas
Luke Thomas is a former software developer and computer consultant who proudly hails from London, England. In 2001, Thomas took a yearlong sabbatical to travel and develop a photographic portfolio. Upon his return to the US, Thomas studied photojournalism to pursue a career in journalism. In 2004, Thomas worked for several neighborhood newspapers in San Francisco before accepting a partnership agreement with the SanFranciscoSentinel.com, a news website formerly covering local, state and national politics. In September 2006, Thomas launched FogCityJournal.com. The BBC, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox News, New York Times, Der Spiegel, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Magazine, 7x7, San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco Bay Guardian and the San Francisco Weekly, among other publications and news outlets, have published his work. Thomas is a member of the Freelance Unit of the Pacific Media Workers Guild, TNG-CWA Local 39521 and is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
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October 12, 2011 at 8:22 pm
All I hope for San Francisco is that they will pick a Mayor that has a record of integrity and honesty.
If you really want to fix the budget in San Francisco you would really want to cut from the top down. San Francisco is more top heavey than Carol Doda. This instead of raising taxes and fees in a already sucky economy.
October 12, 2011 at 6:04 pm
Lee to share cell with Ed Jew?
And now, Gascon has gone and announced a criminal investigation of our interim mayor. Oh heck!
h.
October 12, 2011 at 3:40 pm
@Luke: I’m afraid you may be right about that.
Won’t this be the first real mayor’s race to be decided by IRV? I.e., I’m not considering the 2007 race, with its valiant protest candidates, including Josh Wolf, h. brown, Ahimsa Porter-Sumchai, and Quentin Mecke a real race.
October 12, 2011 at 2:42 pm
@Seej, don’t count Dufty out. He may not win, but his second and third-place votes could decide this race. I predict we’ll see the lion’s share of Dufty’s down ballot votes going to Lee and and Herrera.
October 12, 2011 at 2:39 pm
Seej,
I’d say the same thing but Dufty is the only gay male in this race, and identity counts for something in San Francisco. Thanks to the Victory Fund money, and his reliable money votes at the Board, he’ll have enough cash to make a splash on tv and in mailboxes.
The importance of the Chronicle is that this contest won’t be a coronation. This race may be one or two events away from being broken wide open. The Ed Lee breaks his pledge story, the Recology pay to play story, the ongoing Central Subway contracting/MUNI operational sink/disputed ridership numbers story along with this unexpected editorial development mean the old way of looking at contests as a “two person field” –frontrunner has it all locked up — is giving way to a multi-candidate field.
October 12, 2011 at 1:48 pm
…Bevan “Life Coaches” Dufty is not in the race.
October 12, 2011 at 12:38 pm
The Chronicle did something other editorial outlets refuse to do: step out of the box and act differently. Readers know what the Examiner will do, it is hard right. They know what the Guardian does. Read their blog dammit , and you too can chant the words right along with them at election time.
This is one different. Playing up the land use angle on this endorsement may be realpolitik, it’s dark and cynical and folks love that angle but the theory is flawed. The Chronicle has more choices than that. Can City Hall deny a new project at 5th & Market that doesn’t disturb a single existing housing unit when they’ve just signed off on TI, the Shipyard and Park Merced? How many politicians have successfully fought a newspaper?
The Chronicle has opened up the 2011 Mayoral race to being “multi-polar” in contrast to the “increasingly two person” race some wished it to be. Potentially Avalos, Lee, Dufty, Herrera, Adachi, Yee and now Chiu could be in the final mix in San Francisco’s first big RCV contest.
Politicos love to assert they know election outcomes for certain years in advance of the actual election, when there is scant support for that conjecture outside ego and bluster.
This Mayoral race can be more fun than that, if folks simply have the patience to watch a contest unfold, and resist their control issues say until Nov. 8th.
October 12, 2011 at 12:18 pm
October Full Moon politics?
I don’t think I’ve ever backed a candidate that the Chron endorsed but I’ve been before their Editorial Board on quite a number of occasions and they are classy ladies and gentlemen. Winnicker’s impugning of John Diaz shows what a snake Tony is.
On the other hand, if Matt Dorsey calls him a friend than there must be some good in him somewhere (tks to Examiner for bringing us the image of a just-arrived Winnicker surfing on Dorsey’s couch) …
Kudos to Ward Bushee and John Diaz for a fair shake for all.
Gary Brown should be in centerfield opening day next year!
h.
October 12, 2011 at 11:36 am
This just in from Lee campaign spokesperson Tony Winnicker:
“As you point out yourself in your own blog post, the Chronicle was never going to endorse Ed Lee because they had boxed themselves in with their earlier editorial. We never expected to get it, and were only surprised it went to David Chiu because it didn’t go to Dennis Herrera. The endorsement of Chiu is a serious blow to Dennis Herrera, who has a longtime relationship with Editorial Page Director John Diaz and who has been counting on the Chronicle endorsement to boost his campaign in the final weeks. They’ve even been telling people they were going to get it, and I would love to have been a fly on the wall to see their shocked and reddened faces when they learned they didn’t get it. Congratulations to David Chiu.”