Political passions boiled over at the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club's monthly meeting Tuesday night as club members sparred over an early endorsement in a state Senate match-up between two powerful gay politicians.

By night's end, and several parliamentary maneuvers later, the meeting had devolved into utter chaos. Screaming matches broke out between the candidates' camps and the meeting adjourned amid questions of when the club would proceed with an early endorsement in the race.

More than 200 people had packed into the Women's Building's gymnasium in order to vote on a proposal to hold a special meeting in December to determine whom the club will support in the June 2008 Democratic primary race for the 3rd District Senate seat.

State Senator Carole Migden (D-San Francisco) is the clear favorite to win the club's backing in her race against state Assemblyman Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) and San Francisco Police Commissioner Joseph Alioto Veronese.

A former president of the club, Migden has worked all year to stack the club's membership rolls with her friends and allies. Her efforts clearly paid off as her supporters outnumbered Leno's backers at the meeting and were able to pass through a motion to hold the endorsement vote on December 11 at a special meeting of the club.

The move in effect limits voting on the endorsement only to those members who joined the club by September 25. It has upset longtime members of the club who feel Migden's people have hijacked the process and the special meeting designation disenfranchises people from the political process.

"I am eager to hear why the special election terminology put forward is good for the club," said Don Romesburg , who compared it to Machiavellian, machine politics. "It feels like, to me, we are being told to ramrod through an endorsement for Migden and I am very disappointed."

Others argued the club should wait to vote on having an early endorsement until after it hosts a candidate forum Saturday, November 17.

Migden's supporters countered that Migden deserves the club's backing and saw no reason not to go ahead with the special meeting in December. Their motion passed on a 136-77 vote.

"In a lot of ways the Harvey Milk Club has been Carole Migden's club," said Rafael Mandelman. "The reality is this will be decided by many people who haven't been Milk club members."

Former club president Jeff Sheehy lashed out at Leno for what he considers to be a "grudge match" against Migden. His comment that Leno is at fault for causing division in the community was met with loud boos.

"This race is going to divide this community and it is going to divide this club," he said after admonishing those who disrupted him. "It is disgraceful we are even having this race."

But Leno's backers used a parliamentary move to block the decision and require the matter to be reconsidered at the club's next general meeting. Lawyer Paul Melbostad made the motion on the grounds that a "temporary majority" had taken over the club to push through the vote.

The maneuver threw the meeting into chaos, as Migden's supporters tried to defeat the measure but fell short of the two-thirds vote needed.

Club President Brian Basinger then quickly adjourned the meeting, leading to a boisterous dispute over whether or not the meeting had indeed ended. After arguing with Basinger, Migden's partner Cris Arguedas stood on a chair and accused him of being a "cheater."

"It's cheating," screamed Arguedas over the din of the crowd.

Others began chanting "cheater" and "shame" while Leno's camp fired back with shouts of "let's go home."

Supervisor Chris Daly pegged Basinger a "Gavin Newsom apologist" and stormed out of the meeting, saying it was "the most undemocratic thing I have ever heard."

With most of Leno's people gone Migden's camp went ahead and held a second vote, this time claiming they had the numbers needed to let the early endorsement decision stand. Debra Walker, the club's housing caucus chair and executive board member, said the early endorsement vote would take place on December 11.

Asked about the night's turn of events, Migden said, "I think the evening went fine. I am glad the club will be able to do something for an LGBT candidate before the end of the year."

Yet Wednesday morning, Basinger insisted the meeting had ended prior to the vote by Migden supporters and the club would not be able to revote on an early endorsement in the race until sometime next year. The club's next scheduled meeting isn't until January – its November meeting falls on the annual Milk Memorial March and the December meeting coincides with Christmas this year – so the matter will not be decided for another three months, he said.

The executive board will meet next month where the issue is sure to be hotly debated. Asked if there would be a special meeting on December 11 or a rescheduled general meeting that month, Basinger could not say.

"Those are things we will have to suss out," he said. "It is going to be interesting, I am sure."