More and more City Hall watchers are focusing on the asterisk that the Mayor’s Office has left next to the name of the newest member of the Board of Supervisors,
“She’s an interim replacement,” Newsom flak Nathan Ballard confirmed for me yesterday. In other words, she may just be a placeholder until the Board of Supervisors votes whether to remove disgraced Sup. Ed Jew from office a few weeks from now.
“At the point when Ed Jew is removed from office…then the mayor would have the opportunity to appoint a permanent replacement or appoint Carmen,” Ballard said. Asked whether the mayor has made that decision yet, Ballard told us, “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
This is unbelievable, particularly given the FBI raided Jew’s office and by his own admission found a wad of ill-gotten cash way back in May. Newsom has had plenty of time to pick a replacement, and probably already did well before Monday when he informed Chu of her selection. And I’m not the only one who smells the foul stench of a political power grab in Newsom’s strangely secretive ploy.