Assistant District Attorney Rebecca Prozan officially entered the race for District 8 supervisor this week just days after the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club became embroiled in a nasty fight over its endorsement process for the closely watched contest to be the Castro's next supervisor.

Prozan, 38, is the fourth well-known out candidate to officially jump into the race to succeed Supervisor Bevan Dufty, who is termed out of office next year and is running for mayor in 2011. Prozan and Dufty both worked for former Mayor Willie Brown in his neighborhood services office, with Prozan assigned as his liaison to District 8.

She later became a member of the city's Recreation and Park Commission, and after Dufty became supervisor, briefly worked as his City Hall aide for a time. The two were also early endorsers of President Barack Obama's campaign for the White House; Prozan was named his Northern California LGBT liaison and was elected to be one of his delegates at the Democratic National Convention last summer.

Now she is gunning to become the first out lesbian to win a supervisor seat since the board reverted back to being elected by district. She gathered with 25 supporters Tuesday, October 20 at City Hall to fill out the required paperwork with the city's Elections Department in order to begin raising money for her campaign.

By her side was her wife, Julia Adams, whom she jokingly referred to as "Michelle," as in first lady Michelle Obama. Together eight years, the couple owns a home on Castro Street right in the heart of the gayborhood.

"I am excited. I know this is something she has always wanted to do," said Adams, who is also an attorney. "I am happy she is finally in a position where she can realize her dreams. I support her wholeheartedly."

Like the other female candidate in the race, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission assistant general manager Laura Spanjian, Prozan is confident her gender will not be an issue despite the fact no woman has yet to win in District 8.

"The one thing I learned from Bevan is that District 8 has some of the most well-educated, smartest voters in the city. I trust they will look at me based on the merits and who has the best vision," Prozan told the Bay Area Reporter. "In my hundreds of conversations with District 8 voters, people want someone who can offer both nuts and bolts experience and a vision for this city. I offer both."

Prozan said her campaign will focus on how to provide reliable Muni service, better schools, increased public safety, and better cared for parks. She experienced first hand the city's congestion issues Tuesday morning as a traffic tie-up made her 22 minutes late to City Hall.

Dufty has yet to endorse in the race, which also includes Deputy City Attorney Scott Wiener and attorney Rafael Mandelman. Supporting Prozan in the race are District Attorney Kamala Harris and Supervisor Michela Alioto Pier. Out community college board Trustee Lawrence Wong and Steve Ngo, a fellow college board member, as well as school board member Rachel Norton are all backing Prozan in the race.

Many of her supporters point to her strong work ethic as for why they have gotten behind Prozan's campaign. It is a theme found even on her business cards, which read "Call Prozan. She'll know what to do."

"Rebecca is one of the hardest working people I have ever met," said Andrea Shorter, Equality California's coalition coordinator. "I have lived in the district nearly 20 years. I have seen things change and I want to be represented by a supervisor who will continue to work hard for us in District 8."

Steve Adams, president of the Castro's merchant group, sounded a similar note in explaining why he is supporting Prozan in the race. He first became acquainted with her 13 years ago due to her work in City Hall and said she has the experience needed in a supervisor.

"She understands the diversity of District 8 and will work with all the various neighborhoods," said Adams. "We have had strong leaders in District 8 with Mark Leno and Bevan and she will continue that tradition."

D8 endorsement roils Alice Club

Even before Prozan became an official candidate, her supporters had teamed up with backers of Wiener to propose that the Alice Club suspend its bylaws and give a dual early endorsement to the two candidates. Both Prozan and Wiener are past co-chairs of the club, with their two-year terms overlapping one another.

Under the club's guidelines, the board must first vote on whether to allow such an early endorsement in the race. If it does, then the club's membership would first vote on whether to hold an early endorsement and a month later would vote on the actual dual endorsement in the race.

But the proposal, which will be taken up by the Alice board at its meeting Monday, October 26, has roiled the more moderate LGBT political group, with backers of Spanjian, another past co-chair of the club whose term also overlapped with Wiener's, crying foul.

"I am deeply disappointed and appalled," said former Supervisor Leslie Katz, a past Alice board member who is backing Spanjian, who worked for her as a City Hall aide. "If there is to be an early endorsement attempt at least let there be a ballot that has all the candidates."

In an e-mail to Alice's board signed by six of its former co-chairs, which was obtained by the B.A.R., the sextet argues that splitting the club's endorsement between Prozan and Wiener would avoid the nastiness that the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club went through in 2007 during its endorsement vote in the race between Carole Migden and Leno for Migden's state Senate seat.

Leno's campaign attempted to block Migden, a former Milk president, from getting the more progressive political group's nod in the race. Migden was able to secure the club's backing but ultimately lost to Leno during the Democratic Party primary in June 2008.

With three former Alice co-chairs competing against each other, not to mention that Mandelman was an Alice board member, many expected the District 8 endorsement would be a repeat of the Milk Club's contentious fight over the Senate race nod. Were the club to hold a straight up endorsement vote among all four candidates, it is unlikely anyone would be able to garner the 60 percent threshold needed to get the club's official imprimatur on the race.

With the Alice Club's endorsement usually a crucial factor in who becomes District 8 supervisor, the past co-chairs argue in their e-mail that the dual endorsement would not only avoid a divisive battle but also preserve the club's influence in the race.

"We also want to avoid membership drives and negativism intended to block an endorsement," states the e-mail, a reference to the charges Leno's backers faced from Migden's camp. "We do not want Alice members to battle each other over the next eight months, making it impossible to reach a consensus. We believe the best and only solution is to take a stand now – around the broadest consensus agreement."

Those signing the e-mailed letter include Julius Turman, Esther Lee, Matthew Rothschild, Dean Goodwin, and Paul Hogan.

The other co-signer, Carole Cullum, an out lesbian attorney who served as Alice co-chair in the late 1990s, said the proposal is in the best interest of the club.

"I don't want to see Alice be torn apart," said Cullum, who is backing Prozan in the race. "In situations like this, this allows Alice to support these two people who are extraordinary people. Either one of them would be excellent supervisors. Rather than take sides on one or the other, we are going to do a dual endorsement."

Prozan declined to discuss the endorsement fight in detail Tuesday, only saying that she is "honored to be considered" as the first woman to receive the club's backing in District 8.

Wiener insisted that neither he nor Prozan pushed for a dual endorsement, and that in fact, when he first learned about it he opposed it.

"I think any candidate would like to be the only endorsed candidate. When I thought about it more, I saw it was best in terms of the club avoiding months and months of division," he said.

Mandelman said as a member of Alice's emeritus board he will likely vote against the proposal. Having been attacked for his involvement in the Migden endorsement fight, he said he wasn't enjoying any schadenfreude in seeing the internal fighting among Alice members. But he does question the reasoning for the dual endorsement.

"I think it is peculiar that Alice would choose to endorse two of three former co-chairs and shut the other one out. My sense of fairness is somewhat offended by that," he said. "But at the same time I recognize that politics is brutal."

Spanjian said her objections are based on not wanting to see the Alice Club replicate endorsement maneuvering it has criticized other clubs for doing in the past.

"I think it is really not about me but about having an open, inclusive and transparent process that allows for full membership and community representation in one of the most important LGBT races next year," she said. "This proposed process doesn't allow that. It disenfranchises other candidates from being vetted and allowing them to talk about their campaigns as the race moves forward."

Web Extra: For more queer political news, be sure to check http://www.ebar.com Monday mornings around 10 a.m. for Political Notes, the notebook's online companion. This week's column features an interview with North Bay Rep. Lynn Woolsey.

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