Fifty years ago this month, a first-term member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors named Dianne Feinstein suffered a humiliating political defeat, getting trounced in an ill-considered election challenge to incumbent Mayor Joseph L. Alioto.
Days after, the 38-year old Feinstein naively prevailed upon the newly re-elected mayor to reappoint her as the city’s representative to an influential regional government agency, where she was in line to become chair of the board.
Alioto refused, and his off-the-record response to a few confidants soon became public – and the stuff of legend in city politics:: “You don't cash loser’s tickets at the winner’s window.”
The hardball comment came to mind amid the recent SB City Hall set-to between newly re-elected City Councilmember Kristen Sneddon and her vanquished challenger, developer and Planning Commissioner Barrett Reed; when he showed up a week after the election to petition council for a new term on the commission, she responded with a slashing cross-examination about his business and potential conflicts of interest.
Although Barrett backers threw hissy fits and took to their fainting couches, from where they flung insults at Kristen as a sore winner and worse, this week's Newsmakers TV panel concludes after kicking around the kerfuffle that the questions she raised were fair, consequential and in bounds - despite her characteristic misreading of the political optics of the matter.
Elsewhere in local politics, mansplainers Josh Molina, Nick Welsh and the genial host assess the coming race for a new Santa Barbara-centric Assembly district expected to emerge from reapportionment; argue loudly about the two-year timeline of the State Street Advisory Committee; and altercate over a leaked teacher’s union survey that savages SB Unified superintendent Hilda Maldonado.
Plus: students busted at San Marcos High, incremental progress on homelessness and a key Board of Supervisors vote in favor of a new fire dispatch center to improve coordination and collaboration among and between the county’s far-flung local departments.
And for the handful of souls who hang in until the end of the show (and who definitely need to get out more): Jerry gets all misty about the romance of journalism in offering high praise for a four graf Nick story about the reopening of the City College track.
If it’s Friday, it’s Newsmakers TV – all here, right now.
Check out the show via YouTube below or by clicking through this link. The audio version is here.
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