By Steven T. Jones
Is it too much to ask that our top elected officials focus on San Francisco rather than their political careers? Perhaps so. After all, if they can make it here, in this rough and tumble city, they can probably make it anywhere, or so their thinking goes. Yet that’s not entirely true, as a pair of front page stories in today’s Chronicle shows.
Most notably, new polling data shows that Mayor Gavin Newsom’s favorable ratings of just 25 percent statewide are below even perennial gubernatorial candidate John Garamendi, and that an astounding 41 percent of voters have unfavorable view of our slick celebrity mayor. Sure, his bungled approach to Prop. 8 is a factor, but an even bigger one is that Team Newsom’s ambitions have gotten ahead of political reality. Sure, he’s got charisma, but not much substance yet (unless you count claiming credit for other people’s initiatives). And even Newsom’s big personality, arguably his greatest asset, is often tinged with a thin-skinned defensiveness and smirky arrogance that turned him into the Yes of 8 poster boy. Rather than looking past San Francisco, as he’s been doing for so long, he’d do well to just try to be a good mayor and more actively engage with progressives here — win a few and lose a few, and mature in the process. Instead, he’s simply trying to shore up his conservative credentials.
District Attorney Kamala Harris has also been looking past San Francisco, similarly trying to get tough on lawbreakers and other poor souls, and she’s now announced her intention to run for attorney general. She made that trial balloon official just after noon today, sending out press releases in which she said, “I will fight for all Californians – from distressed homeowners to families whose neighborhoods are under siege. In the coming months, I will detail new ideas on how we can fight street gangs, go after subprime lenders and others responsible for the financial crisis, and fundamentally reform our prison system. We have to shut the revolving door that simply recycles criminals in and out of our neighborhoods.”
So get ready, San Franciscans, we’re about to once again be turned into guinea pigs for programs intended for a larger audience than us, as our current crime wave takes a back seat to more important concerns.