Following up on ArthurPoet's Saturday update, Kamala Harris' (D) lead over Steve Cooley (R) swelled to 31,000 Monday night:
Kamala D. Harris (Dem) 4,138,170 46.0%
Steve Cooley (Rep) 4,107,173 45.6%
With just under 775,000 ballots left to count, including 156,000 in Los Angeles County where Harris won by 14%, the trends look good indeed for a clean Democratic sweep of California's statewide offices.
Here in San Francisco, we now face the intriguing prospect of needing to fill two major offices: Mayor and District Attorney. While Harris would leave the DA's office if the trends continue, we already know that Mayor Gavin Newsom heads to Sacramento come January as our Lieutenant Governor.
City Hall is abuzz in anticipation of who will fill these seats. Today, the Board of Supervisors will consider a move by progressives to vote in Newsom's successor before he leaves January 2. However, Newsom is considering a delay of his swearing in so the new Board, sworn in on January 8, can pick his successor.
Reading the tea leaves, it appears that progressives do not have the votes to pick a successor now. If that were the case, come January 3, 2011, David Chiu, Board President, would become interim Mayor while simultaneously serving as Pres. And, adding in one more wrinkle: insiders believe Chiu has his eyes on District Attorney leading to this potential scenario:
Before he heads to Sacramento, Newsom appoints Chiu DA and his successor as Supervisor, temporary Board Pres., and temporary Mayor.
That is, until the new Board steps in and votes on Mayor and Board Pres - if they can all agree. Got that straight? Cause my head's aspinnin. Check back in January when, hopefully, the picture will finally come into focus.
