The story I thought I’d never see

Apparently San Franciscans have turned on a politician who is too liberal, even for them:

A couple of new polls are giving Camp Newsom new hope of unseating archrival San Francisco Supervisor Chris Daly from his power perch in the South of Market District 6.

The numbers show a big turnaround from an earlier poll that had Daly 10 points ahead of lead rival Rob Black — the pick of the cops, the downtown business crowd and Mayor Gavin Newsom.

First came a David Binder poll two weeks ago that showed Black surging 10 points ahead of Daly.

Not knowing what to believe, the downtown folks commissioned a third poll, just this past week, from Evans and McDonough.

The results: Black leading Daly, 37 percent to 31 percent.

Seems that all the development Daly helped usher in to the former warehouse district also has brought in a lot more upscale voters who don’t necessarily share Daly’s lefty politics. In fact, a third of the district’s roughly 36,000 voters have turned over since Daly was first elected in 2000, with 3,000 new voters added in the past year alone.

Upshot: What was considered a done deal for Daly just a month ago has turned into a scrum — with the cops, the building trades, restaurant owners, downtown and South of Market property owners and the mayor all piling on in hopes not only of knocking off Daly, but also flipping the left-leaning balance of the Board of Supervisors.

You can read the rest here.

Not only do I find interesting the fact that San Franciscans are following their economic interests, rather than some bizarre progressive dream, I’m almost mesmerized by the fact that the article refers to Daly as someone with “lefty politics.” I don’t recall reading that phrase before about a San Francisco candidate, because all the candidates have traditionally been left of center. What’s even more amazing is that Daly’s loss may “flip[] the left-leaning balance of the Board of Supervisors.”

Of course, all of this has to be understood in the context of San Francisco politics. While pretty-boy Newsom may be a friend to business, the fact remains that he’s the same mayor who attempted a coup aimed a destroying traditional marriage. In other words, even a “conservative” San Francisco Board of Stupidvisors is still going to look more liberal than any Americans outside of Manhattan, Los Angeles, Berkeley, and a few other blue, blue, blue cities can imagine. Nevertheless, even a subtle shift rightward in San Francisco is a trend to be viewed with something approaching awe.