Newsom's appointments make it the Year of the Women - 01 27 04

China's Chairman Mao once said, "Women hold up half the sky." In the two weeks since Mayor Gavin Newsom made four female appointments to major posts, the sky certainly hasn't fallen.

Newsom appointed Heather Hiles to the school board, Heather Fong as acting police chief, Joanne Hayes-White as fire chief and Michela Alioto-Pier as District 2 supervisor.

The four appointments will likely bolster Newsom's standing among women in this Democratic Party-majority city. According to a Voter Contact Services breakdown of city Democrats, women enjoy a distinct advantage. Fifty-three percent of all S.F. Democrats are women.

Appealing to women Democrats, Newsom's campaign last year prominently displayed the endorsements of the city's top three female Democratic elected

officials: House of Representatives Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, Sen.

Dianne Feinstein and state Sen. Jackie Speier.

Their endorsements were crucial to softening perceptions that Newsom lacked compassion toward the homeless. In particular, the left and rival mayoral candidates characterized Newsom as a downtown, right-wing homeless-basher.

That depiction wasn't surprising, considering Newsom had become closely identified with a tough-love homeless agenda - proposing to convert cash welfare benefits to in-kind services under Care Not Cash (Proposition N) in

2002 and pushing last year's aggressive-panhandling ban (Proposition M).

For Proposition M, a gender gap emerged in an exit poll conducted on Election Day by the Chinese American Voters Education Committee and Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin & Associates. Men may have enthusiastically supported Newsom's Proposition M, 62 percent to 38 percent, but female support was a lukewarm 55 percent to 45 percent. The measure won with 60 percent overall support.

In the same CAVEC poll, women overwhelmingly supported mayoral candidate Angela Alioto's Proposition J, to legally segregate and protect the disabled, seniors and families in homeless shelters. Women supported J with

66 percent of the vote. Men only supported it by 54 percent. The measure won with 59 percent overall.

The gender gaps in Propositions J and M may have denied Newsom an outright victory for mayor in November and paved the way for narrow margin of this 53 percent to 47 percent December runoff victory against Matt Gonzalez.

In two years, Newsom had driven homelessness to the top of voters' minds and earned 60 percent support. But Newsom's support on his homeless agenda did not automatically translate to support for his mayoral candidacy. In the months prior to the November 2003 election, Newsom's support had reached a plateau. Polls showed him in the mid- to high-30 percent range in support among likely voters against five major candidates.

One explanation is that Newsom and his mayoral rivals were not helped by the Oct. 7 gubernatorial recall campaign, which obscured local interest in the mayor's race.

However, I would hypothesize also that Newsom may have been too effective in identifying himself with and promoting a homelessness agenda at the expense of his achievements on customer service, public-transit reform, parks, open space and economic development.

At the same time, his mayoral opponents churned out homeless proposals such as Alioto's Proposition J to compete as more kind and gentle programs than Newsom's measures.

So, Newsom's four appointments are an attempt to soften his anti-homeless image. Newsom's female appointments serve a purpose similar to Howard Dean's last-minute gambit in the Iowa presidential caucuses last week. With Dean slipping in the polls, his reclusive doctor-wife showed up on the eve of the caucuses to campaign with him and to soften the hard-edged perception of a bearish, grunting and unpresidential Dean. The former Vermont governor eventually lost Iowa to war hero Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.

The appointments have long-term implications for Newsom. It's not too early for Newsom to start thinking about re-election in 2007. Who can challenge him? Board of Equalization chairwoman Carole Migden, now running for state Senate, could pose a formidable challenge. She could unite a lesbian/gay vote, liberals and progressives and tap into the women's vote. While also premature, Kamala Harris's success as a new District Attorney could open up for her a promising future for other offices - including mayor.

In the short term, the Newsom appointments could help galvanize a women's vote to gain control of the male-dominated Board of Supervisors. To play to the gender gap, Newsom has appointed the board's third woman, Michela Alioto-Pier - who has to run for election this November.

On the same ballot, Newsom could unseat incumbent pro-Gonzalez Supervisor Jake McGoldrick in District 1, the Richmond District. Newsom could consider supporting state Democratic Party vice chairwoman Alicia Wang. She's potentially a formidable candidate: She's a teacher, an Asian American homeowner in a district with a substantial Asian American vote and political director of her teachers union.

For District 7, the West of Twin Peaks area, the threat of former Supervisor Annemarie Conroy running has Tony Hall questioning Conroy's administration of the Treasure Island Development Authority.

Further, Newsom could choose to support neighborhood activist Rebecca Silverberg, who supported Newsom for mayor, or former commissioner Myrna Lim to take on Gerardo Sandoval in District 11, the Excelsior.

SAM SPAM: E-mail swong@asianweek.com, call 359-2899, fax 397-7258 or mail to Samson Wong at 809 Sacramento St., San Francisco, CA 94108. His previous columns appear at www.sfusualsuspects.com .

PROPOSITION H STANDS FOR HOLE, AS IN THE BUDGET - 01 20 03

What goes around comes around as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger tries to negotiate his way out of a $15 billion shortfall in the state budget. As part of the budget wrangling, Arnold compromised with education interests on Proposition 98's guarantee of minimal state funding for public schools. The shortfall forced Schwarzenegger and the California Teacher's Association into a pact deferring $2 billion of guaranteed funding beyond the upcoming 2004-05 budget.

Well, like state Proposition 98, the city could guarantee a slice of its own budget to public education. Proposition H, if it passes on the March

2 ballot, could end up phasing in a $60 million slice of San Francisco's shrinking $4.8 billion budget pie to supplement the San Francisco Unified School District budget. In October 2003, in the heat of last year's mayoral election, the measure qualified for the March ballot by the overwhelming support of supervisors - including then- mayoral candidates Tom Ammiano and Gavin Newsom.

However, fellow candidate Supervisor Matt Gonzalez took considerable flack for not supporting Proposition H during the mayor's race. If Gonzalez had supported Proposition H, he arguably could have narrowed and perhaps won the race against Newsom. Instead, Gonzalez took his lumps by voting against H and arguing for a more prudent approach such as varying the supplement guarantee, to provide less funding during times of budgetary austerity.

Well, Prop. H qualified for the ballot before the supervisors found out about the massive hemorrhaging in the state budget. After the governor repealed the vehicle-license fee, a 2 percent surcharge on car purchases, in November, the city lost $100 million in funds. With this month's release of the governor's proposed state budget, the state is siphoning more money from municipalities such as San Francisco to balance the California budget. The city budget could go bust if California voters reject a $15 billion bond to help cover the budget shortfalls. The bond is looking very shaky in two statewide polls for the March 2 ballot.

So, when the time comes to wrangle over the city budget this spring, and if Proposition H passes on March 2, Mayor Gavin Newsom and the supervisors may end up doing what Arnold did - deferring the city's budget infusion into public schools.

Just think, only six months ago the city had patched a $350 million budget.

THINK MENTALLY: State assemblyman and child psychologist Leland Yee issued a resolution on Jan. 14 that makes the month of January "Mental Wellness Month." Yee said in a statement that the month goes beyond mental illness by promoting "good emotional health and stress reduction for all.

"It is important that each of us examines our own emotional state and finds ways to effective deal with life's challenges."

After we stay healthy in January, we'll have major anxiety attacks over what to do for the next 11 months.

TRAFFICKING ADS: Since last month, Yee has also been appearing in public-service announcements promoting pedestrian and traffic safety along 19th Avenue, which is considered part of the state highway system.

The ad, while not promoting his re-election in 2004, is a nice prep for a 2006 run at termed-out state Sen. Jackie Speier's seat. At that time, Yee could face major competition for the Democratic nomination. San Mateo County Supervisor Mike Nevin is considering a run for the seat.

Nevin has served for 14 years as supervisor, but also has long ties to San Francisco, where he held the rank of inspector while serving for 27 years in the Police Department.

The race is already heating up. Nevin was making the rounds at the Independent's holiday party last month. The Independent has a group of San Mateo newspapers covering Speier's Senate district.

POLL-ISH SAUSAGE: Anytime a poll is released, you'll find out if a candidate is a weenie or not. A recent poll by the moderate, pro-business group San Francisco-SOS showed some of the incumbent supervisors with low support going into the November 2004 elections. The outcome of the supervisor elections could determine whether newly sworn-in Mayor Gavin Newsom can obtain two magic numbers: four and six.

If Newsom can secure the support of four legislators, he can at least sustain a veto in the long run. The new mayor could pass his agenda if he holds a majority of six supervisors.

General opinion has been that incumbents Tony Hall (District 7 - West of Twin Peaks), Gerardo Sandoval (District 11 - Excelsior/Ingleside) and Jake McGoldrick (District 1 - Richmond) might be vulnerable.

A lot also may depend on the number of challengers.

Incumbent district supervisors in 2002 had a pretty good showing. In the

2002 elections, strong incumbents Gavin Newsom and Sophie Maxwell easily won re-election. Newsom faced token opposition. Maxwell faced none.

On the other hand, a field of nine candidates split up the vote in District 6. Chris Daly - considered the bad boy of local politics and most vulnerable in 2002 - was still re-elected with a 51 percent majority in the November primary against the large field. At the same time, Daly was helped by favorable redistricting that added more pro-Daly voters into the district after the 2000 census.

SAM SPAM: E-mail swong@asianweek.com, call 359-2899, fax 397-7258, or mail to Samson Wong at 809 Sacramento Street, San Francisco, CA 94108.

His previous columns appear at www.sfusualsuspects.com .

Bee Gee Bruce: Where's my award, dammit? - 01 06 04

Turn-ons and turn-offs - astute insight from a centerfold? Nope. Negative political advertising is a turn-off for some voters, but a turn-on as the political-consulting industry hands out its 2003 election-year winners at its March 2004 Las Vegas convention. Last year, a few locals picked up laurels from their peers through the American Association of Political Consultants among 93 categories for 2002 municipal, regional, state and national campaigns.

REWARD FOR 6,019 VOTES MISSED: Barnes, Mosher, Whitehurst and Lauter & Partners won eight awards and honorable mentions for their work in San Francisco and Oakland (for re-electing Mayor Jerry Brown) races. Half of the eight came for their successful election of Mark Leno over Harry Britt to the state Assembly in March 2002 - including second place for logo design, third place for outdoor signs and one honorable mention for a "Got Britt" banner/pop-up ad on a Web site.

BMWL also received honorable mention for sending a mailer thwacking Britt for missing 6,019 votes as a supervisor.

FBI OR FIB?: Although the FBI should get dishonorable mention for this one, Terris and Barnes picked up a first-place award for the November 2002 Assessor-Recorder slugfest between Mabel Teng and incumbent Doris Ward. Terris and Barnes sent out a mailer attacking Doris Ward for triggering an FBI raid of her office. After Ward lost the election, however, the investigation was dropped by U.S. Attorney Kevin Ryan.

WHERE'S MY AWARD, DAMMIT: Solem & Associates received two honorable mentions for "The Boondoogle" radio and television ads in defeating Proposition D, a November 2002 attempt to municipalize electrical and gas utilities.

Speaking of awards, it's been almost a year and I'm still waiting for the "Hall of Shame" award for making San Francisco Bay Guardian publisher Bruce Brugmann's enemies list on January 22, 2003. As the super-moral paragon of political virtue in this town, the Guardian deemed that I was one of the "individuals who lent their names to PG&E's anti-Prop. D campaign, or otherwise helped PG&E."

Yes Bruce. I begrudgingly help PG&E by paying my monthly gas and electric bills. Don't you?

HUM THE TUNE "TRAGEDY": If the city ever takes over PG&E, let's rename the new utility BGG&E. Pronounced like "Bee Gees and E," the abbreviation stands for Bay Guardian Gas & Electric, in Brugmann's honor. Brugmann therefore also shall forever be associated with that 1970s falsetto disco group that cut the soundtrack for the movie "Saturday Night Fever."

While Brugmann beats his bongos for public power after the pre-Christmas blackout, we should think about what would have happened if the city had acquired PG&E's transmission infrastructure - including the Mission Street station that caused the blackout. Instead of PG&E compensating the city and its businesses, how many millions would the cash-strapped city have had to pay for the lost clientele, wages, business and perishables caused by the blackout?

Bruce, put me down for the 2004 Hall of Shame award.

WEASEL WHILE YOU WORK: There's hope that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will legalize ownership of ferrets in California according to a Dec. 27 Associated Press story. To protect waterfowl, a 70-year old law bans ownership of the slinky critter.

A state Department of Fish and Game biologist argued that ferrets are efficient serial killers. "Like any kind of weasel, they're very good at what they do," said Ron Jurek. "And weasels keep on killing."

Meanwhile, state Sen. Dede Alpert (D-San Diego) has passed a bill in the Senate to legalize currently-owned ferrets but to temporarily ban new ownership - or what might go by the politically correct label "ferret guardianship" under a recent law produced by Supervisor Matt Gonzalez. Alpert hopes the state Assembly (hello, Leland Yee and Mark Leno) will pass a similar bill.

"[Schwarzenegger's] worked with ferrets in 'Kindergarten Cop,'" said Alpert, "so he knows they're not the man-eating creatures that Fish and Game makes them out to be."

The governor's office - busy with a budgetary morass - refused to comment to Associated Press on his ferret policy.

And if the state ban continues?

We could turn to our city supervisors to grant asylum in San Francisco for a weasel.

SUMMER OF DISCONTENT: Speaking of asylum, some of the same activists who campaigned against Gavin Newsom this past fall had once seized the Board of Supervisors chambers during a stormy budget session in the summer of 2001. Nearly all of the supervisors retreated from their desks and yielded their microphones to protesters who were yelling and screaming, "We're not addbacks."

In all of the fuss, Newsom calmly sat back down, opened up his agenda binder and proceeded to read - in the midst of protesters being arrested by sheriff's deputies inside the locked and sealed chambers.

Doesn't this tell you something about our new mayor?

CAST AWAY: I was thinking about casting for last week's column item about a fictional sit-com about the law offices of Kayo and Ayatollah. For Willie "Ayatollah" Brown, I'd cast Samuel L. Jackson (he should reprise his role as a hostage negotiator gone postal in "The Negotiator"). For Terence "Kayo" Hallinan: How about a younger version of Red Buttons?

POSING POISON FROGS: I'm sorry to see the California Academy of Sciences relocate and close for renovation. My first paying job - $200 for two summers - was as a 13- and 14-year-old inside the CAS' Junior Academy, caring for a menagerie of varmints such as banana slugs, geckos, snakes and scorpions. The fun included coaxing iridescent South American poison-arrow frogs to pose for a photographer, and teasing nasty old alligator gars behind the scenes at Steinhart Aquarium.

The summer job was probably the first time I toyed with being a wordsmith - I started calling the CAS the Cauliflower Egademy of Sinuses.

SAM SPAM: E-mail swong@asianweek.com, call 359-2899, fax 397-7258, or mail to Samson Wong at 809 Sacramento Street, San Francisco, CA 94108. His previous columns appear at www.sfusualsuspects.com.