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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!
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Thank you SFIST for posting all my comments and all the videos and comments of others.
You are a fantastic forum.
I believe it comes down to the checks and balances that we have in this city. As we get star powered mayors(Willie) we need to break down who is really responsible for "under policing" our neighborhoods and the amount of "street cleaning" we receive in D6-1-2-3-4-5-7-8-9-10-11.What really confuses me is that department heads will take a stance in order to see someone elected to a seat in our city government a put the public at risk of harm. What is really confusing is that all you have to be is a friend and get a job of major decision making and not Know one Iota about what the job requires. It only takes a class C to drive a muni bus. I hope Chris in these last 4 years that he has will support more legistration that promotes department heads to be more job qualified for the job they do. And to set away that we can retain those that are qualified at their job without have to worry about weather or not that today's politician likes them as a payback for politicking for them. Real progress can't happen until we have department heads are free from politics of appointments.
I wonder if the mayor's playboy image actually harmed the candidates he backed. probably not, but it's been a looong time since lots of us feel that he's done anything really worthwhile and that last minute veto of the foot patrols may have hurt him.
if you look at the basics of that issue - chris voted for them, gavin vetoed it - chris looks good, gav looks bad. poor timing perhaps? and when will we be able to get chris to vote for foot patrols again when it took him years to vote for that one?
BAD GAVIN!
How about because managing the police is the executive's job, not the legislature's, and when the mayor criticizes the supervisors for not doing enough on crime SF voters just wonder what is going on in a city with record murders, along with the usual crime issues.....(well, 49.66% of us).
If I may, a brief word to SFSOS -- just because our mayor is a little retarded doesn't mean the rest of us are.
Ro case--please don't call Newsom retarded. I know what you meant, but considering his struggle with severe dyslexia, I'm sure you can find a more appropriate word to use.