Katherine Nakamura elected San Diego School Board President

After four votes the San Diego Unified trustees elected Katherine Nakamura as president of the San Diego Unified School Board and John de Beck as vice president this evening. The vote replaces Luis Acle as president and Shelia Jackson as vice president of the school board.[Link]

Nakamura who had at one time expressed interested in possibility seeking another office, easily won reelection last year over crazy wingnut Micheal McSweeney. Earlier this year her name surfaced as a potential candidate for district 7 city council seat. It will be interesting to see if she using her position as school board president to increase her profile for a run at another office.

What happen last night....

Following is a synopsis of what transpired based on an e-mail I received this afternoon from a friend who attended the meeting last night:

It turned out that last night's Democratic Central Committee meeting was quite the eventful evening. The highlight of the evening was the early endorsement of Mike Aguirre for City Attorney.

In attendance there were representatives from the City Attorney's office including Karen Heuman and Kathryn Burton as well as representatives from the Municipal Employees Association who were distributing photocopies of anti-Mike Aguirre articles to Central Committee members outside the room. Also there was Dan Coffey, who is a Democrat and announced candidate for City Attorney.

Mike Aguirre spoke to the members on the Central Committee and detailed the accomplishments of his office since he took over three years ago. He also spoke very passionately about the Democratic values he believes in.

The discussion was limited strictly to Central Committee members, 10 of them spoke. During the discussion among the members that were both Aguirre supporters and Aguirre non-supporters they argued their positions enthusiastically. One of the individuals who spoke on Aguirre's behalf was 76 AD Assemblywoman Lori Saldana.

The person who probably had the most impact in swaying some undecided members to vote against the endorsement for Aguirre, was a member who had once worked in Aguirre's office.

I think the vote surprised the Aguirre supporters in the room, with the vote being 23 for and 19 against. Aguirre falling short of the 60% requirement by two votes.

Following the Aguirre endorsement vote, the early incumbent endorsement for San Diego School Boardmember Sheila Jackson was brief opened up for discussion. The reason was her intention to vote for Republican Luis Acle as president of the School Board next month. By this point most of the committee just wanted to get out and her endorsement sailed through with no opposition.

One final note from last night's meeting. I am also told that the party amended its bylaws to allow for early endorsements in open races. Setting the stage to endorse in City Council seats 1 and 7 at the January meeting.