By Savannah Blackwell

Mayor Willie Brown is personally leading a full-scale effort to keep progressive candidate Eileen Hansen from winning the runoff for supervisor in District Eight, the Bay Guardian has learned.

Brown, who recognizes that the outcome of the race could determine whether the independent supervisors can maintain a veto-proof majority, began making phone calls the morning after the election to block the influential Democratic County Central Committee from backing Hansen – and his pressure swung the endorsement for Hansen's opponent, former mayoral aide and lobbyist Bevan Dufty. "The mayor is strongly supporting Bevan Dufty," P.J. Johnston, Brown's press secretary, told us. "We were pleased he got the DCCC's endorsement."

Meanwhile, a group of Jewish Democrats who support Dufty has been trying to paint Hansen as anti-Israel – and that effort played a role in Dufty winning the DCCC's endorsement.

The battle over who will represent the Castro and Noe Valley goes far beyond the district boundaries. Real estate interests, which just lost a key fight with the defeat of Proposition R, the condo-conversion measure, are pinning big hopes (and, in all likelihood, money) on Dufty, who supported their measure. Progressive and neighborhood activists, who see Hansen's election as key to maintaining control of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors (and to promoting Sup. Tom Ammiano's viability as a mayoral contender), are pushing hard to defeat him.

"If people don't see the urgency to fight our asses off, we're going to lose the mayor's race," Tommi Avicolli Mecca of the Housing Rights Committee said. Mecca played a major role in several progressive campaigns this fall, including No on R. "We've got to come through now with the hard work – the main thing is to get the progressives out to vote."

On Nov. 7, the first political test came with the DCCC vote, which represents the official position of the local Democratic Party. The party committee used to be a machine rubber stamp, but in the past two years reformers have been able to hold their own and sometimes control the key endorsements. In the general election, neither side won: the DCCC stayed neutral in the race.

But according to DCCC sources, Brown began working the phones almost as soon as the votes were counted and it became clear that a Hansen-Dufty runoff would be necessary. The effort paid off: Dufty won 17 of 31 votes cast. The representative for Carole Migden, Eric Potashner, abstained.

Andrew Clark, the DCCC's secretary, was one of those who got a call from the mayor. Clark was a Hansen backer and had allowed his name to be used on her literature. After a call from Brown, he switched sides.

"He is a big shot, no question," Clark told us. "When you get a call from the mayor, you kind of stand up." But he insisted Brown's call wasn't the only reason he decided to abandon his previous position. "In the end, it became clear that more of my supporters are supportive of Dufty," Clark said.

Potashner abstained, partially, he said, because of concern raised by Jewish Democrats over whether Hansen is too sympathetic to Palestinian interests. He said that Migden got some 20 calls from people complaining about Hansen's position on Israel and the occupied territories. Dufty did not return calls seeking comment.

Dan Kalb, a member of the DCCC and the Jewish Community Relations Center Board, said that "there's a general concern" among some Jewish Democrats in San Francisco regarding Hansen's work on Israel and the Middle East and that they "are going all out to stop her." Kalb said he's leaning toward supporting Hansen, because "on the local issues, there's no question who's better."

Hansen, who is Jewish, told us she's always supported Palestinian self-determination and fought against anti-Semitism. "I've been warned to expect an attack by the mainstream Jewish community over this issue," she said.

Mecca, a Hansen backer, said the push against her on this issue smacked of "McCarthy-type tactics."

"It's like if you don't tout the line, then you're the enemy," Mecca said. It's shameful that it could happen here in San Francisco."

E-mail Savannah Blackwell at savannah_blackwell@sfbg.com.