Mayor-elect Newsom announces transition team (San Francisco. Has Republicans on team!).

SF Gate ^ | December 19th, 2003

[Simmy2.5]

SAN FRANCISCO -- Mayor-elect Gavin Newsom today announced the names of more than 180 people who will participate in his transition team, including many sitting commissioners and two former rivals.

Defeated mayoral candidates Susan Leal and Anthony Ribera made the cut, as did Gian Paolo Veronese, son of third-place finisher Angela Alioto. Alioto herself has been promised a prominent role in implementing certain parts of Newsom's campaign platform.

[Simmy2.5]

Granted, this is simply a transistion team (which in the end, could be meaningless when it comes to who is actually in power). A team that consist of 180 people.

Still, the simple fact that a San Francisco mayor has Republicans on this team is amazing. Especially given that Ribera is a true conservative (not some iffy RINO like Riordan).

[Bonaparte]

Tony Ribera's a great guy and I should know since I went to high school with him. But he's no conservative. He's more like a moderate. He loves labor unions and his campaign manager is a Gray Davis devotee.

[Simmy2.5]

Opps. Guess I was using the San Francisco version of "RINO". Which is a far left wing Republican. Still, even a moderate Republican on the team is a major step up for this far left city (of course, the team is FULL of lefties, but this is San Francisco. Thats should've been expected. A moderate on a team on the otherhand, is simply amazing).

[Bonaparte]

Don't get me wrong, he's head-and-shoulders above the rest of the pack. But he never stood a chance of getting elected. His poll numbers were so low, nobody even considered including him in the election debates. In a place like SF, Tony's candidacy didn't stand the proverbial snowball's chance. Very few people in this country realize just how far left SF is.