With the election this month of Rafael Mandelman as president of the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club, the city's progressive queer political group is back in the hands of a fiercely loyal supporter of state Senator Carole Migden (D-San Francisco).

As Mandelman himself put it during the club's chaotic October meeting last year, "This is Carole Migden's club." Any question to the veracity of that statement was put to rest when the club's membership elected Mandelman at its meeting January 22.

"The last year was rough for the Harvey Milk Club. I think we've put together a really great team to fight hard around the Senate race and county supervisor races in the fall," Mandelman said during the meeting.

Asked this week about the change in Milk leadership, Migden said, "I have always felt like I was part of the family."

A lifetime member and former club president herself in the 1980s, Migden added that, "I have enjoyed working with a succession of presidents. The club is the preeminent organizing club of the city."

The leadership change ends the rocky reign of former President Brian Basinger, who opted not to run for re-election.

He said he decided to turn his full attention to the AIDS Housing Alliance, which he founded and leads, as well as getting a new HIV Democratic Club off the ground.

"I wish Rafael luck," said Basinger, who plans to remain a Milk Club member. "I love the Milk Club. It was a wonderful experience."

Basinger's 12-month tenure included a spike in membership for the club, its most successful spring fundraiser to date, and the presence of Democratic presidential candidate Mike Gravel in the club's Pride Parade contingent.

But Basinger, who did not attend the club's January meeting, also earned the dubious distinction of being the club's first president to be censured after he ridiculed his board's voting as "illegal" in an interview with the Bay Area Reporter on the night of the club's annual November candlelight march to commemorate the assassination of Milk. In return, the board stripped Basinger of his duties during the rest of his tenure.

The board's decision capped a months-long debate over when it would endorse in the race between Migden and state Assemblyman Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) for Migden's 3rd District Senate seat. With Migden having served as a past Milk Club president, it had been expected that she would easily win the club's backing.

But Basinger saw little need to move forward with an early endorsement in the race, as the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club had done in 2007 when it gave its early nod to Leno. Frustrated, Migden's supporters in the Milk Club moved last fall to push through an early endorsement vote in December.

The maneuvering divided the club along various lines and resulted in a disputed vote in October where Leno's backers used a parliamentary motion to delay the vote from being held until this year. Basinger sided with Leno's camp and adjourned the meeting. He insisted no endorsement vote could take place until the club readdressed the issue at its next general membership meeting, which would not be until January.

Mandelman then assumed control of the club's October meeting and oversaw a vote upholding the decision to schedule the early endorsement in December. With Leno's backers in the club boycotting that vote, Migden easily earned the endorsement.

And with Mandelman now in place as president, the club is unlikely to readdress its backing Migden in the June primary. It ballyhooed its early endorsement of the senator on the slate card it mailed out to voters this month ahead of the February 5 primary.

[And this time the club got the date of the election correct, unlike on its slate card last fall that included the wrong date for the November election.]

Asked if the endorsement is now a "dead issue," Mandelman told the B.A.R., "I think so. I am not getting any indication from my friends on the other side that they have an interest in re-opening the issue."

A Leno supporter within the club declined to comment when contacted by the B.A.R. Charles Sheehan, a spokesman for Leno's campaign, said this week that the campaign would not push the issue.

"While clearly it was a flawed election that violated the club's bylaws, we will not contest the endorsement," he said.

None of Leno's supporters who attended the club's January meeting asked for the dispute over the endorsement to be added to the agenda. Instead, they sat silently in the audience as the club's candidates for the executive board addressed why they were running for the various leadership posts.

"If you look at the room last night, there was significant Carole Migden support," Mandelman said in an interview the morning after. "I don't think they want to keep having that fight at the Milk Club."

Acknowledging that the episode opened old wounds within the club, Mandelman said a top priority for him this year will be trying to mend torn relationships.

"I think it is important people supporting Leno still have a place within the club and feel they belong there. I will be spending a lot of this year reaching out to those people and making sure they feel like they belong there, too," he said.

Web Extra: For more queer political news, be sure to check www.ebar.com Monday mornings around 10 a.m. for Political Notes, the notebook's online companion. This week's column discusses which Democratic presidential candidates gay papers are endorsing.

Got a tip on LGBT politics? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 861-5019 or e-mail m.bajko@ebar.com.