Ed Lee Officially Appointed Interim Mayor, Progressives Admit Defeat

By Erin Sherbert Tue., Jan. 11 2011 at 4:07 PM

The New Tenant Of Room 200

As expected, city supervisors today officially made Ed Lee interim mayor of San Francisco, putting an end to the week-long drama that's consumed City Hall.

"I understand what you have been going through," Lee told the Board of Supervisors after he was appointed. "I promise I can work with each and every one of you. The doors of Room 200 are open to everyone."

While there were many kind words expressed about Lee, who has been the center of media attention and political debate for the last seven days, the conversation was peppered with admissions from progressive supervisors who conceded what has become painfully obvious in the last week: progressives lost their grip on City Hall.

Supervisor David Campos was the most blunt in admitting defeat. The progressive supervisor stated that the last week has illustrated a clear shift in favor of the more moderate camp at City Hall.

"We need to be honest with ourselves and recognize that the progressive majority of this board no longer exists," Campos said. "We no longer have control."

Saturday was the first time in 10 years that the Board president was elected without a clear progressive majority. As Campos astutely noted it was the inner workings of City Hall -- not voters -- that broke down the progressive majority on the board.

"The fact is that the progressive majority controlled the inner workings of this board until a few days ago," Campos said. "We will soon see the ramifications of that."

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Tags:

David Campos, Drama, Ed Lee, Interim Mayor, Officially, Progressives

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txj

perhaps, it is time to see some more moderate, business-growing policies can create what hard-working people need: jobs and a balanced budget.

njudah

The progressives had 10 years, elected due to the excessive nuttiness of the Brown administration. During that time they were handed an excellent chance to take on Newsom in the 2007 election.

They chose to fumble instead. They never developed new up and coming talent, and the class of 2008 includes some people who aren't qualified to hold office. So, times changed and well, there you have it. That's the thing about politics - if you don't seize the day, you end up missing out.

h. brown

Yeah,

Thank God for die-hard liberals like me (now we're 'Progressives') that the Giants start competition in 45 days. I'd say that the two key things in the ascension of Lee were the Campos speech (as you noted) but then the Lee acceptance of the office in which he saved his last praise for Rose Pak ... it kinda sounded not so much like the speech of a guy accepting an interim position, but more like a guy starting his own campaign for a permanent post and admitting that this had been his plan with Pak all along. You could see Chiu crumbling in the background.