By Luke Thomas
October 31, 2011
With the ink barely dry and Election Day just around the corner, thousands of copies of a new companion book entitled, “The Real Ed Lee: The Untold, Untold Story,” are landing on San Francisco voters’ doorsteps.
Produced and published by the campaign to elect Senator Leland Yee to Room 200, the 55-page paperback is intended to erode public support for Lee by serving as a hard-hitting counterpoint to a gushing 132-page unauthorized Lee biography entitled, “The Ed Lee Story: An Unexpected Mayor,” penned and produced by political consultant Enrique Pearce and financed by an independent expenditure committee supporting Lee.
The similarly designed doppelganger begins with an ancient Chinese proverb: “A promise is worth one thousand ounces of gold,” a reference to Lee’s (broken) promise to God and country that he would not exploit his “caretaker” mayoral appointment and seek a full-term.
Replete with a multiplicity of news report citations and end-notes, the book tells the unvarnished story of how Lee, painted as a humble servant who can’t say ‘no,’ buckled under pressure from unregistered lobbyists (Chinatown powerbroker Rose Pak and former Mayor Willie Brown) to run. Less than three-months hence, Lee’s campaign is beset by multiple criminal investigations into alleged campaign money laundering, ballot tampering and other campaign election violations.
“So who will he listen to if elected to a full term in office: the voters, or the powerbrokers?” the book’s back-cover asks. “The Real Ed Lee: The Untold, Untold Story chronicles his 20 years (and counting) of relationships with unregistered lobbyists, special interests and billionaires. Considering his multiple ethics violations by both the US Attorney and District Attorney, we come to learn that Ed may not be the man we want as Mayor, after all.”
Poking fun at Pearce’s book, the ‘untold story of the real Ed Lee’ has a recipe of its own and a crystal ball section (Chapter 11) that looks ahead at what a possible Lee administration might look like.
Here’s a few favorites:
“All Ed Lee appointments will be Willie Brown reappointments.”
“San Francisco’s official food will be Del Monte Ketchup, while our official flower will be the Rose.”
“Any and all public finance and campaign ethics laws will be rolled back. This change will go unnoticed.”
“Any inheritance you have must now be bestowed onto the City family, not your actual family.”
“All communications with constituents must be conducted through Twitter. In addition, any public comment must use the #mustache Twitter feed.”
Editor’s Note: As a professional photographer, Luke Thomas has provided photography services to several mayoral campaigns and independent expenditure committees in this election cycle, including the campaigns to elect Jeff Adachi, John Avalos, Dennis Herrera and Leland Yee, as well as the Run Ed Run and SF Neighborhood Alliance for Ed Lee for Mayor 2011 independent expenditure committees.
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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November 1, 2011 at 4:50 pm
Annie,
I fucked up. The total API proportion of the population is 30% of 800k. They register to vote less which puts them down to a 15% portion of 450 thousand registered voters. That makes it (I’m old and my match is slow and I do it all in my head) … puts them at around 75 thousand registered voters.
Who vote at less than 50% and in a regular election would have an impact of 35 thousand voters but I’m guessing their self-inflicted one-time pull of the lever makes their impact a good deal less under IRV. More like 25,000 votes.
Generously.,
h.
h.
November 1, 2011 at 3:56 pm
Here’s the Adachi video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=is14Uo3FWag
November 1, 2011 at 2:59 pm
@h.: Where do you get this idea that a very generous estimate of the Chinese voter turnout is 25,000? That’s hard for me to believe. If that’s true, why do we have three Chinese Supervisors, plus one Korean who is accepted in the Chinese community, and a Chinese mayor, albiet appointed?
What you’re saying about exhausted ballots, marked for only one candidate, is more believable, though that’s the first I’ve heard of anyone but Ed Lee advocating only 1 vote. Chris Daly has seemed to come close by endorsing no one except Avalos #1.
Adachi just released a Youtube video, narrated by Matt Gonzalez, attacking public financing and most of the other candidates. I wish he hadn’t done that, but an “Anyone but Ed Lee” campaign, like the one that defeated Don Perata in Oakland, was just wishful thinking on my part.
November 1, 2011 at 9:28 am
Annie,
A very generous estimate of Chinese Voter turnout is 25,000. If we get the 50% turnout (rain begins this Thursday) … we’ll have around 225,000 ballots to alter or replace or destroy or, … I digress.
I’m betting that 60% of the Chinese ballots are exhausted after the first round due to the hostility between Chiu and Lee and Yee. They’re all telling their supporters to vote only for them and leave #’s 2 and 3 blank.
That dilutes their power and the conservative Westsiders and dillatent SOMA/Haight/Castro/Cow Hollow crew will pore over their 3’s like horse race hounds on a trifecta and give us our next Mayor.
The Ed Lee campaign has turned into a slug leaving a trail of slime and Yee’s is even worse (can you believe Jim Stearns has been drawing a steady paycheck from this guy for 10 years?). I doubt David Chiu’s mom would vote for him if she were registered here (he couldn’t get a job holding the football for Charlie Brown cause he’s so untrustworthy).
I don’t understand why Ting’s in the race but it can’t be ego or blind ambition cause he squints at sunlight and the Giants have a better hitting game.
My buddy Tony Hall and Silicon handicapper, Joanna Rees have enough strength and focus but Tony’s too conservative for the dominant Progressive vote and Rees has money but no support from the Downtown business crowd who’ve been playing 3-card monte with Lee and the next two.
Who’d be Herrera and Dufty who are both knocking on the dorm door begging for your sloppy seconds even as we speak.
The Alioto name means a lot and I fully expect Michela Alioto-Pier to be in the top 5 but she really hasn’t run to attract any Progressive voters and that dooms her.
Which leaves us with Baum (my first pick cause we share a common revolutionary philosophy) … whom I’ll vote for first and thank God and Steven Hill that I had the chance to vote my heart and not have my vote exhausted for principle.
Ending up with Jeff Adachi whom I have thought from the start is the best guy (other than Matt Gonzalez) to lead a San Francisco that must re-invent itself in an economy set for re-crash.
And, John Avalos who has had the largest recorded growth spurt since Doogie Houser MD back you know when. John’s riding a rocket and deservedly so. I’d love for him to be elected and I’ll vote for him third.
I’m going with Adachi for his independence, integrity and intelligence. I could add sturm un drang but I really can’t define it. Kind of a combination of chutzpah and true grit.
Adachi’s the real Bulldog in the race. Avalos is the young stallion. I see Jeff winning with a combination of natural 1st place votes from his base (who pulled the lever next to his name some 600,000 times over the last decade) and seconds and thirds from Progressives from Green Party to League of Pissed-Off Voters and the Quentin Kopp tribe in the avenues.
Hmmm, that’s a longer post than I’d intended.
Anyway, read em and weep.
Adachi will be Mayor and Avalos will finish second.
Go Niners!
h.
October 31, 2011 at 3:07 pm
Here’s David Chiu on CBS, posted to SFGate, saying that “Everyone knows this doesn’t smell right.” http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=%2Fc%2Fa%2F2011%2F10%2F23%2FBAMD1LLD04.DTL&object=%2Fg%2Fav%2Fiframes%2F2011%2F10%2F23%2Fcbslocal6378146.ifr
However, Phil Ting does not appear to be among the seven mayoral candidates who requested federal election monitors and investigators.
If Phil Ting had joined them, I’d still be hoping for a united front, Chiu/Yee/Ting, with help from Eric Mar, behind a “Vote Chinese with Integrity, Not with Ed Lee.”
Let’s face it; there’s a sizable block in San Francisco that’s going to vote for three Chinese candidates. Given the history of the way Chinese people have been treated in San Francisco and California, it’s perfectly understandable. And very few pockets of the world are over identity politics yet.
Each of those voters who’ll cast ballots for three Chinese candidates has three votes and four choices.