Yee Vs. Teng: Part II?
IN THE NUMBERS: Summer felt pretty sunny to Supervisor Leland Yee. Since Judge Lillian Sing’s April withdrawal from the State Assembly race, Yee has had a chance to clear the field for a March 2002 Democratic nomination.
However, he shouldn’t break out the suntan lotion for a final vacation before the campaign just yet.
Returning from her own Hawaii vacation on July 17, Yee’s former colleague, Mabel Teng, said, “I have come back from the mountaintop.”
No, she didn’t find religion. But she did feel “very pleased” with favorable “poll” numbers for next March’s state Assembly race. Yee was concerned enough to hold a press conference with Chinese language newspapers to rebut the “poll” numbers.
Teng, meanwhile, remained coy about whether or not she would run again after losing a narrow runoff to Tony Hall for supervisor over eight months ago. And if she were to re-enter, she left unanswered whether she would vie with Yee in the state Assembly race or enter a citywide run for incumbent Doris Ward’s assessor seat.
Encouraging her was a May 2001 “poll,” which was leaked into the Chinese language Sing Tao Daily in early July. According to the paper, the results had Teng with a “favorable” rating of 18 percent, Yee and fellow Supervisor Gerardo Sandoval following with 10 percent, and School Board member Dan Kelly with eight percent.
Committee on Jobs (COJ) had commissioned the poll, with the campaign firm of Barnes, Mosher, and Whitehurst and Associates (a.k.a. BMW).
The release of the poll didn’t make COJ Executive Director Nathan Nayman too happy. The numbers, he said, were embellished and “blown out of context.”
The question about the Assembly race, Nayman said, represented a drop in the bucket for issues-oriented questions measuring voter sentiment last May. The poll was not intended to measure how people would vote, but a measure of “favorable” ratings in the nascent race.
Furthermore, the small numbers don’t mean too much considering so few voters knew about an assembly race that hasn’t really taken off yet.
POLITICAL PAYBACK: While Nathan wasn’t too happy, political voyeurs may look at this leak as a preview of a Mabel Teng run for the state Assembly — one derailed by her re-election defeat last year and the “ladies agreement,” letting Lillian Sing take the first shot at Assembly.
First, release of the poll may be a sign that Teng will rule out a challenge to unseat Assessor Doris Ward this March.
Second, consider the source. An award-winning firm like BMW, a firm that’s running Supervisor Mark Leno’s 13th Assembly District race, might be nudging their old client Teng to run in the 12th District.
John Whitehurst, the “W” of “BMW,” managed Teng’s 1998 race for supervisor and run for the Board presidency, which Tom Ammiano won. Yee stymied Whitehurst’s efforts when his lone vote defeated an emergency resolution by Supervisor Michael Yaki to correct voter materials that did not translate Teng and other names into Chinese.
Third, the same firm also conducted the most intensive soft money campaign against Yee last year in an effort to knock him out on behalf of the mayor last year.
With tons of research on Yee, a BMW-run campaign will likely revisit alleged episodes raised about Yee’s integrity like a shoplifting in Hawaii or doctoring of records in a South Bay community agency, or even his political flirtation with Board President Tom Ammiano for the last two years.
Despite those attacks last year, Yee survived, winning the primary election handily, 39-15 percent over John Shanley, a former protégé of State Senator Quentin Kopp. Yee then held off Shanley’s low-budget, self-managed campaign with a 57-43 percent victory.
If Teng does enter against Yee, their strained relationship when they were on the board together will make for interested payback. Yee tampered with Teng’s re-election once, and Teng herself questioned the reliability of Yee’s vote on housing issues like rent control because of a questionable conflict of interest.
Payback may end up in bloodbath for the loyalty of Chinese votes — and opening up the race to a non-Chinese candidate like Dan Kelly or Gerardo Sandoval with non-Chinese votes determining the outcome.
SIGH FOR SORE TSAI: Rose Tsai, the former supervisor candidate, probably suffered a sore throat after acting as translator on behalf of verbose Supervisor Jake McGoldrick (a.k.a. “McGridlock”) and Richmond residents. The affordable housing forum in Sea Cliff (now that’s an oxymoron — affordable housing in exclusive S.F. Sea Cliff) ended up being quite a marathon. At one point, the befuddled Tsai mindlessly started translating the words of one Chinese-speaking resident back into Chinese.
GET DOWN AND BOOGIE: Talk about retro candidates. First, we had the return of Dick Hongisto and Carol Ruth Silver, who both ran for supervisor last year. Now, Harry Britt has been resurrected as a candidate in the 13th Assembly District tangle with Supervisor Mark Leno. Or, maybe it’s a tango. “I like dancers,” Britt said after a pulsating, rousing July 19 drum dance by a women’s ensemble at his kickoff. “I won’t come to the revolution if I can’t dance,” he quipped, paraphrasing anarchist, feminist, and labor advocate Emma Goldman. “I hope what we’re doing tonight will not be the last dance.” Last dance? — wasn’t that Donna Summer?
YOUR TURN TO FRY: E-mail to samson@sfindependent.com, call 415-359-2899, or fax Samson Wong at 415-826-5371. |
