19
2004
Welcome to the new San Francisco, the city of political harmony.
Hard to believe but that’s the best way to read the latest polls presented to us today by The SF Chronicle’s Matier and Ross.
Approval ratings for the city’s two most recently elected officials, District Attorney Kamala Harris and Mayor Gavin Newsom are pollster-wise, off the bleeping charts. Harris gets a 65% approval rating. Newsom, a breath-taking 86%. The two are being carried along by their controversial stands; Harris on the death penalty (supported by 70% of those polled) and Newsom on gay marriage (66 percent in favor, according to older polls).
And there's the coattail effect which could make for an oddly -- in San Francisco terms -- harmonious budget process. With these sorts of poll results, consultants say it gets difficult to unseat incumbents who, of course, are going to try like hell to grab a little limelight from Newsom and Harris.
Still, Members of the Board of Supervisors facing reelection have a good chance of remaining in office. The board gets a 57% approval rating as does lame duck board president Matt Gonzalez who won a 69% rating. Gonzalez's bratty decision to leave office – and open up a Progressive dogfight in his district- -- looks pretty, uh, lame right now. And -- more good news for Newsom and the Supes -- it's going to keep the city's always quarrelsome lefties busy through the summer.
The poll numbers also make the idea floated by SFSOS – the folks who paid for the survey - to use school desegration as a way to bring conservative voters to the polls to unseat supervisors Geraldo Sandoval and Jake McGoldrick an even dumber idea than it first appeared.
Satisfied voters vote to keep what they got. And San Francisco voters are more than satisfied right now.