Facing his toughest challenge to date, appointed interim San Francisco mayor Ed Lee was besieged by reporters yesterday following allegations of ballot tampering by Lee’s campaign and an independent expenditure committee supporting Lee. Photos by Luke Thomas.
By Luke Thomas
October 25, 2011
Beset with calls for multiple criminal investigations into alleged ballot tampering, money laundering and coordination between a candidate committee and an independent expenditure committee, the campaign to elect appointed Mayor Ed Lee to a full-term went to great lengths yesterday to defend and protect Lee’s frontrunner status in the ranked-choice race for mayor.
With hundreds of thousands of special interest contribution dollars on the line, not to mention Lee’s reputation and poll numbers, Lee’s campaign announced yesterday Lt. Governor and former Mayor Gavin Newsom would be joining Lee to “make an announcement about Mayor Lee’s campaign” following a walk-thru at a tech startup in SOMA.
The press turned out in force, not to focus on Newsom’s late yet timely endorsement of Lee, but to question Lee about his involvement in allegations of vote tampering by an independent group of campaign staff wearing Ed Lee for Mayor T-shirts in Chinatown on Friday, allegations first reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, the Bay Citizen and the Epoch Times.
Former Mayor Gavin Newsom endorsed Lee yesterday with just two weeks before the mayoral election will be decided.
The reports allege Lee supporters working for SF Neighborhood Alliance for Ed Lee for Mayor 2011, the same independent expenditure committee that financed Lee’s unauthorized biography, “The Ed Lee Story: An Unexpected Mayor”, were actively engaging in vote tampering at makeshift polling tents erected in Chinatown on Friday at the intersection of Stockton and Pacific streets.
Lee was quick to disassociate himself from any connection with the independent expenditure committee and its activities calling on those involved in the alleged ballot tampering to “cease and desist.” He also welcomed investigations into the matter by District Attorney George Gascon and State Attorney General Kamala Harris.
“I know that some of the video indicates they were wearing these Ed Lee for Mayor T-shirts – that has nothing to do with me,” Lee said referring to multiple published videos showing campaign workers assisting elderly Chinatown residents in marking their ballots using stencils as ballot selection guides. “It has nothing to do with my campaign at all and I want to make sure you understand that.”
“We have no knowledge of what they’re doing or who is leading them,” Lee added. “We have no connection or communications with them – we’re not supposed to by law. My campaign is going to be 100 percent compliant – everybody around me – and I denounce those groups that think or say that they’re for me. If they’re doing wrong stuff, they should be investigated and they should appropriately be accountable for what their actions are.”
Eyewitnesses said completed ballots were collected by the independent group and stuffed in an orange bag behind the ballot facilitators.
Most damning, the EpochTimes reported Monday eyewitness accounts of Lee campaign staff actively engaging Sunday in alleged ballot tampering in Portsmouth Square. The report implicates Lee’s campaign directly in violating campaign election laws.
Section 3017 of the California Elections Code states, “No vote by mail voter’s ballot shall be returned by any paid or volunteer worker of any general purpose committee, controlled committee, independent expenditure committee, political party, candidate’s campaign committee, or any other group or organization at whose behest the individual designated to return the ballot is performing a service. However, this subdivision shall not apply to a candidate or a candidate’s spouse.”
Section 18371 states, “No candidate or representative of a candidate, and no proponent, opponent, or representative of a proponent or opponent, of an initiative, referendum, or recall measure, or of a charter amendment, shall solicit the vote of a vote by mail voter, or do any electioneering, while in the residence or in the immediate presence of the voter, and during the time he or she knows the vote by mail voter is voting.”
Seven candidates including Public Defender Jeff Adachi, Michela Alioto-Pier, Supervisor John Avalos, Board of Supervisors President David Chiu, City Attorney Dennis Herrera, venture capitalist Joanna Rees and Senator Leland Yee, have subsequently called on the US Department of Justice to monitor the integrity of the election.
When Lee was asked about the EpochTimes report, Lee’s campaign spokesperson Tony Winnicker was quick to interject and answer on Lee’s behalf.
“That was the Falun Gong newspaper, and there is no evidence of that,” Winnicker said, raising eyebrows as to why Winnicker would mention the Falun Gong when Lee’s most vocal backer, Chinatown organizer Rose Pak, is said to be working on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party in its opposition to the spiritual group.
Relying solely on video evidence of the alleged ballot tampering and not several eyewitness accounts, Department of Elections Director John Arntz said he saw no violations of elections laws.
“I didn’t see coercion,” Arntz said. “I didn’t see people who were told they could only vote one way.”
“If they were being coerced to mark the ballot, that would be a violation of election law,” Arntz added.
Department of Elections Director John Arntz.
At a press conference yesterday with Adachi and Green Party candidate Terry Baum, Adachi called the allegations of Lee’s campaign engaging in vote tampering as reported by The Epoch Times, “outrageous revelations.”
“What’s key at this point is that all San Franciscans understand this election is attempting to be bought by a small group of individuals who apparently have a lot of money to pour into this election in electing mayor Lee,” Adachi said.
Public Defender and mayoral candidate Jeff Adachi and Green Party candidate Terry Baum held a press conference yesterday calling the revellations of alleged vote tampering by the Lee campaign “outrageous.”
“This is something every San Franciscan should be concerned about,” Adachi added. “What we’re seeing here is pay-to-play politics. We’re seeing the same old tactics that have been used by political machines across this country for decades, and it’s important that we as candidates and we as citizens call it what it is. Our appointed mayor is doing nothing to discourage this and nothing to ensure these types of tactics don’t infect this election. All these tactics are tactics that will benefit Ed Lee.”
Baum called the alleged vote tampering “outrageous” and likened San Francisco to a small town where the mayor, the judge and the sheriff are all related by birth.
“It’s like you’re in a little town in the South where there’s a few people who have all the power and there’s a pretense of democracy – that’s what we have in this campaign,” Baum said.
“However much Lee is denying he is connected to it, he is not saying to these people, ‘stop,’ and the reason he’s not saying it is because this kind of corruption works to help win elections,” Baum added. “But it also works to turn people away from democracy altogether and that is the true tragedy.”
Green Party candidate for mayor, Terry Baum.
Reflecting on the controversy and the potential impact to the mayor’s race, University of San Francisco political director Corey Cook who worked with the Bay Citizen to produce a poll published last week that showed Lee “dominating” the mayoral field, told FCJ: “It’s astonishing to me that it seems like the folks who are doing the most damage to Lee’s campaign are not his competitors – it’s his own supporters. It’s sort of stunning they would take these types of risks this late in the race. These folks aren’t doing Lee any favors at all. Between the campaign finance allegations and these, there’s just a steady drum beat of really bizarre electoral behavior.”
On the impact to Lee’s poll numbers, Cook said, “It’s hard to speculate, but it wouldn’t surprise me to see a significant change.”
Cook said the broader lesson to be learned is that independent groups and campaigns are “completely unaccountable.”
“It makes it very difficult for voters to hold anybody accountable,” Cook added. “Independent groups play the dirtiest. I think the whole field of campaign finance is abysmally regulated.”
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 29, 2011 at 7:24 am
OCCUPYSF. PRECEDENT & PERSPECTIVE.
I am reminded that yesterday, Oct 27th, marked the anniversary of that day back in 1985 when Steve Russell and Bert Franks chained themselves to theFederal Building, thus starting the ARC-AIDS VIGIL that occupied the UN PLAZA , 24×7, for almost TEN YEARS; setting up tents; sleeping in a public space; setting up a kitchen; preparing and serving food, and many other grievous ‘violations that threatened public health and safety’. Hum..sounds familiar. The lies and BS coming from Interim Mayor ‘he who speak with forked tongue’ and the rest of his cronies are transparent. If a small percentage of the tens of thousands of dollars, climbing hourly, that we have already spent restricting the people’s right to assemble, speak, protest and petition their government, had been spent facilitating and supporting the protests, the confrontations and problems could have been avoided and the money saved been put to better use.
GET OUT AND VOTE.
OCCUPY ROOM 200.
VOTE AVALOS FOR MAYOR.
DUMP MR ED.
Just my 2c.
GO NINERS.
October 28, 2011 at 4:19 pm
ps: As H knows already, Yee was not convicted in the silly suntan lotion case, because that’s exactly what it was. Silly.
October 28, 2011 at 4:08 pm
@Patrick – Adachi is simply not going to win (labor has made sure of this) while both Avalos and Yee -can- win. So why not rank Avalos and Yee as 2 and 3 and use your 1st rank vote to support the Greens and Baum, to help raise their profile and influence, instead of wasting it on Adachi (who clearly doesn’t even intend to be mayor, because he’s not really even running a campaign) this when Yee is the far more viable lesser-of-evils candidate. (And because of this we need to get everyone to gravitate toward him as second or third choice.)
Use you first rank vote to make a statement, vote your conscience, and support the Green Party.
1) Baum
2) Avalos
3) Yee
October 28, 2011 at 2:54 pm
Oops. I didn’t mean to say that Greens backing Ron Paul was good news, though I do think the way Greens and liberals go to the mat and refuse to have a rational conversation when Ron Paul’s anti-war appeal comes up is ridiculous. I know too many African people who all but worshiped Obama in 2008 who would like to see Ron Paul elected to stop the Pentagon’s Predator and Reaper drone bases proliferating all over Africa.
Good news was that ABC Bay Area trashed the Ed Lee Youtube campaign piece 2 Legit 2 Quit. (Oops again. . . SF Neighbor Alliance campaign piece.)
October 28, 2011 at 2:17 pm
Patrick,
Shoplifting politicians. Seems Leland’s not alone. Chron reported assemblywoman Mary Hiyashi got busted in the Tenderloin (like my neighborhood’s rep’s not bad enough) … she had 2 grand in upscale threads.
Of course they link to the Yee arrest in Hawaii.
Enjoy it Eric …
http://blog.sfgate.com/matierandross/2011/10/28/assemblywoman-mary-hayashi-charged-with-shoplifting-at-neiman-marcus/
Cardinals at 5pm!
h.
October 28, 2011 at 1:54 pm
@Eric: Lotsa Greens backed Obama. Ross Mirikarimi, John Rizzo (Greens at the time), and even Mark Sanchez. Good news. There are registered Greens backing Ron Paul now, so there doesn’t seem to be a firm ipso facto at work.
Joe Nations is serious creeps but so are a lot of people associated with Prop C.
I do wish Adachi had taken public financing.
Good news is that NBC Bay Area has declared the MC Hammer 2Legit2 Quit video a fumble and said Ed Lee’s star is falling: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-10-28/chogm-officially-opened-in-perth/3606624/?site=perth§ion=news
ANYONE BUT ED LEE.
October 28, 2011 at 11:22 am
@Eric. Your response posted while I was pecking out my response. So you’re not gonna slam me to hard if I stick with Avalos>Adach>Yee?
@Ann. Re Terry, see above.
Thank you all, I truly appreciate and consider your feedback.
October 28, 2011 at 11:16 am
@h et al. Wish I could get this straight.
HYPOTHETICAL.
1st Round.
Terry has 500 2nd place votes each for John & Jeff.
Terry eliminated so John & Jeff each get 500 votes.
****
Final Rounds – still left in race.
Lee, Avalos, Adachi, Yee.
Yee has 1000 2nd place votes each for John & Jeff.
Yee eliminated so John & Jeff each get 1000 votes.
Yeah, that’s simplistic but I’m still trying to grock the process of elimination. No wisecracks about roughage!
It’s gonna come down to a crap shoot anyway, but it seems that strategy potentially gives John & Jeff more votes in the final tally.
Critical of course that John & Jeff supporters give their #2 votes to each other.
Where is my reasoning flawed?
I’m far more ‘Green’ than any other color, except for white, and Terry is speaking my truth, but I think this election is to critical to use it for ‘party building’ or making a statement of principle. In my opinion a vote for John makes a powerful statement, and is more realistic if we hope to continue any pretense of progressive leadership in our town.
Not to reopen Pandora’s box, but IMHO the Green strategy of running for top of the ballot positions is flawed if they want to become politically relevant as a third party. Focus on getting elected to ‘less important’ positions, build from the ground up. Terry is one of the exceptions and has been following this strategy and walking the walk for years. But I still need to be convinced that strategically there is not a ‘better’ option than voting for her this time. Build the base and challenge Madame 1%’er Pelosi.
In “Gore v Bush” I was 100% behind Cynthia McKinney, but I can’t help wondering whether, if all the votes cast for her and Nader had gone to Gore, the Supremely Suspect Court would have been given the opportunity to appoint Bush, and we might have been spared the disastrous consequences.
Still scratching my old head over this.
No-No-No > Lee, Herrera.
If the final three were Avalos, Adachi, Yee, I would breathe a sigh of relief.
GO CARDS.
GO NINERS.
See you tonight?. If Chris won’t let you in we’ll protest outside.
OCCUPY THE BUCK.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY RICK.
October 28, 2011 at 11:00 am
@Patrick: ANYONE BUT ED LEE. And, if you vote for Terry #1, you’ll still be able to safely express yourself, because she’s all but certain to be knocked out in the first round, in which no one will win, and then your #2 vote will become your vote, as your #3 vote will if and when your #2 is knocked out.
October 28, 2011 at 10:54 am
@Pat – Since Adachi is not going to win, because labor will not allow that (and he’s not really even running a campaign, except for the Prop D effort) your third choice is crucial and needs to be a lesser-of-evils candidate who -can- win against the Brown machine, and who is the the most progressive of those lesser-of-evils candidates.
That is of course Leland Yee.
The more people who unite behind Yee as choice 2 or 3, the more likely we are to succeed in ousting Brown from City Hall if Avalos doesn’t win.
October 28, 2011 at 9:42 am
Baum, for God’s sake!
Patrick, how could you have a doubt about voting for Terry Baum. I’m behind Jeff but my ‘Oh you kid!’ candidate is Terry Jean Baum and that means, ‘if you could only win’.
I’m backing Gascon for DA cause he’s by far the best of the credible candidates but I’m pulling my #! lever for Vu Trinh.
That’s the beauty of IRV to me.
I can vote for my favorite candidate first even if they don’t have a prayer of winning.
That way they get a record of my support which they wouldn’t get if I listed them behind the ‘likely to be competitive’ choices due to ballot exhaustion.
Face it, because none of these races is going to be decided in the first round it is OK to list your real fantasy winner there.
My fantasy first-rounders?
Terry Jean Baum for Mayor!
Vu Trinh for DA!
Paul Miyamonto for Sheriff!
Reality check IRV?
Adachi for Mayor!
Avalos for Mayor!
Baum for Mayor!
Hall for Mayor!
Gascon for DA!
Miyamoto for Sheriff!
h.
October 28, 2011 at 8:19 am
@Mary, Ann, h. {@Eric -no need to repeat your Adachi opinion-but go ahead}.
1) Avalos; 2) Adachi. But who for #3 to maximise number of potential 2nd/3rd place choices for either of them. Of the rest it seems that Yee might be the best, and least objectionable?
October 27, 2011 at 10:46 pm
@H – This is not about hatred, it is about the fact that Adachi blatantly lied to the SF Green Party and others about his donors, and he worked with the incredibly corrupt, -total- corporate tool, Joe Nation, on his pension cuts measure. I’m not seeing you addressing these two damning and absolutely fundamental criticisms at all. I raised the Joe Nation issue months ago, and you didn’t say a damned thing because you know full well that you have no good response; because there isn’t one. You’re tripping in Lotus Land. Totally out of reality.
@Ann – Of course you didn’t support Obama, you’re a Green. My point is that a whole new set of progressives (including Greens) is now being just as stupid about Adachi, as so many were about Obama.
And Ann can you please explain to me how you can support a candidate who lied to our faces to get our endorsement?
This isn’t about anything close to hate. This is about the fact that after 26 years as a grassroots organizer, I know damned well not to trust a politician like Adachi, who is now showing all the classic signs of betraying his base.
We just made this very same type of deeply foolish mistake by endorsing Jane Kim, when we had evidence right in front of us that she was getting support from Willie Brown. Let’s not repeat that same mistake with Adachi, when we have evidence right in front of us, that he is now bought and paid for by right wing corporate financiers and billionaires.
October 27, 2011 at 9:22 pm
Eric, for the record, I never supported Obama, never even considered it, and, in 2008, kept trying to point to his voting record, where his campaign contributions were coming from, the platform on his website, and, what he was actually saying on the campaign trail. (E.g., “we need more troops. . .” ). So please back off with that.
I still don’t see why you think Adachi’s association with Proposition D, backed by Michael Moritz, is so much worse than, e.g., John Avalos’s association with Proposition C, backed by Warren Hellman.
It’s also starting to seem like you’re more upset by the faint possibility of Adachi winning in IRV than by the prospect of Ed Lee, who just this week cast his first mayoral veto of legislation to close the loopholes in the city’s health care legislation, declaring it “anti-business.”
I don’t like the idea of a Mayor Dennis Herrera, and Tony Hall, though he may have integrity, does not to my knowledge support public power or municipal banking. But, I still wish that, if these other candidates don’t want to endorse for #2 and #3, they’d at least put up a united front to say that their #2 and #3 choices are ANYONE BUT ED LEE.
October 27, 2011 at 7:17 pm
Wow,
Y’all didn’t see the obscenities that Brooks wrote that weren’t printed. His hate of Jeff has compromised his ability to reason. Eric’s done lots of great work for us in the past and I hope he will in the future. Right now is not his finest moment.
Jeff great at last night’s effort to hold off the cops being ordered to crush Occupy SF (the cops did not all want to do it – they’re human too).
I’m certain we’ll all be happy when November 8th passes and no matter what occurs on that day, we’ll all be spared ever reading another word from Eric Brooks.
I don’t believe in churches or religion but I believe in God and may God be with Eric Brooks in his time of trials.
Guy, that level of hate is not natural.
Go Niners!
h.
October 27, 2011 at 6:27 pm
@Mary & Ann,
I was there, at the meeting, in which Jeff Adachi blatantly lied to the entire active SF Green Party membership assembled, falsely claiming that none of his donations had come from billionaires who had also funded Tea Party attacks on workers and their candidates in Wisconsin.
Jeff Adachi lied. Period.
Mary, you cannot stay so fixated on the past of a -politician- that you ignore the knife that he is plunging into you.
Jeff Adachi has turned his -back- on his life’s work. He has become a cynical deceiver, and you all are falling for it.
And not -one- of you has yet to respond to the key red flag of all this – that Adachi wrote his pension cut measure HAND-IN-HAND with Joe Nation.
There’s an SF Guardian article which gives a good sense of what anti Single Payer, pro PG&E Joe Nation is all about at: http://www.sfbg.com/politics/2008/05/23/joe-nations-friends-are-bad-news-ii
Will you people give a damned break please…
The only other time I have seen so much foolishness from so many progressives, is when Barack Obama was running for president.
Remember how that worked out?
Who was warning you then?
And who is warning you now…?
October 27, 2011 at 2:33 pm
You tell ’em, Mary! And, Jeff Adachi, John Avalos. . . time to endorse one another as #2 and #3?
October 27, 2011 at 1:33 pm
In response to Eric’s 3:42am comment: That hurts. Jeff’s advocacy for pension reform puts his own future at grave risk. He’s campaigning to reduce the City’s hit for pensions for the richest City employees in order to use those funds for the poorest of the 99%.
Those folks, my neighbors, have no job and thus no health coverage or pension to lose, and they’ve already lost their home and can’t survive without a little help from the City, which is lost when it’s swallowed up by exorbitant pensions for the police brass who made a career out of oppressing them.
Sure, we should tax the rich. When will the SF Board of Supervisors find the courage to do that? Meanwhile, people are dying while some retirees enjoy lavish pensions. Lower paid City employees will be cut not at all or very little by Prop D. The existence of Prop C proves that even moderates recognize the problem.
To imply that Jeff Adachi doesn’t care about poor people is to deny his entire life’s work. Around this hood, those are fighting words.
Mary Ratcliff, http://www.sfbayview.com
October 27, 2011 at 8:30 am
@Chris Daly: I get the impression that you’re endorsing Avalos #1, only. Correct? If so, can you explain your strategy? Not a hostile question, just wondering what your strategy is.
A month or so ago I asked Jeff Adachi who he planned to give his #2 and #3 endorsements to and he said, “Good question. I’ll let you know when I figure that out.” He hasn’t yet.
I asked John Avalos’s press person Erica Fox who he would endorse for #2 and #3 and she said she didn’t know, but probably no one.
October 27, 2011 at 7:58 am
@h.: You’re probably right . . . no telling how many of those viewing the M.C. Hammer/Willie Brown video were from San Francisco, or had any idea what it was about. I’m accustomed to measuring media and message success in terms of FB shares, Tweets, and Youtube views, but no one has Hip Hop or M.C. Hammer fan motives to watch or listen to my reporting.
October 26, 2011 at 5:10 pm
Annie,
Lord, Lord do you quit easily. 83,000 people tuned in to see Brian Wilson and MC Hammer. I recall the shot of Bill Clinton embracing Amos Brown two days before the 2000 election. That got lots of hits too and Sandoval cleaned up the floor with Amos on election day.
Adachi for Mayor!
Avalos for Mayor!
Baum for Mayor!
Hall for Mayor!
And, Chris, I’ve brought you all the business I could and I was just doing the same the other day. I’m always poor and even moreso the last week of the month so I always make certain I have someone to buy my drinks so that you’ll get the trade. She brought me the first drink with a very small amount of bourbon which is normal for her. When Vu ordered a second round she brought them their drinks and despite being asked twice refused to serve me. Only then did I go to the well.
I was wrong. I should have just taken my friends and went to the Tempest.
Adachi/Avalos/Baum/Hall!!!
h.
October 26, 2011 at 3:53 pm
Bad news, Foggers. M.C. Hammer’s “Ed Lee, Too Legit to Quit” rap video, has gotten 83,000 Youtube views in less than 24 hours. I think this might be over.
October 26, 2011 at 3:32 pm
h, I’ve never 86’ed you from The Buck. Ask Luke or anyone else who used to attend Friday afternoons.
As for my other bartenders, they are doing their job when they 86 someone who has brought outside liquor in. That kind of thing could get me shut down for 30 days.
Avalos #1.
Cheers!!
October 26, 2011 at 2:55 pm
Oops. I of course meant opposed C, ‘D’ and Adachi above…
October 26, 2011 at 2:21 pm
Chris,
Here’s the link to Adachi handing Haaland his ass this morning on KALW.
boys and girls,
This is a well-spent hour if you have
an interest in either the Pension Reform
battle or the Mayor’s race.
Or, both …
h.
———————————– Original Message ———————————–
Subject: Re: Great job on C/D KALW debate
From: “Daniele Erville”
Date: Wed, October 26, 2011 12:08 pm
To: “h. brown”
—————————————————————————————-
yes, it’s already archived. here’s the link:
http://a4.g.akamai.net/7/4/27043/v0001/kalw.download.akamai.com/27043/YourCall/102611yc.mp3
also, it’s re-broadcast tonight at 8pm
.
daniele
(Thanks to Daniele for arranging it all)
And, Chris’ has also 86’d me from his bar.
Who’s next?
h.
October 26, 2011 at 12:50 pm
And I was concerned when I saw him using his office on his campaign literature, as in Mayor Ed Lee and the site is mayoredlee.com. Why, that’s nothing!
October 26, 2011 at 12:25 pm
But I gotta give it to Gavin Newsom for saying that “the best is yet to come” from Interim Mayor Ed Lee. That was almost as good as Willie Brown and M.C. Hammer’s “too legit to quit.”
October 26, 2011 at 12:15 pm
@Chris Daly and Eric Brooks: What is with these attacks on Jeff Adachi, as though he were the only one dancing with billionaires?
Fortune Magazine and CNN Money called these competing pension measures “Pension Smackdown, Battle of the Billionaires” (Hellman & Moritz) and said that:
“The best news of all, though, is that so much effort has gone into the various proposals that San Francisco appears ready to repair its pension system no matter what happens in the stock market or among its warring progressives. If that happens, we should all raise a glass of dry white wine in their honor — and follow their example.”
These two billionaires, Moritz and Hellman, could have joined forces and put their big $$$ behind a campaign to reform Prop 13, if they were really “progressives,” as Forbes and CNN Money claim. And if they determined to do something not only about failing public budgets, and budget inequity, but, why would they?
Proposition C, backed by Warren Hellman, and Ed Lee and the entire Board of Supes, is a lot worse than D. And many union rank and file union members have told me that the union bureaucrats backing it didn’t even include the rank and file in any sort of democratic process before endorsing it.
Plus, there’s an ugly side deal to protect police and firemen from sacrifice, even if D passes, which the entire Board of Supervisors backed, and many rank and file union members outside police and fire don’t even know about: “Ed Lee deal shields San Francisco police, fire from pension reform.” http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/2011/08/san-francisco-mayor-ed-lees-pension-deal-shields-police-fire#ixzz1bv7oixEa
And I agree with h. Avalos and Adachi both need to give one another their #2 or #3 endorsements posthaste, as Terry and the SF Greens gave theirs to them.
I also wonder why Terry wasn’t invited to sign the letter sent to the Secretary of State and the Justice Department.
October 26, 2011 at 11:23 am
The Board of Supervisors voted 10 to 1 to appoint City Administrator Ed Lee as interim mayor. Only Chris Daly voted “no”. Think about who voted for Ed Lee – Avalos, Chiu, Dufty, Alioto – all of whom now are crying foul. Did they lack good judgement, were they dupes, or both? Regardless, they can’t deny their vote.
October 26, 2011 at 3:42 am
Adachi’s supporters believe it is ok for people like themselves to be excessively wealthy even though this means millions of others all over the world will go hungry, not get access to health care and/or education, be deprived a decent home over their head, have no electricity or clean water, etc.
October 25, 2011 at 11:58 pm
“What would Jeff Adachi know about a “small group of individuals who apparently have a lot of money?”…”
Not all individuals are alike.
Unlike Conway, Stone, Hellman etc., Adachi’s donors don’t conduct business directly with the City nor do they personally benefit from changes/exemptions to City laws.
I am hopeful you can see the difference.
October 25, 2011 at 9:14 pm
What would Jeff Adachi know about a “small group of individuals who apparently have a lot of money?”
And, by the way H, 86ing Enrique was the best move I’ve made in months.
Avalos #1.
October 25, 2011 at 5:14 pm
Even if Lee wins — and I hope he doesn’t — his win will be tarnished because of this conduct. People will think that he prevailed because of corrupt behavior.
October 25, 2011 at 3:57 pm
A CALL TO ARMS.
“Ask not for whom the bell tolls”
Paul Currier’s post to a recent Wash Post article nailed it when he referred to the ‘criminal enterprise that controls San Francisco”.
A brief 101 primer. SF for decades has been controlled by two separate but interconnected organisations, ‘The Pacific Heights Mafia’ and ‘La Citie Familia’.
“Mr Ed” is their latest sacrificial bag-man. (Could be sleeping with the fishes soon.)
“Slick Willie” and “Gavin the Greaser” are the major under-bosses. (Should be sleeping with the fishes)
Current Consigliore is “Dennis the Menace”. (Fish out of water).
What follows is way above my pay grade or technical level of competence/expertise, so I’m just casting crumbs on polluted waters. Imagine, if you will, that the putsch planned by the Pac Heights Mafia succeeds, again; that Mr Ed’s unethical/illegal tactics work and he is appointed Mayor. The Chimes of Freedom stop ringing.
This whole conspiracy has stunk to high heaven from day one, but it is a familiar stench to those of us who have lived here for decades in this politically corrupt town of privilege and racist divide.
IMHO this latest perversion of our democracy and freedoms screams out for legal action. If Mr Ed gets annointed as their next bagman, I suggest that those of you who have the know-how and ability to pursue legal action start NOW, if you haven’t already, preparing and gathering evidence for a recall petition that can can be submitted on the day of his coronation. Thank god/ess that I’m neither lawyer/politcian/insider, but couldn’t this also present an opportunity to introduce supportive evidence of ‘pattern of conduct’ ; ‘prior bad acts’, etc, by the usual suspects, and finally expose, in a court of law, the corruption and criminality that has been rife in out town for decades. Just asking.
As he has about as much chance of becoming Mayor as I do of growing new hair or teeth, do you suppose our Shitty Attorney would pursue this action all the way to State Court with the same fervor that he demonstrated when he denied 33,000 SF residents the right to vote and participate in democracy.
Just my 2c.
AVANTE ALCALDE AVALOS.
OCCUPY ROOM 200.
GO NINERS
October 25, 2011 at 3:35 pm
Adachi and Baum?!?
Where’s Avalos? Where’s Avalos? Where’s Avalos?
These 3 Progressives need to endorse one another and do it now.
Rose Pak said that the Falun Gong were worse than Al Qaida. She led Jake McGoldrick around like a little poodle on a leash. He called the Falun Gong, “terrorists”.
Pak sat with the thug punk commie thugs from their consulate at the BOS and screamed threats at the Falun Gong while the Chinese were (and, are) taking organs from living practitioners and selling them to the 1%.
What is it about that woman?
Hey, I like girls better than most anyone I know but I just can’t see it. They tell me that she was a dead-ringer for Jane Kim 30 years back but that was then and this is now and I think her appeal has to do with something that ages better.
Like maybe commie gold.
This woman is a total tool of the People’s Republic of China and the fact that our Downtown financiers are supporting her human puppet, Ed Lee for Mayor should open lots of FBI files regarding her relationship with the Chinese government.
Lee told David Chiu that he couldn’t say ‘no’ to the combined influence of Pak and Willie Brown.
I’m more concerned with what John Arntz does. He can make certain there’s an honest election or he can allow Jim Sutton and Willie Brown to fix another one.
Where’s Avalos?
Adachi for Mayor!
Baum for Mayor!
Avalos for Mayor!
Hall for Mayor!
Miyamoto for Mayor!
Gascon for DA!
Trinh for DA!
Go Niners!
h.
October 25, 2011 at 3:33 pm
The SF Neighbor Alliance is the same group that has contributed over 100K to Ed Lee’s campaign, including publishing his “unauthorized” biography that Ed Lee’s wife was seen trumpeting around. How can Lee reap the benefits from their expenditures but then turn around and claim to have nothing to do with their activities when it doesn’t suit him?
If Lee is elected mayor, this is the kind of rampant corruption you’ll continue to see (or probably won’t see because it’ll be behind closed doors).
Vote Adachi! And Anyone But Lee!