Booted!

Great news from the Golden state as Ross Mirkarimi — the now infamous San Francisco Sheriff behind the release of the illegal immigrantaccused of murderingKathryn Steinle — lost in his reelection bid last night:

The winner wasVicki Hennessy, a law enforcement veteran who joined the Sheriff’s department in 1975 and the former interim S.F. Sheriff in 2012 when Mayor Ed Lee first tried to boot Mirkarimi from the job.

The primary responsibility of the S.F. Sheriff is to run the city’s jails and Mirkarimi was under fire after it came to light that the city had released the five-times-deported Francisco Sanchez who later told investigators he shot Steinle by accident:

Now, there is some debate this morning just how much the issue of “sanctuary cities” played inMirkarimi’s defeat.

When the San Francisco Chronicle endorsed Hennessy last month, they listedMirkarimi’s stance on sanctuary cities as one of the factors in its decision:

His record and his readiness to blame others throughout his tenure suggests otherwise. One of his great misjudgments was to go well beyond sanctuary city law with a March gag order that commanded the department to cut off almost all communication with federal immigration authorities.

That order came under intense scrutiny after 32-year-old Kate Steinle was shot and killed at Pier 14 on July 1. The alleged shooter, Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, had been released from jail without notifying federal authorities, who were ready to deport him for the sixth time.

And:

Hennessy has promised to lift the gag order and allow the department to communicate with the feds when public safety merits as should have been the case with Lopez-Sanchez.

ButMirkarimi was a flawed candidate in other ways, including a recent domestic violence incident, escaped inmates, a driver’s licences suspension and an embarrassing incident at the gun range where he dropped his weapon during qualification:

Even celebrity power couldn’t saveMirkarimi last night:

Good riddance.

Read more: http://twitchy.com/