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Everyone with any pull on David Chiu needs to read the article below
and then contact Chiu to tell him we will bring down his political
career if he continues to take part in this bullshit.<br>
<br>
In yesterday's New York Times:<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/07/us/07bcmayor.html">http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/07/us/07bcmayor.html</a><br>
<br>
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com"><img
src="cid:part1.04050600.09020401@aim.com" alt="New York Times"
id="NYTLogo"></a> <br>
<h1 class="articleHeadline">Behind-the-Scenes Power Politics: The
Making of a Mayor</h1>
<div class="articleSpanImage"><img
src="cid:part2.06080909.02020708@aim.com" alt="" width="600"
border="0" height="300">
<div class="credit">From left, Justin Sullivan/Getty Images; Heidi
Schumann For The New York Times; Adithya Sambamurthy/The Bay
Citizen</div>
<p class="caption">Beyond City Hall, from left, Mayor Gavin
Newsom, former Mayor Willie L. Brown Jr. and Rose Pak played
crucial roles in the selection of an interim mayor. </p>
</div>
<h6 class="byline">By GERRY SHIH</h6>
<h6 class="dateline">Published: January 6, 2011</h6>
<div class="articleBody">
<p> On Sunday afternoon, former Mayor <a
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/willie_l_jr_brown/index.html?inline=nyt-per"
title="More articles about Willie L. Brown Jr."
class="meta-per">Willie L. Brown Jr.</a> made an urgent call
to Rose Pak, his longtime political ally and the powerful head
of the Chinatown Chamber of Commerce. Word had trickled out that
San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors had narrowed the list of
interim candidates to replace Mayor <a
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/n/gavin_newsom/index.html?inline=nyt-per"
title="More articles about Gavin Newsom." class="meta-per">Gavin
Newsom</a>, the lieutenant governor-elect. <br>
</p>
</div>
<p> But the contenders — Sheriff Michael Hennessey, former Mayor Art
Agnos and Aaron Peskin, the chairman of the city’s <a
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/d/democratic_party/index.html?inline=nyt-org"
title="More articles about Democratic Party" class="meta-org">Democratic
Party</a> — were deemed too liberal by Ms. Pak, Mr. Brown and
Mr. Newsom, who are more moderate. </p>
<p> With momentum fizzling around Ms. Pak’s favored candidate, David
Chiu, the board president, Ms. Pak and Mr. Brown decided to pool
their efforts on behalf of another Asian-American official: Edwin
M. Lee. </p>
<p> Over the next 48 hours, Ms. Pak, Mr. Brown and the Newsom
administration engaged in an extraordinary political power play,
forging a consensus on the Board of Supervisors, outflanking the
board’s progressive wing and persuading Mr. Lee to agree to become
San Francisco’s first Asian-American mayor, even though he had
told officials for months that he had no interest in the job. </p>
<p> “This was something incredibly orchestrated, and we got played,”
Supervisor John Avalos, a progressive, said in an interview. “I’m
still trying to figure out what happened. I don’t know what the
game was about, except that it was to muscle someone into office.”
</p>
<p> Barring another last-minute development, the board is expected
to ratify Mr. Lee’s appointment Friday in its final session. The
incoming board, to be sworn in on Saturday, is expected to vote to
install Mr. Lee next week — the last step needed for him to become
interim mayor, until the election in November. </p>
<p> The behind-the-scenes drama was a stark reminder of the enduring
power of Ms. Pak and Mr. Brown and their ability to influence city
politics at the highest levels, even seven years after Mr. Brown
left office. </p>
<p> In separate interviews, Ms. Pak and Mr. Brown described Mr. Lee
as a committed liberal Democrat, and they emphasized the
importance of the symbolism of an Asian-American mayor. </p>
<p> “This was finally our moment to make the first Chinese mayor of
a major city,” Ms. Pak said. “How could you let that slip by?” </p>
<p> Mr. Brown said progressives should be “ashamed” of “subtle
biases” in their opposition to Mr. Lee, a former civil rights
lawyer who in 1978 led city tenants in the first rent strike
against the State Housing Authority. </p>
<p> “To present an opportunity to a person of color,
well-credentialed and well-qualified, ought to be one of the
tenets of the progressive movement,” Mr. Brown said. “That’s
genuine progressivism.” </p>
<p> Progressive supervisors said that they did not question Mr.
Lee’s credentials or his politics. A career bureaucrat, Mr. Lee —
who was appointed to his current post as city administrator by Mr.
Newsom in 2005 — has a reputation among insiders as one of most
competent public officials at City Hall. Rather, the progressives
bristled at how his candidacy was engineered by Mr. Brown and Ms.
Pak, whose bare-knuckled style of politics they have come to
resent bitterly. </p>
<p> “I like Ed Lee, and I’ve always been open to him,” Supervisor
David Campos said. “If they had given us an opportunity to have
the conversation with Ed Lee and consider it, maybe we wouldn’t
have had those issues.” </p>
<p> The last-minute push to install Mr. Lee involved political
maneuvering, as well as misdirection and some luck, according to
people involved in the effort. </p>
<p> For months, a number of supervisors had asked Mr. Lee if he was
interested in being interim mayor, but he had always said no. </p>
<p> The critical stumbling block for Mr. Lee, several people said,
was his concern about a rule in the city charter that prohibited
elected officials from taking appointed positions within a year of
leaving office. Mr. Lee, who is putting two daughters through
college, was confirmed to a new term as chief administrator in
December. He told officials he did not want to risk forfeiting the
remainder of his five-year contract as city administrator, worth
$1.25 million. </p>
<p> As his anxieties became clear, Mr. Newsom’s staffers asked the
office of Dennis Herrera, the city attorney, to begin quietly
drafting a charter amendment to allow Mr. Lee to return to the
administrator’s post after he served as mayor, according to
several City Hall officials. The amendment still needs board
approval. On Monday morning, Mr. Chiu, the board president, joined
Supervisor Sean Elsbernd and others in pushing Mr. Lee as a
candidate among the board members. But Mr. Lee remained deeply
ambivalent about the nomination as late as Monday evening. </p>
<p> “I am tremendously reluctant,” Mr. Lee wrote in an e-mail to Ms.
Pak as he prepared to leave Hong Kong for the hot springs of
Yangmingshan National Park in Taiwan. </p>
<p> “But Newsom would like to take care of as many concerns that I
have, including the exemption from work prohibition after
serving,” the e-mail continued. </p>
<p> Mr. Lee asked Ms. Pak for guidance, writing: “As you know, I
love serving my city. Would this be the best way?”</p>
<div class="articleBody">
<p> Ms. Pak was fortunate to connect with Mr. Lee shortly before
he boarded his flight to Taiwan — and an area with spotty
cellphone service — and urged him to consider becoming the first
Chinese mayor of San Francisco. It was only then, less than 24
hours before the board vote, that the Lee camp persuaded its
candidate to accept a nomination. <br>
</p>
</div>
<p> On Tuesday, just hours before the board was to consider
nominations and vote for an interim mayor, Mr. Newsom and his
allies knew they needed a single vote more to push through Mr.
Lee. </p>
<p> Mr. Newsom turned to Supervisor Bevan Dufty, who had initially
favored Mr. Lee but had signaled to progressive stalwarts like
Chris Daly, Mr. Campos and Mr. Avalos that he would back Mr.
Hennessey. </p>
<p> The mayor summoned Mr. Dufty and another supervisor, Michela
Alioto-Pier, a supporter of Mr. Lee, to his office shortly before
the board meeting. </p>
<p> According to Mr. Dufty, Mr. Newsom urged him to support the
“consensus candidate.” </p>
<p> When Mr. Dufty went to the board chamber that evening for what
turned into an eight-hour session, he told Mr. Campos that he
“felt good about Hennessey,” Mr. Dufty said. That led progressives
to nominate their favored candidate, Mr. Hennessey, in an effort
to lock up his appointment. </p>
<p> But their plan was thrown into chaos when Mr. Dufty refused to
vote for Mr. Hennessey, leaving the sheriff one vote shy of the
six he needed to secure the nomination. </p>
<p> Mr. Dufty then called for a recess and met with Supervisor
Sophie Maxwell and Steve Kawa, Mr. Newsom’s chief of staff, in Mr.
Kawa’s office, with Mr. Newsom on speakerphone. In an interview,
Mr. Dufty said he wanted to confirm Mr. Lee’s positions on <a
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/i/immigration_and_refugees/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier"
title="More articles about immigration." class="meta-classifier">immigration</a>
before voting for him. He denied that he brokered a deal with Mr.
Newsom. </p>
<p> “I could just see the waters shifting around Mr. Hennessey,” Mr.
Dufty said. </p>
<p> Shortly before 10 p.m., Mr. Dufty emerged from Mr. Newsom’s
suite to declare that he was ready to vote for Mr. Lee. </p>
<p> Mr. Daly was enraged. He had spent months working to install
someone he hoped would be the first truly progressive mayor in 30
years, and that dream had been blown apart. He sharply criticized
Mr. Dufty and vowed revenge on Mr. Chiu, who he had believed would
side with the progressives, and who could have provided the sixth
vote for Mr. Hennessey. </p>
<p> Mr. Chiu, who was mentioned as a possible candidate for interim
district attorney (to fill the position vacated by Kamala Harris,
the new state attorney general), announced Thursday that he was
taking himself out of the running. Mr. Chiu is expected to run for
mayor in the fall. </p>
<p> “I will haunt you,” Mr. Daly told Mr. Chiu on Tuesday night.
“After this vote, I will politically haunt you. It’s on, like
Donkey Kong.” </p>
<p> Twice, he muttered “30 years,” then slammed his fist against a
banister and stormed out of the chamber. </p>
<p> Across town, Ms. Pak gleefully watched the proceedings from a
bar at the New Asia Restaurant. </p>
<p> She was in a boastful mood the next day, several hours before
she planned to have celebratory drinks with Mr. Brown at the
Chinatown Hilton. </p>
<p> “Now you know,” she told a reporter, “why they say I play
politics like a blood sport.” </p>
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