Results tagged “politics”

The well of comedy gold will run a bit drier as Carole Midgen announces that she will not run for the supervisor seat in D10 (Bayview-Hunters Point, Potrero Hill) when Sophie Maxwell terms out. "I don't envision this as a fit for me in the New Year ... I like where I live ... I have a good life," Migden tells SF Weekly's Will Harper. Alas.

Today, SFAppeal's Eve Batey and SFist editor Brock Keeing join wonk scribe Chris Roberts to chat about City Hall and current (as of now, we think) San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. It'll be a hoot. Hopefully.

Oh, what joy. Brittney Gilbert at Eye On Blogs brings our attention to this: Green Apple Books, located at 506 Clement, will donate proceeds of former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's new book Going Rogue: An American Life to the betterment of animals up in Alaska. Check it:

We swear we not trying to pick on our fine mayor. Well, not more than usual. Anyway.

Rumors are percolating that Gavin Newsom might, as a SFist commenter Manys pointed out, pull a Sarah Palin. That is to say, he could very well resign. Or not. No one can say for sure, of course. Sure, former Director of Communications Nate Ballard once (allegedly) convinced Newsom not to quit his mayoral gig a few years back; but now that he's gone, is there anyone left to talk Gavin out of resigning? Probably not.

Finally. Mayor Gavin Newsom was cornered by spoke to reporters yesterday outside his office. While the Deputy Prime Minister of Vietnam visited City Hall last night, Newsom stayed inside his office, hiding from reporters. But, being the crafty little critters that they are, local journos found him when he emerged. (Newsom did, we should point out, grant an interview with San Francisco's own Corky Sherwood, Ken Garcia, last Friday.)

Right. So, Carla Marinucci over at the Comical reports that this fella, Damon Dunn, who is running for Secretary of State, has admitted that he has only voted like once in his entire 33 years on this lonely planet. This of course automatically qualifies him for membership in the He-Man's-Bad-Citizens-Who-Think-They-Should-Be-Our-Leaders Club along with our favorite local career gals, Carly Fiorina (club president) and Meg "Lieberwoman" Whitman (club janitor). Maybe Dunn can be club treasurer. As you will recall, Ms. Whitman, was far too busy raising children while gazing adoringly at her husband's career to bother doing her civic duty, and Ms. Fiorina? Well, who knows? Perhaps she was too busy counting her American dollars to bother dragging her backside down to the nearest friendly polling place. Dunn's explanation for his bad citizenship? He grew up as a poor! Um, no excuse!

Yesterday's Board of Supervisors meeting was, by all accounts, highly entertaining. Then again, anything involving the bizarre practice of life coaching is always something to behold. You see, Gavin Newsom, while running for governor of California, hired himself a life coach or "corporate facilitator."

The Board of Supervisors will be casting votes today on whether to override Mayor Newsom's veto of Supervisor David Campos's legislation amending the City's sanctuary law. As you may recall, the legislation approved by the BOS protects illegal hooligan youth who've been arrested for allegedly committing crime in the streets, from being unduly reported to the feds by city employees prior to actual conviction.

Now that Gavin Newsom has dropped out of the governor's race (welcome back to work, Gavin!), rumors are swirling that Senator Dianne Feinstein might take a stab as the new "it" Democratic candidate. Or not. Who's to say for sure. This speculation pops up all the time with DiFi.

Breaking news, folks. It looks like Newsom will return to San Francisco tonight, and be back to work come tomorrow morning. The mayor, if you recall, vanished from San Francisco and City Hall after announcing his withdrawal from the California's governor race.

Filling the void left by Ellen Tauscher, former Lt. Governor John Garamendi was sworn in today "as a new representative in the House for the 10th district representing parts of Contra Costa, Alameda, Solano, and Sacramento counties." Fun! In related lieutenant governor news, Gavin Newsom might not be eying the lesser position as was rumored a week ago. Why? Well, as Melissa Griffin expertly pointed out in her column today, "Being lieutenant governor isn’t worth moving to Sacramento since it basically requires you to be the John Oates to the governor, who gets to be Daryl Hall."

Still in its embryonic stage, please join SF Appeal's Eve Batey and your SFist editor at 4 p.m. today for SF Views, live from the stained heart of SOMA! It's an interwebs show about -- you guessed it -- San Francisco. And other stuff.

SF Appeal brings it to our attention that smarmy San Francisco-based (located on Maiden Lane, specifically) "independent integrated marketing communications company," Criswell and Associates, earned about $700K in the past couple of months producing anti-same-sex marriage ads for Stand For Marriage Maine with the help of SF production company Coyote Films.

The votes are in. Four out of five propositions passed. Here's how things went down after yesterday's election:

For your convenience, here's a handy voter guide.

While everyone and their pet goldfish thinks they're the only ones to have predicted that SF Mayor Gavin Newsom would withdraw his bid for California governor -- in related news, we predict you will have a bowel movement within the next 24 hours! -- this has been ancient watercooler talk for months. Why, just last week, if you recall, Newsom not only denied but chided reporters for having the gall to question him about it.

Newsom's out. Here is the official press release.

Our local sanctuary city drama continues as Mayor Newsom went ahead yesterday with his threat to veto legislation passed by the Board of Supervisors amending a local ordinance that governs when city employees can report young illegal immigrant hooligans to the Feds. Currently, the city's ordinance requires city employees to report illegals to the Feds upon arrest. New Supervisor David Campos, the author of the vetoed legislation and reportedly a former illegal himself, hoped to change all that by not allowing anyone to report the accused until he or she was actually convicted of a crime.

Yesterday, we talked to you about Schwarzenegger's clever missive to Asm. Tom Ammiano, where the governor tossed him a good ol' fashion "fuck you" while informing him that he vetoed his Port of SF bill. SFBG editor Tim Redmond called the governor's press office to ask about the now famous veto message with a little something special. Redmond reports:

As we all know, San Francisco nightlife has been under fire quite a bit lately. In addition to the ongoing saga of the Alcoholic Beverage Control's enforcement of arbitrary rules they've set for all-ages music clubs, a group of conservatives have been showing up at hearings at City Hall claiming that night-time entertainment is the cause of "violent crime, murder, prostitution, public urination and defecation and any host of problems that the city has been facing for decades."

They sure are crafty, those CodePink dames. First they manage to get within a few inches of Condoleezza Rice. Now they waltz up to Barack Obama and give him some paper. See, while at last night's Democratic Party fundraiser (which raised $2 million), Code Pink co-founder Jodie Evans, according to KTVU, handed Obama a petition "allegedly signed by Afghani women who want an end to the war in their country." After handing Obama the petition, Evans said the President told her "‘You know we are not going to end the problem in Afghanistan any time soon.’" To which she replied, "actually you’re not going to solve the problem, they are.” Added bonus: no fake blood.was involved.

Update: Thanks to Sarafina for the update on the hearing's schedule change from next Monday to the following Monday, October 26th at 1 p.m. at City Hall, Room 263. That gives you all more time to spread the word and write those letters!

     

Obama, who is currently in town for a Democratic National Convention fundraiser at the Westin St. Francis Hotel, was met with protesters from both the left and right sides this evening, the majority of which vocalized their stance on Obama's health care reform plan.

After eight long years of being ignored like a problem only-child in a first marriage gone afoul, it feels almost unnatural for the President of the United States to pay San Francisco a visit. What in heaven's name does Obama want? Did we do something bad? Where can we hide our bong?

Although he uses fresh fruit to fashion smiley faces in his oatmeal, Gov. Schwarzenegger approval rating has, not-so inexplicably, dropped to its lowest point ever. According to CBS 5/AP, "a Field Poll released Tuesday finds the Republican governor with his lowest approval rating ever. Just 27 percent of voters approve of his performance, while 65 percent disapprove."

Oh geez.

The definition of the federal hate crimes law might finally get expanded to include sexual orientation, as the House of Representatives approved the bill yesterday, which was an attachment of the $680 billion Defense Authorization Bill. The Senate could vote on the bill as soon as next week. Obama has said he will sign it into law -- unlike his predecessor, and Pelosi said this legislation has been on her agenda for two decades.

This is why getting violently ill sucks. You miss wonderfully uncomfortable stuff like this. See, at last night's Democratic County Central Committee gala at the San Francisco Fairmont, a surprise guest showed up. Who, you ask? None other than Governor Schwarzenegger, making a surprise appearance to speak to the left-leaning crowd. After being introduced by former SF Mayor Willie Brown, Arnold was "greeted by an awkward combination of polite applause, hisses, and shouts."

We were working on a post of images from last night's Mark Leno bash at Trigger in the Castro. But, lo and behold, Beth Spotswood beat us to it, doing an extraordinarily far better job with it than we could. Anyway, elections are on the horizon. Senator Mark Leno was in town. He talked about smart wonk stuff, he talked about smart important stuff. A lot. And in a good way.