I read with interest Joe Eskenazi’s analysis of the potential recall of Sup. Joel Engardio: Recalls, he suggests, are generally a bad idea—but in this case, Engardio built his political career supporting … recalls, of the district attorney and the School Board.
Now the Chron (or its affiliate, SFGATE) is running pieces saying the recall is undemocratic—this from a news operation that endlessly fanned the flames for the Chesa Boudin and School Board recalls.
I don’t know if enough District 4 residents, who are overwhelmingly furious at Engardio’s support for Proposition K and closing the Great Highway, will sign a recall petition. If they do, the real question becomes: Where do the billionaire astroturf groups and the big donors go? Will the oligarchs who want to take over the city side with a politician who has done everything they could ever ask? Will Mayor Daniel Lurie, who would get to appoint his own ally to that seat if Engardio is recalled, weigh in on the race?
Remember, as the Phoenix Project notes, many of the oligarchs were big donors to Prop. K.
Does the “moderate” power structure close ranks to protect one of their own—and if so, does that undermine the ability of the billionaires to control votes on the West Side?
Is it just fine to recall progressives, but not conservatives?
City Hall is about to shut down for the holidays, but that doesn’t stop the politics—and right now, one of the key points of discussion is the next president of the Board of Supes.
It’s a board with four solid progressives, including newly elected Sups. Jackie Fielder and Chyanne Chen, along with Sup. Connie Chan, just re-elected, and Sup. Shamann Walton; four solid conservatives, including newly elected Danny Sauter and Bilal Mahmood, along with Sups. Joel Engardio and Matt Dorsey—and two in the middle, Sups. Myrna Melgar and Rafael Mandelman, both of whom want the job.
At this point, nobody has six votes.
The only way a new board president wins with no progressive support is if all the mods and conservatives agree on a candidate—and with two of them running, hard, for the job, that’s not happening right now.
The final board meeting of the year, and the last meeting for Sups. Hillary Ronen, Aaron Peskin, Ahsha Safai, and Dean Preston is Tuesday/17. As is traditional, the board will celebrate their work and service. It’s also the last time Mayor London Breed will be on hand for Question Time; nobody put forward any questions, so the mayor gets to talk for five minutes. I wonder what message she will use in her last chance to address a board that he has so often clashed with and sometimes openly disdained.
