If you were to judge the race for San Francisco's next sheriff based purely on the gushing sounds coming from the Chronicle and the Bay Guardian after current Sheriff Mike Hennessey made his official endorsement yesterday, you'd think D5 supe Ross Mirkarimi already won. On the steps of City Hall yesterday, Hennessey made his announcement alongside a gaggle of other high-profile Mirkarimi supporters like Former Mayor Art Agnos and buddy-supes Eric Mar and David Campos. As the longest serving elected official in the history of San Francisco (31 years over eight elections), Hennessey's endorsement obviously carries a lot of weight, and the sheriff said he's putting it behind Mirkarimi because the supervisor hasn't shied away from prickly criminal justice issues.
Most recently Mirkarimi, an SF Police Academy graduate, has taken on the burden of figuring out what to do with all the inmates that Governor Brown's AB 109 bill will transfer back to local municipalities. (He even bugged the Mayor about it during last month's mayoral question time.) In accepting the endorsement, Mirkarimi admitted he was at a loss for words for once in his career before going on to recognize Hennessey as "a living legend" and pledging "to build upon [Hennessey's] legacy as effectively as possible." For the supervisors, that means pushing for more collaboration between the Sheriff's department and the SFPD, as well as addressing the connections between poverty and increased crime rate. Hennessey put a cherry on top of the whole thing by bestowing toy badge honors on Ross' son Theo.
Six other candidates have also filed paperwork to be on November's ballot, including three from within the sheriff's department, but they probably won't be so optimistic after yesterday's news.
