Government
May 30, 2001
S.F.'s City Attorney Contest Has Lots of Heat But No Light
SAN FRANCISCO - It was in late April that Louise Renne announced her retirement and opened the way for a city attorney race with seemingly as many participants - and the potential for as many punishing hits - as the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
That same day, Renne indicated that the winner of the Renne Cup, her anointed successor who could campaign as the de facto incumbent, would soon be revealed.
But five weeks have passed and, as the brutal and grueling hockey playoffs are skating to their conclusion, there's still no word on who will succeed in this endorsement tournament.
Karen Snell, the sometime constitutional litigator, sometime criminal defense attorney and sometime heavyweight consultant to the city attorney's office, was the chosen one (every last egg in Renne's basket, according to one source), but said last week that her interest in the job is trumped by her contempt for electoral politics.
Of the other names being mentioned, only Jon Holtzman, the mayor's chief labor negotiator, remains as a possibility, but sources inside City Hall say he's no longer sure to snag Renne's endorsement even if he does decide to run.
Renne's not talking about Snell or Holtzman or any other candidate, saying only that her endorsement will be forthcoming. But Neil Eisenberg, who is making a second run at the office after a noisome battle with Renne in 1993, was more than happy to provide his own incendiary assessment of her hesitation.
"Snell's decision isn't surprising," Eisenberg said. "Louise is trying to pass the torch, but it's a blow torch. She's trying to convince someone to ride a thousand-car baggage train into the campaign."
It's just that sort of comment that helped Snell decide to not run.
Though she seemed unbothered by the insults and criticism she received for her stance on the settlement of the city's business tax lawsuit on Renne's behalf, Snell said recently that she lacks the desire to endure the invasion of privacy and several months of ugly back-and-forth the campaign would bring.
She also said her decision wasn't affected by Renne's fruitless efforts to sweep the field of moderate candidates to ease her path to the office.
In the words of one source, "only so many people can run on the sane-and-rational ticket," and Renne is concerned that the campaigns of Jim Lazarus and Dennis Herrera will siphon votes from her candidate and strengthen the bids of Eisenberg and his fellow Renne-basher, Steve Williams.
It's also possible that Herrera, a maritime and business lawyer with Kelly Gill Sherburne & Herrera in San Francisco, will become Renne's choice if none of her most favored candidates choose to run.
With the election a bit more than five months away and the field unsettled, few of the city's leading political figures have offered public support for any of the candidates.
Former Mayor Frank Jordan is in Eisenberg's camp and Sen. Dianne Feinstein is expected to throw her weight behind Lazarus, who is her state director. But Willie Brown and the two leading opinion-leaders on the board of supervisors, Tom Ammiano and Matt Gonzalez, have so far been quiet on the subject.
When he launched his campaign, Williams claimed the support of Ammiano, but an aide to the board president said recently that he's still undecided.
As for Willie Brown, it's been suggested that his endorsement might foul up an otherwise strong campaign.
The mayor, City Hall insiders say, wanted to see Snell succeed Renne, and in a Machiavellian gambit, was considering endorsing Annemarie Conroy, director of the Treasure Island Authority, to help make that happen.
But with Snell's withdrawal, even Brown's shrewd maneuvering is on hold.
Matthew King
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