Today marks one week since the election, but the outcome of the state Attorney General’s race — and, consequently, who we’ll be calling “District Attorney” in San Francisco — remains murky.
As of late Monday night, Los Angeles DA, Republican Steve Cooley, leads SF DA Kamala Harris with “three-tenths of a percentage point.”
According to CA’s Secretary of State, there are still 2.12 million votes to be counted, many of them vote-by-mail, provisional, or ballots that machines couldn’t read.
The entire process of counting and verifying the election results must be completed by Nov. 30, after which the CA Secretary of State must certify the results, which could take until December 10.
And it might not end there: Willie Brown say that “some of us are already gearing up for a possible recount if Harris is behind at the end.”
However, Sacramento State’s Barbara O’Connor is doubtful that it’ll come to that, telling the Chron, “I’d guess that whoever ends up ahead by a sizable margin will graciously concede.”
If Harris does win, what happens next for SF? It is a little bit of a jenga game! If Harris steps down “early” (which I recommend — taking a new job without a break from your old job SUCKS), while Newsom’s still mayor (as you know, he’s been elected Lt. Gov, so he has to quit being mayor some time), Gavin makes the next appointment for DA. If Harris stays in office until after Newsom steps down, whomever is chosen as his replacement will make the appointment.
And then we have an election for DA next year, whee, fun!
