As we noted yesterday, it's difficult to pin banners reading "WINNER" and "LOSER" on vestiges of city power following Tuesday's election because they're often the same people.
Today, Chronicle columnist C.W. Nevius came up with an interesting take on things. Who's the big winner? Mayor Ed Lee. Everyone's entitled to an opinion -- but this is a very Lee-centric reading on an election in which two of Lee's handpicked office-holders were utterly eviscerated by the voters.
Lee's selection for Community College board, Rodrigo Santos -- the well-connected choice of powerful city movers and shakers -- was trounced, despite spending an eye-popping $200,000. And the mayor's appointed District 5 Supervisor, Christina Olague, was thumped by a wide margin. Of course, Nevius portrays Olague's demise as a big win for the mayor after she crossed him on the Ross Mirkarimi vote, and Ron Conway poured a metric shitload of money into nasty ads targeting her as soft on domestic violence.
But this, again, is a very Lee-centric reading of things. It's a bit much to be lauded for solving a problem of your own making. Nobody played up what a big win it was for England's King Henry II after he sent a quartet of assassins to deal with the man he appointed Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket.
Nevius goes on to note that, after mayoral money man Conway ponied up the cash to unseat Olague, "Breed would be wise not to buck Lee's policies." This is an unsubtle and ominous way of putting things -- and makes little sense, when you think about it. Lee had cause to be peeved with his appointee Olague bucking him.
