Did views on Israel play key role in S.F. supes’ runoff?

With the ticker-tape being swept off the floor and champagne buzzes receding the morning after Bevan Dufty's win over Eileen Hansen in the San Francisco District 8 supervisor's runoff, supporters of both candidates debated what role, if any, Israel had in the election.

A number of Jewish supporters of Dufty had painted Hansen as a pro-Palestinian whose views on the Mideast could come into play if the board of supervisors dealt with international matters in a resolution, as it occasionally does.

Hansen supporters, meanwhile, claimed her views on Israel were being misrepresented, and were being brought up only to scare Jews away from the anti-Willie Brown candidate. In the days before Tuesday's election, in fact, anonymous fliers and phone calls linking Dufty with the mayor peppered the Castro District.

Dufty, sworn in Wednesday after a 10,345 to 9,330 win in a contest that saw only a 35 percent turnout, says he's not sure how big a role the Mideast debate played in his victory.

"I've had voters either support or oppose me based on the widest range of issues or concerns," said the winner, who, like his opponent, is both gay and Jewish.

"I think it's very difficult to judge whether any one matter outweighed the others."

Hansen could not be reached for comment, but Rabbi Yoel Kahn, a vocal Hansen supporter, felt the Israel issue played a minor role.

"I don't think it hit the radar outside the Jewish community. There was a 35 percent voter turnout and she lost by 1,000 votes," said Kahn, the director of curriculum for the Synagogue 2000 institute.

"What made a difference was that she was seriously outspent by the friends of the mayor."

Natalie Berg, the former chair of the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee and an enthusiastic Dufty supporter, sees things differently.

"For the Jewish community, we have someone we worked hard to elect; he'll be responsive to our concerns and respond to our concerns," said Berg, who along with others, worked the phone bank and campaigned for Dufty within the Jewish community.

"I think the Jewish community paid attention to the positions of both the candidates. I think Bevan's position resonated with the community. He's very supportive of Israel and very supportive of the positions that are held by many and even most of the community."

Rebecca Vilkomerson, a Hansen supporter who works alongside the candidate in the nonprofit world, said negative publicity surrounding Hansen kept the turnout low.

"She's a very progressive candidate. What some people are doing is really red-baiting, calling her a communist, a socialist, a Stalin-lover. They made her lack of support for Israel a litmus test in this race," said Vilkomerson, a member of A Jewish Voice for Peace.

"My sense was this sort of thing made people queasy, people who didn't know the facts and heard some vague stuff. Maybe they didn't switch their votes, but they may have just not voted. And turnout was low...I'm very disturbed and shaken by some of the attacks on her, including the ones regarding her support for Israel. I thought that was a very inappropriate issue to be brought up in a local race, and very inaccurate regarding her work protecting people's right to protest."

Dufty said he doesn't have the time, will or mandate to pursue vendettas emanating from a hard-fought campaign.

"I didn't win with a landslide. Clearly there's quite a bit of support for my fellow candidate and I'm aware of that," he said.

"Voters who elected me didn't elect me to [deal with] matters relating to the campaign. That's over and it's time to conduct the people's business."