Mayor Lee's Hobson's Choice
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| Thomas Hobson |
Mayor Lee has nothing but a Hobson's Choice in appointing a District 5 Supervisor. If he picks a so-called moderate, he/she will be successfully opposed in November by one the district's party-line leftists---Quintin Mecke, Julian Davis, John Rizzo, etc., which I call the Juanita Owens Effect. If he appoints a progressive, he'll strengthen his leftist opposition on the Board of Supervisors, while giving the appointee a boost in the November election, though even a progressive would be tainted just by being appointed.
Yesterday the Examiner listed a number of other candidates for the mayor's kiss-of-death appointment: London Breed, Michael Breyer, Phil Ginsburg, Christina Olague, Malcolm Yeung, Michael O'Connor, Gabriel Haaland.
Labels: District 5, London Breed, Mayor Lee, Willie Brown
posted by Rob Anderson @ 11:17 AM
5 comments
5 Comments:
Hobson's choice is often misused to mean a false illusion of choice, but it is not a choice between two undesirable options, which is a Morton's fork. Such a choice between two options of nearly equal value is more properly called a dilemma. Hobson's choice is one between something or nothing.
Yes, Ed Lee should abuse his power and appoint someone who doesn't represent the district's voters.
Why should he appoint someone who's only going to join Avalos and other progressives on the board to oppose him on important issues? Whoever he appoints will be more or less "progressive"---we're not talking about Republicans and Democrats but only Democrats---will still be handicapped by the appointment itself.
He'd appoint them because they represent the district. As you said, he could put someone in there as a puppet but then the district would vote them out.
If D5 is best represented by a certain shade of politics than they should be represented by that certain shade. Don't abuse your power to appoint, Ed Lee.
As I pointed out the other day, based on the numbers from last month's election, it's not at all clear which political "shade" best represents District 5. Most district voters chose someone other than Lee, but most voters also chose someone other than uber-prog Avalos.
Lee has a wide latitude for this appointment, and district voters will make the final choice in less than a year in a presidential election year, which will guarantee a large turnout.
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