In a rather unsurprising move, Joe A. Veronese dropped out of the primary race for Senate District 3.  Joe Alioto Veronese was lagging behind  Asm. Mark Leno, former Asm. Joe Nation, and incumbent Carole Midgen.  With Nation’s entry into the race, it gave the SF police commissioner a tough time trying to argue that he was the candidate for Marin. Nevertheless, we’ll be seeing Joe Alioto Veronese again, of that I can assure you.

In terms of the SD-03 race, well, I have to imagine that this favors Mark Leno.  In Leno’s recent David Binder poll, JAV was pulling about 7%. Given the  demographics, Leno will be in the best position to pick up those votes. Specifically, Leno is stronger in the Marina and North Beach neighborhoods where JAV was strong than Senator Migden has been in the past. This might even help him become the front-runner. I’m not sure the endorsement would make a huge difference, but it might help Nation to grab a few SF votes if he gets the JAV nod.

Press release over the flip.

SAN FRANCISCO – After much consideration, Police Commissioner Joseph Alioto Veronese made the difficult decision today that he will not seek to include his name on the June 3 primary ballot for the 3rd Senate seat held by incumbent Senator Carol Migden.

Joe entered the race over nine months ago by announcing his candidacy in San Francisco, San Rafael and Petaluma.  He was proud to engage thousands of new people in the process throughout the entire district, including hundreds of donors and volunteers participating in a campaign for the first time.

“I have been campaigning to change the debate in Sacramento and focus on issues of true importance to the people of the 3rd district,” said Alioto Veronese.  “Over the last several months I have met with the hard working people from every corner of this District and have been humbled by all the support I have received.  Yet, after much deliberation with my wife and key supporters I have decided to withdraw my candidacy for the State Senate”.

Veronese continued, “While this will be the end of my bid for the State Senate, this is only the beginning of my work to fight for social justice, public safety and protecting our environment.  I will continue to be vigilant to fight on behalf of the people of this district”.

After personally communicating with many of his supporters, Joe will hold a press conference within the next 7 days to announce who he believes his supporters should follow in this race.  

I don’t normally comment too much on the FalseReport. It’s just generally not worth my time to quibble with inanities. And my disagreeing with those folks would kind of be a little too expected. So, I generally focus on those who are supposed to be “balanced.”  But, I’ve been tempted by this little piece of so-called analysis on SD-03 by Yolo County Supe Matt Rexroad (hey, Yolo, WTF? Do you let just anybody become supervisor?):

In a one on one race with Migden and Leno — I like Leno’s chances.  He is every bit as liberal only he is much nicer.  That is not saying much.  Leno had done a great job of gathering up all of the anti-Migden forces until others started having the same idea.

“Another clinging on to glory days” Alioto jumped into the race.  He divides the anti-Migden forces once. Now Joe Nation has opened an account.  He is a former Assemblyman from Marin County that might make a play for the Marin County part of the district.  He would divide the anti-Migden forces again..and almost certainly hand her re-election.

The problem with this? Well, apparently Mr. Rexroad didn’t bother to talk to anybody who knows the district, knows the personalities involved, or  do any research whatsoever on this before he wrote this.  If he had, he would have seen a few statements like this from people who actually know the San Francisco-based district.  From Luke Thomas, a local photographer/journalist:

Conventional wisdom, however, suggests Nation, who lives in San Rafael, will likely draw votes away from incumbent Senator Carole Migden who is already facing stiff challenges from Assemblymember Mark Leno and San Francisco Police Commissioner Joe Alioto-Veronese. (FogCityJournal 11.28.07)

Or this analysis from one of the top pollsters in the City, probably the state, David Latterman of Fall Line Analytics :

David Latterman, president of Fall Line Analytics, a San Francisco-based polling company, said Nation’s potential entrance into the race “hurts Carole” Migden. That’s because while both Migden and Leno are well known in San Francisco, a Nation candidacy could take Marin votes away from Migden, which Leno has never represented, he said. (SacBee CapAlert 11.16.07)

Now, I’m not saying that Mr. Rexroad couldn’t be right, it’s just that he’s not even close to being right.  He frames this as a race between Senator Migden vs. Not-Senator-Migden.  And that’s just not the way this works. Assemblyman Leno and Fmr. Assemblyman Nation both have their own name IDs. Mr. Nation isn’t so popular up as he once was in the North Bay considering his primary challenge to Lynn Woolsey. (By the by, Rep. Woolsey doesn’t look like she’s set to let that incident go so quickly either.)

Oh, and apparently Mr. Rexroad also missed the latest self-injection of cash into Sen. Migden’s campaign. The funny thing is here that Mr. Rexroad actually seems to well, dislike Sen. Migden. Now, that’s probably a badge of honor for a progressive like the good Senator, but the article is an odd way of stating that distrust. Maybe next time Mr. Rexroad spills pixels, he’ll think of making sure that he has a solid grip on the facts.