My boss @Scott_Wiener speaking at his election night party. "If Trump wins, we have to fight." pic.twitter.com/ND5natHRVF
— Rashad Alaiyan (@rashadalaiyan) November 9, 2016
Supervisor Scott Wiener is celebrating a hard-fought victory today after narrowly defeating his rival Supervisor Jane Kim in a highly contested race for the District 11 state Senate seat. While The Examiner reported last night that the race was too close to call, the LA Times was able to make the call early this morning. The not yet finalized election tally has Wiener winning 142,059 votes to Kim's 128,431.
The race between the two shaped up to be the most expensive local assembly race in history, and was a nail-biter from the start. Kim actually eked out a tiny lead in the primary, making it clear that it would be close regardless of who ended up winning. The LA Times reports that outside groups (like strip clubs) spent close to $3.6 million on the race — with business groups backing Wiener and unions supporting Kim.
The campaign's occasional lighthearted moments, like when the two candidates played Pokemon Go, were mostly overshadowed by the bitter ones. Wiener's rejection of Kim's efforts to get him to pledge to run a campaign devoid of negative advertising, for example, was more typical of the race's tenor.
And despite the win, Wiener doesn't appear to be celebrating. Instead, he seems just as shell shocked at the election of Donald Trump as the rest of us. "Bitter-sweet night," he tweeted early this morning before the race had been called. "I'm up 5 points w votes to count & optimistic. Yet U.S. elected crazed president & right-wing Congress. We must fight."
“I’m deeply depressed about what’s happening in the country,” the Ex reports him as adding.
Wiener will take the seat of outgoing state Senator Mark Leno. As for what happens right here at home? Because Prop D appears to have lost, Mayor Ed Lee will need to appoint a replacement to fill the soon-to-be vacated District 8 Supervisor seat of Wiener. As Wiener was considered a moderate, and Mayor Lee will likely replace him with one, the balance of the board will not change because of Wiener's election to state Senate.
