Former mayor Willie Brown has been sued by his political frenemy Joe O’Donoghue — and not for the first time. In this most recent legal action, dated July 2, O’Donoghue — an on-again, off-again Brown ally and political donor — filed suit in San Francisco Superior Court, claiming Brown misused and wasted $50,000 intended to contribute to London Breed’s mayoral victory....
Intractable issues and a quick-turnaround election make for problems. But perhaps less so for mayor-elect London Breed. A goodly number of San Franciscans — a verifiable majority — are unhappy with the results of our at last-concluded mayor’s race. We are speaking, of course, about the 97.19 percent of you who didn’t vote for Republican mayoral aspirant Richie Greenberg. Because,...
Last week, we noted that millions of dollars are flowing into San Francisco political races, but it’s unclear if voters care who’s writing the checks. And, as if on cue, last week a $100,000 (so far) independent expenditure campaign targeting Mark Leno commenced — and, thanks to gaps between state and local reporting laws, its donors won’t be revealed until...
Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez from the San Francisco Examiner has an excellent piece looking into the legislative histories of mayoral candidates Mark Leno, Jane Kim and London Breed. San Francisco, it’s time to do some homework on this year’s mayoral race. Toss those flimflam-filled political mailers. Ignore the TV ads. This is the real deal: the mayoral candidates by the numbers. Herein, you’ll...
Even if the changes are cosmetic, the demonization of immigrants, and the impression cops are cooperating with ICE, may silence victims Bless Angela Alioto. She really seems to believe all the amazing things she says. That’s a useful trait for both a trial lawyer and a politician. She has excelled in both fields. And yet, the amazing things she puts...
Retirement, for Larry Bush, looks a lot like work did. The former journalist, politico, fixer and government apparatchik is seated on a recliner in his Castro district living room, his feet up; his tiny dog, Izabel, sitting across his legs; and a Macbook in his lap. He’s following the money. Well, someone has to. “His watchdoggery is unrelenting … No...
With about two dozen people present, a coalition of activists from the Mission district held a last-minute press conference at the 24th Street BART station to condemn plans by mayoral candidate Angela Alioto to repeal the city’s blanket sanctuary status for immigrants. The gathering happened on Friday afternoon, a day after Alioto made the plans public. As reported in the...
Manny Yekutiel has done a lot of politics in his 28 years. He’s raised funds for the American Civil Liberties Union, briefed former President Barack Obama as a White House intern, and now works on Mark Leno’s mayoral campaign. But not until three weeks ago, when he signed the lease on 3092 16th Street — formerly V16 Sushi, on the...
Mayoral candidate London Breed apparently has no patience for public records requests or the task force that oversees them, and on Wednesday, the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force asked the District Attorney to step in. In the letter, the Task Force requested that the District Attorney enforce the law that says Breed must turn over public records and appear at their...
Past and present Mission District representatives are doubling down on their support for mayoral hopeful Mark Leno. Indeed, unlike recent past mayoral elections, the Mission District appears to be in play. On Thursday morning, standing beside District 9 Supervisor Hillary Ronen and her predecessor David Campos at the 24th Street BART plaza, Leno trumpeted his plans for small business, housing...
This poll undermines the narrative that Leno was “fading.” But it also prompts the question of how credulously the media should cover outside polling in the first place. So, here’s a funny story. And, to boot, it’s true: A million years ago, sometime in the early 1940s, a pharmacist’s mate in the wartime U.S. Navy named Joe Pearl mouthed off...
San Francisco’s bellicose police union today officially announced it is endorsing mayoral candidate Angela Alioto. The language at today’s press conference did not match casual discussions in recent weeks with Police Officers Association officials, who essentially told us: To hell with it, we’re gonna probably endorse Angela Alioto. To hell with it, they did. Ideologically, this makes plenty of sense. Alioto,...
“You earn voters, then you become independent. You don’t become independent then earn voters.” Supervisor Jeff Sheehy is on his third political consultant in his quest to retain his District 8 seat, a fact that has been much repeated to portray his campaign as one in disarray — and, none too subtly, claim it’s a campaign he doesn’t even really...
Mayoral aspirant Mark Leno this afternoon filed a writ in San Francisco Superior Court aiming to compel fellow candidate London Breed to do what she has refused to do on her own: remove the inaccurate title “acting mayor” from her ballot designation. “Because Breed is not the Acting Mayor of San Francisco, and does not perform any mayoral duties, her...
