Earthquake Rattles San Francisco Mayor's Office

The story unfolds like a grassroots fairy tale: once upon a time in a beautiful yet jaded city, homelessness, public transit, and housing problems worsened despite a lush high-tech economy. One day,weary, fed-up voters rose up to reclaim the city's political machine with determination, pens, and $25,000. This for a campaign to elect a community focused, progressive, witty, gay mayoral candidate. No need to pinch yourself, Cinderella, this party won't end before the mayoral runoff on December 14th!

What happened you ask? Up until two weeks before election day, San Francisco voters had 17 candidates to choose from--the main contenders were:

Willie Brown: a.k.a. "slick Willie" the incumbent pro-downtown, pro-himself, African-American, liberal mayor. Spent over $2.3 million on the campaign. Highlights of Mayor Brown's recent years: repossessing shopping carts from the homeless to be replaced with a shopping cart; allowing developers to build & build many live-work lofts that dodge school taxes and other fees generated for public services; his trip to Paris; his endless dinners at fancy restaurants; and his still unfulfilled promise to fix MUNI--the public Transit system--in 100 days. He's had several hundred and we're still waiting.

Frank Jordan: former mayor before Willie Brown. I think of him as San Francisco's very own Dan Quayle. He will be most remembered for his mean-spirited policies targeting the homeless (i.e. don't be poor in public). His most memorable masterpiece as mayor occurred when he was photographed in the shower with a local DJ. The media had a field day with it forcing him to backpedal with an apology. PPLLEEAASSEE!É

Clint Reilly: extremely wealthy political consultant, never held public office, unclear why he wanted to now. He ran on a pro-neighborhood, fix-public-transit platform. Essentially his campaign ran on the bungled state of MUNI. He shook out $4 million from his own piggy bank to fund his campaign.

Tom Ammiano: finally, in mid-October, the President of the SF Board of Supervisors announced his candidacy. He's known and respected for his experience as an activist, school board member, stand up comedian, and he ran as a write-in candidate -- asking voters not only to vote for him, but to remember to bring a pen and spell his name correctly.

With a month and about $25,000 to spend, a groundswell of community support and ordinary-people volunteers suddenly flooded the Ammiano campaign headquarters at JosieÕs Juice Joint in the Castro neighborhood as well as the streets of San Francisco. The best to hope for on November 2 was that no one candidate get the required 50% +1 vote in order to win the mayor's seat. The write-in campaign worked. It was a close race for several days as election ticket workers counted the ballots round the clock. The final results posted on Nov. 18 were:

...plus 14 other candidates who collectively account for less than 7% of the votes.

The final results require a December 14, 1999, runoff between the top two candidates to make the final decision for mayor. In order to win the December runoff, the Ammiano campaign set a goal of registering 10,000 voters in two short weeks (to meet the November 15 deadline for eligibility to vote in the December runoff). With a big push to register homeless voters and less-courted neighborhoods, Ammiano campaign coordinators tallied over 10,700 people successfully registered by the deadline.

WHAT'S NEXT???

Tapping into the city's need for progressivism with distinction AND integrity, Tom's refreshing outspokenness, sense of humor, commitment to everyday folk has really galvanized activists as well as people who otherwise vote out of obligation-- or not at all. Hey, who else wants to wage war on gentrification?? His city ordinances have been aligned with keeping government fair and accessible, making housing affordable, protecting human rights in a state that's ready to ax away at the powerless despite a huge budget surplus, and he rides public transportation to work everyday!

How many times has it been hard deciding which candidate to vote for because they were all soooo good it was truly a tough choice? My point exactly -- never true for me either. How many candidates have inspired you to GET INVOLVED? I would have said never, too...until this election. San Francisco voters will decide on December 14 if San Francisco will continue to dance...or turn into a pumpkin.

For election results check out: www.sfvoter.com

To find out more about Tom Ammiano (or if you want to make him mayor):

www.ammiano4mayor.com

Photo copyright © 1996-1998 Dan Heller.