Just a day ago, several candidates were in the running to be the president of the Board of Supes. Today, Sup. Rafael Mandelman won the job unanimously, with no other nominations.
How did that happen?
For starters, the other two potential contenders, Sup. Myrna Melgar and Sup. Shamann Walton, clearly didn’t have the votes. So the board could have gone through what happened last time around, where after 15 rounds of voting there was no winner. Instead, in a series of discussions and backroom deals, the progressives and the conservatives came to a consensus on Mandelman.
Sup. Matt Dorsey nominated Mandelman. Then Sup. Connie Chan took the floor—and a lot of us expected her to nominate Sup. Myrna Melgar. Instead, she said she would support Mandelman—and at that point, the outcome was clear.
Melgar told me she knew she wouldn’t win, so she took one for “Team San Francisco.”
She said she really wants to work on regional transportation issues, and hopes she will be the board’s appointee to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. (It’s hard to imagine that she won’t get that job.) She could also, and probably will, chair the County Transportation Authority (she’s vice-chair now).
But the big deal was the Budget Committee—which, by all accounts, will once again be chaired by Chan. Some of the more conservative supes, I am told, wanted anyone but Chan, but Mandelman didn’t take that deal. It would have been hard to defend, since labor, a key constituency if Mandelman, as expected, runs in the future for state Legislature, was set on keeping Chan in that job.
On the other hand, the committee starts out with three members, and you can expect the other two will be from the conservative bloc. Then in the spring, when the budget work really starts, it expands to five—and Mandelman will be able to put his stamp on the budget with those two additional appointments.
But the progressives, including Walton and Sup. Jackie Fielder, also spared Mandelman some grief, and I’ll be interested to see what committee assignments they get.
It’s going to be a more conservative board. But I don’t think Mandelman can or will entirely cut the progressives out of leadership roles.
We shall see.
