Text & PHOTOS by Malcolm Maclachlan
You can’t quite call it Chinese-American on Chinese-American violence, but the San Francisco mayor’s race has gotten rough - mainly between interim mayor Ed Lee and Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco. Yee was expected to be one of the leading candidates, if not a mild favorite, heading into the race.
But Lee has emerged as the front-runner to win a full term. The former
city administrator was elected by the city’s Board of Supervisors to finish out the final year of Gavin Newsom’s second term after he was elected Lt. Gov. Lee originally pledged not to run, but buoyed by support, much of it by becoming the first Asian American mayor of the city - with its huge Asian population and famed Chinatown - he changed his mind.
With apologies to the many other candidates - especially city attorney
Dennis Herrera, a longtime major player in SF politics in his own right - this race has largely been shaped by an increasing bitter rivalry between Lee and Yee. Here’s a little of that in pictures.
