The Devil and Chris Daly

Supervisor Daly continues to fight the good fight against the Devil and the forces of reaction---at least to hear him tell it. Not surprisingly, Daly finds himself increasingly isolated on the board, as he self-righteously stakes out the most "progressive" position on an issue against his colleagues and the Devil himself, i.e. Mayor Newsom. 

While he's at it, Daly doles out gratuitous insults to supervisors who have been allies on other issues, like Supervisor Mirkarimi. Daly on Mirkarimi's legislation to regulate medical marijuana clubs:

If you've ever seen a law so messed up that you wondered who could write such a thing, you should watch a replay of Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting...Instead of consolidating his progressive base and fighting back against this reactionary push, Mirkarimi cut a deal[with the mayor] and offered mandatory Discretionary Review and cut in half the amount of medicine patients can possess. But when you deal with the Devil, it usually comes back to bite you.

Look out for those biting Devils, Ross! More to the point, look out for grandstanding political allies like Chris Daly who will turn on you for relatively trivial reasons.

According to Daly, the "progressive" position on the amount of marijuana that a card holder can buy at one time is one pound, not the wimpy, "reactionary" half pound that Mirkarimi and the mayor proposed. Now, I believe in medical marijuana---and recreational marijuana, too, for that matter---but a half pound of pot is a lot of pot. It would take even H. "Prairie Fire" Brown a very long time to smoke that much dope.

And the progressive position on sensible zoning of marijuana clubs?

I believe in medical cannabis and will not vote for legislation that zones any dispensaries out of existence...I continue to oppose all of the zoning regulations that affect any existing or future dispensaries including those in the South of Market. To this end I will be offering an amendment to grandfather[in] all existing dispensaries.

Even if a club is near a school or in a strictly residential neighborhood! According to Daly---and the map attached to his blog item---there are now 33 pot clubs operating in the city, 17 of which are in his district. Mirkarimi's legislation would, by Daly's count, close 14 clubs, 5 of those in his district. Why aren't 19 clubs enough for the city? Why aren't 12 clubs enough for Daly's district? 

In Daly's mind, any regulation of the marijuana clubs is a retreat on medical marijuana in general, even though 19 clubs in the city would seem to be enough to satisfy even San Francisco's appetite for marijuana.

Daly actually seems to take pride in losing votes on the board; it only reinforces his sense of righteousness: He tells how he lost one vote 9-2 and then lost on "a series of motions...that failed for a lack of a second." If you can't even get a second on your motions, that would tell anyone but Chris Daly something.

The other day, Matier and Ross reported the results of a David Binder poll: Mayor Gavin "The Devil" Newsom is getting an 86% approval rating from city residents, while Chris Daly gets only a 29% rating. Those numbers are unlikely to deter Daly from his path of isolated righteousness and pseudo-progressivism, because if you are Right, and everyone else is Wrong, any change in your position is a surrender to the forces of reaction.