ed lee power play

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Sunday, January 16, 2011

How three heavyweights propelled a civil servant to the precipice of power

By: Gerry Shih

Luke Thomas/Fog City Journal

Ed Lee

On Sunday afternoon, former Mayor Willie L. Brown Jr. made an urgent call to Rose Pak, his longtimepolitical ally and the powerful head of the Chinatown Chamber of Commerce. Word had trickled out that San

Franciscos Board of Supervisors had narrowed the list of interim candidates to replace Mayor GavinNewsom, the lieutenant governor-elect.

But the contenders Sheriff Michael Hennessey, former Mayor Art Agnos and Aaron Peskin, the chairmanof the citys Democratic Party were deemed too liberal by Pak, Brown and Newsom, who are moremoderate.

With momentum fizzling around Paks favored candidate, David Chiu, the board president, Pak and Brown

decided to pool their efforts on behalf of another Asian-American official: Edwin M. Lee.

Over the next 48 hours, Pak, Brown and the Newsom administration engaged in an extraordinary politicalpower play, forging a consensus on the Board of Supervisors, outflanking the boards progressive wing and

persuading Lee to agree to become San Franciscos first Asian-American mayor, even though he had told

Behind-the-Scenes Power Politics: The Making of Ed Lee - The Bay... http://www.baycitizen.org/politics/story/behind-scenes-power-po

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officials for months that he had no interest in the job.

This was something incredibly orchestrated, and we got played, Supervisor John Avalos, a progressive, saidin an interview. Im still trying to figure out what happened. I dont know what the game was about, exceptthat it was to muscle someone into office.

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Barring another last-minute development, the board is expected to ratify Lees appointment Friday in its finalsession. The incoming board, to be sworn in on Saturday, is expected to vote to install Lee next week thelast step needed for him to become interim mayor, until the election in November.

The behind-the-scenes drama was a stark reminder of the enduring power of Pak and Brown and their abilityto influence city politics at the highest levels, even seven years after Brown left office.

In separate interviews, Pak and Brown described Lee as a committed liberal Democrat, and they emphasized

the importance of the symbolism of an Asian-American mayor.

This was finally our moment to make the first Chinese mayor of a major city, Pak said. How could you letthat slip by?

Brown said progressives should be ashamed of subtle biases in their opposition to Lee, a former civilrights lawyer who in 1978 led city tenants in the first rent strike against the State Housing Authority.

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, Brown said. Thats genuine progressivism.

Progressive supervisors said that they did not question Lees credentials or his politics. A career bureaucrat,Lee who was appointed to his current post as city administrator by Newsom in 2005 has a reputation

among insiders as one of most competent public officials at City Hall. Rather, the progressives bristled at howhis candidacy was engineered by Brown and Pak, whose bare-knuckled style of politics they have come to

resent bitterly.

I like Ed Lee, and Ive always been open to him, Supervisor David Campos said. If they had given us anopportunity to have the conversation with Ed Lee and consider it, maybe we wouldnt have had those issues.

The last-minute push to install Lee involved political maneuvering, as well as misdirection and some luck,

according to people involved in the effort.

For months, a number of supervisors had asked Lee if he was interested in being interim mayor, but he hadalways said no.

The critical stumbling block for Lee, several people said, was his concern about a rule in the city charter thatprohibited elected officials from taking appointed positions within a year of leaving office. Lee, who is puttingtwo 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.


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Rose Pak, left, Gavin Newsom, center, and Willie Brown were behind Ed Lee's emergence as the Board of Supervisors' pick for interim mayor (Credits: Adithya

Sambamurthy/The Bay Citizen, Getty Images)

As his anxieties became clear, Newsoms staffers asked the office of Dennis Herrera, the city attorney, tobegin quietly drafting a charter amendment to allow Lee to return to the administrators post after he servedas mayor, according to several City Hall officials. The amendment still needs board approval. On Mondaymorning, Chiu, the board president, joined Supervisor Sean Elsbernd and others in pushing Lee as a candidateamong the board members. But Lee remained deeply ambivalent about the nomination as late as Monday

evening.

I am tremendously reluctant, Lee wrote in an e-mail to Pak as he prepared to leave Hong Kong for the hotsprings of Yangmingshan National Park in Taiwan.

But Newsom would like to take care of as many concerns that I have, including the exemption from workprohibition after serving, the e-mail continued.

Lee asked Pak for guidance, writing: As you know, I love serving my city. Would this be the best way?

Pak was fortunate to connect with Lee shortly before he boarded his flight to Taiwan and an area withspotty cellphone service and urged him to consider becoming the first Chinese mayor of San Francisco. Itwas only then, less than 24 hours before the board vote, that the Lee camp persuaded its candidate to accept

a nomination.

On Tuesday, just hours before the board was to consider nominations and vote for an interim mayor, Newsomand his allies knew they needed a single vote more to push through Lee.

Newsom turned to Supervisor Bevan Dufty, who had initially favored Lee but had signaled to progressivestalwarts like Chris Daly, Campos and Avalos that he would back Hennessey.

The mayor summoned Dufty and another supervisor, Michela Alioto-Pier, a supporter of Lee, to his officeshortly before the board meeting.

According to Dufty, Newsom urged him to support the consensus candidate.

When Dufty went to the board chamber that evening for what turned into an eight-hour session, he toldCampos that he felt good about Hennessey, Dufty said. That led progressives to nominate their favored


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candidate, Hennessey, in an effort to lock up his appointment.

But their plan was thrown into chaos when Dufty refused to vote for Hennessey, leaving the sheriff one voteshy of the six he needed to secure the nomination.

Dufty then called for a recess and met with Supervisor Sophie Maxwell and Steve Kawa, Newsoms chief ofstaff, in Kawas office, with Newsom on speakerphone. In an interview, Dufty said he wanted to confirmLees positions on immigration before voting for him. He denied that he brokered a deal with Newsom.

I could just see the waters shifting around Hennessey, Dufty said.

Shortly before 10 p.m., Dufty emerged from Newsoms suite to declare that he was ready to vote for Lee.

Daly was enraged. He had spent months working to install someone he hoped would be the first trulyprogressive mayor in 30 years, and that dream had been blown apart. He sharply criticized Dufty and vowedrevenge on Chiu, who he had believed would side with the progressives, and who could have provided the

sixth vote for Hennessey.

Chiu, who was mentioned as a possible candidate for interim district attorney (to fill the position vacated byKamala Harris, the new state attorney general), announced Thursday that he was taking himself out of the

running. Chiu is expected to run for mayor in the fall.

I will haunt you, Daly told Chiu on Tuesday night. After this vote, I will politically haunt you. Its on, likeDonkey Kong.

Twice, he muttered 30 years, then slammed his fist against a banister and stormed out of the chamber.

Across town, Pak gleefully watched the proceedings from a bar at the New Asia Restaurant.

She was in a boastful mood the next day, several hours before she planned to have celebratory drinks withBrown at the Chinatown Hilton.

Now you know, she told a reporter, why they say I play politics like a blood sport.

This article also appears in the Bay Area edition of The New York Times.


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ed lee power play

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