Don’t Wait Too Long to File, Carmen
January 21, 2008
Compare three swearing-ins last week. Mayor Gavin Newsom and District Attorney Kamala Harris were sworn in at packed, highly publicized fanfares, which signaled their intentions for higher office. For Newsom, the future is governor or U.S. senator; Harris’ future is wide open — including succeeding Newsom or a federal appointment if a Democrat is elected president. …
LOW-KEY CHU: To compare, Carmen Chu took her oath privately in the mayor’s office late Friday after finally deciding to become permanent supervisor. Her decision came after City Hall began closing down her office and etching her name off the door when suspended Supervisor Ed Jew formally relinquished his post. Chu had not formally decided to keep the post — three months after being first appointed. Only this week did she take up candidacy papers to run. Any candidate deciding to run for November election would have had, like Newsom and Harris, a major fanfare — the requisite highly public formal swearing inside the Board of Supervisors’ chambers and a community swearing-in somewhere in District 4. The two events would have been informal kickoffs to Chu’s 2008 election campaign. But she’s forgone that option, which could have given her a leg up in November. …
INDECISION OPENS UP RACE: Now, with Chu’s brief indecision, it could open up the race and invite candidates to challenge her, rather than discouraging them as a semi-incumbent. Chu’s final decision (i.e. when she finally submits her papers) is major — she represents not only the majority-APA District 4, but also informally represents a citywide APA constituency. Further, she’s the potential fourth vote to sustain the mayor’s veto before the November election for seven seats, which could transform 11 supervisors from an anti-mayoral to a pro-mayoral majority. …
BUYING TIME: The Jew legal marathon benefited Chu, buying time for her to immerse herself in the office last Sept. 25 and avoid a snap election last November or next February or June. Chu has seven months to ramp up for a November 2008 election. The convention has been — the longer she stays in office, the better chances she has of winning this November. …
BUT DECIDE SOON, CARMEN: Chu can learn the lesson from Superior Court Judge Lillian Sing in 2002. In hindsight, it would have been better for Sing to have retired as judge earlier, so that the former S.F. College Board member would have had more time to reacquaint herself with San Francisco politics after 22 years as a non-partisan judge. If Sing — one of the more qualified APA candidates in history — had started campaigning sooner, she would have stood a better chance to unseat incumbent Supervisor Jake McGoldrick. Instead she finished in second place and returned to the judicial bench. … Another example was Board of Supervisors President Matt Gonzalez, who waited to run for mayor in 2003. Had he declared sooner, he might have overtaken Newsom’s four-point victory margin. Given that she’s a novice to electoral politics, Chu has to decide and start preparing for the coming election marathon. The seat is too important for APAs. …
Reach Samson Wong at (415) 321-5886 or swong@asianweek.com.
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2 Responses to “Don’t Wait Too Long to File, Carmen”
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I don’t understand the system of letting Carmen Chu become the permanent supervisor of the district. Isn’t it just fair that the person that won second place in the elections should become the next supervisor? By giving Chu the position, it is just a slap in the face of the voters by making the vote not count.
Also, it would not seem fair to put-in a Mayor appointee because it just gives leverage for Newsom when he wants something badly and Chu becomes the sole vote.
Perhaps Chu hesistated because taking the supervisor position was a pay cut from her previous city job as budget analyst. If she has a mortgage to pay, it’s probably difficult to make it on a supervisor salary.