So far nobody has been able to persuade Mayor Ed Lee to give up his higher-paying gig as city administrator and run for mayor in November. And with the Aug. 12 filing deadline just around the corner, the Run, Ed, Run campaign is unleashing a group they hope will have an effect on Lee: women.
Female leaders are meeting today at noon to organize the first all female-driven effort to draft Lee for mayor -- and they've developed a rather obvious argument: his strong record on women's rights.
"Thanks to Ed's work for civil rights, San Francisco is the only city in the United States with policies to ensure that our city agencies do not discriminate against women in hiring, salary, and opportunity," says Shelley Bradford Bell, cochair for the Run Ed, Run campaign. "We hope that Ed hears our plea to continue his work as a champion of civil
rights and equal opportunity."
Specifically, she was referring to his previous work on the Asian Law Caucus and the Human Rights Commission, where he was able to help integrate the fire department and gain equal pay for women.
"He's been such a unifier for San Francisco," Bradford Bell explains.
However, let's keep in mind, that Lee's No. 1. fan and the person who is driving this entire effort to get him to run just so happens to be a woman. Rose Pak, the Chinatown power broker, pushed Lee into taking the interim mayor position and has since been pushing him to run for mayor.
But not even Pak has been able to get the nonpolitical Lee to commit to a mayoral campaign. So what kind of effect will this band of women have on the modest mayor? Bradford Bell thinks they could be the tipping point. She pointed out that more than 30,000 people have signed the petition drafting Lee to run for office, 40 percent of whom are women.
"I think when he sees the different groups of people that are coming
forward and believe in the job he does, he is the type of person that will believe this is the path he's supposed to be on," Bradford Bell tells us. "I can understand his modesty, though -- I wouldn't want to be mayor of this city."
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