Re: Neighborhood Character

12/27/12 - posted by Paul Rosenberg

Supervisor Arthur M. Brown, Jr., resigned from the board of supervisors early in 1947 about a year before his third term would have expired. Mayor Roger Lapham appointed J Joseph Sullivan to the unexpired term and in November J Joseph Sullivan received the most votes for supervisor topping Dewey Mead, Byron Arnold, Edward Mancuso, John J. Sullivan, and newcomers John Jay Ferdon and Harold S Dobbs. [Supervisors Fred Meyer and Don Fazackerley chose not to run for re-election.] In 1951 rather than run for re-election, J Joseph Sullivan ran for mayor. Without looking it up, as I remember, Mayor Robinson was re-elected with 98 thousand votes, Supervisor George J Christopher received 96 thousand votes, and Supervisor J Joseph Sullivan received 47 thousand votes. This election is described briefly in George Dorsey's fawning biography of George Christopher titled CHRISTOPHER OF SAN FRANCISCO. Evidently, there were no hard feelings between George Christopher and J Joseph Sullivan because Mayor Christopher appointed J Joseph Sullivan to Francis McCarty's seat when McCarty became a judge. Rather than running for a full term in 1961, J Joseph Sullivan chose to run against Thomas O'Connor whom Mayor Christopher appointed city attorney following the retirement of Dion Holm. The voters retained Thomas O'Connor. In summary, J Joseph Sullivan was appointed to the board of supervisors twice and elected once. He ran unsuccessfully for mayor and city attorney. Interesting note 1: in his first term on the board, J Joseph Sullivan served with John J Sullivan and in his second term J Joseph Sullivan served with James J Sullivan. Additionally, John T Sullivan was elected to the board of supervisors in 1882 and Matthew I Sullivan [later briefly chief justice of our state supreme court] was appointed to the board of supervisors in 1907 so our board has had five Sullivans. The runner-up for last names is Gallagher with four: James L, Andrew J, George E, and Dan. There were many last names appearing three times.