Posted 10:20 AM by Floyd

Special Agent Negative 179 reports on the San Francisco mayoral election. Just how extreme is the city of, uh, brotherly love?

It generally looks as though Gavin Newsom (or, as some guerilla signs around town put it, "NewSCUM") is going to win the mayoral race, and if you go to his site, you'll see these endorsements:

Gavin Newsom has won the endorsements of leaders and organizations representing the broad spectrum of San Francisco. Newsom is endorsed by Dianne Feinstein, Nancy Pelosi and Jackie Speier. He is strongly supported by labor organizations such as the SF Building and Construction Trades Council, Laborers Local 261 and IBEW 1245 as well as business groups such as the Golden Gate Restaurant Association, BOMA and the SF Association of Realtors.

Newsom has won the strong support of public safety organizations as well as neighborhood and community groups like Rescue Muni, the City Democratic Club, Latinos Political Action Committee and Plan C.


Of course, on the San Francisco spectrum, this means that he's been universally derided as a right-wing fascist with fairly open plans to pave the roads with thinly-sliced homeless people.

This is not an isolated occurence. When Willie Brown was speaker of the California Assembly, he was a tax-and-spend liberal who was the Republicans' most hated opponent. The 1990 term limit initiative was aimed squarely at Brown, and succeeded in driving him from state office. In 1995 he ran for mayor in San Francisco and was elected. For awhile Brown had the supervisors under his thumb, but he was too conservative for the tastes of the city and eventually lost his grip over the board. When Brown ran for reelection, he was endorsed by the San Francisco Republican party!

And before Brown there was Frank Jordan and his "Matrix" program, which as I remember was designed to annoy the homeless in the hopes that they might gather in some other metropolis. Jordan was openly reviled as a fascist. He was of course a pro-gay liberal Democrat, and during his reelection campaign made a radio broadcast while naked in the shower. That's the kind of conservatives they have in San Francisco.

But enough about the mainstream. San Francisco has the best joke candidates in the country. 1999 saw the mayoral candidacy of the funk singer SuperBooty. SuperBooty! Evan didn't mention SuperBooty, so I assume he was not on the ballot. (If he was, and Evan didn't vote for him -- well, I hope it doesn't come to that.)

Did I mention that SuperBooty was the Reform Party nominee?