Short Coattails

There's lots to be said about this election (we won the House!), and lots to be learned about local politics (YouTube -- the wave of the future), and that's for political scientists that are sharper than us to figure out -- but the one totally obvious point that this election's highlighted is that Gavin Newsom can't get his friends elected.

Take Doug Chan in District 4, for example. Newsom was the conservative (for SF) Police Commission member Chan's go-to guy -- Newsom showed up at Chan's kickoff rally; he walked the Sunset with Chan and Feinstein; he generally talked up Chan every chance he got. And where did it get Doug Chan on election night? Fourth place out of six with 1965 votes and 16% of the vote.

And look at Rob Black in District 6. Newsom LOOOOOOOOVED Rob Black. Newsom went out with Rob Black like every single day he wasn't out with Brittanie Mountz and/or Jennifer Siebel -- and where did it get Rob Black? 39%.

So why are Newsom's popularity numbers so high (60-80%) but his coattails so short? What's the disconnect between the whole "he's Mayor McDreamy!" and the "but I'd never vote for his Entourage" (if we may mix TV metaphors here)? Is it because he seems like a nice enough guy but doesn't actually seem to do anything for the city? Is it because people like us overemphasize his personal life at the expense of city policy? Is it just that he has bad friends? We admit we're puzzled -- and we're eager to see what the prognosticators have to say about it.

Meanwhile -- can we say? We are totally looking forward to Question Time!!!!! You better show up, Gavin!