Reform or referendum?
S.F. district attorney's race turns on who can define the political debate

By Savannah Blackwell

District Attorney Terence Hallinan had a ready answer for what could have been a stumper. How, one attendee at the Noe Valley Democratic Club's May 21 debate asked, could Hallinan justify charging several members of San Francisco's top police brass with conspiring to impede the investigation of allegations that three rookies, including assistant chief Alex Fagan Sr.'s son, pummeled two civilians over a bag of steak fajitas? The conspiracy charges were soon dismissed by a judge.

"I don't regret having done it," Hallinan said. "There's no question [the brass] did everything they could to stop the investigation. The car [the rookies] were driving wasn't searched. There was no cold show [effort to help the victims identify their attackers]. The victims were left on the street for hours while [the three rookies] were taken to the police station, where they were given special treatment. We got into a situation where the brass really interfered. I've never seen anything like that."

The questioner, Peter Kling, who formerly worked as a prosecutor in Hallinan's office, unwittingly gave Hallinan an opening to put the infamous Fajitagate case into the greater context of his campaign.

Over the past couple of weeks, Hallinan has been honing his pitch: he is, he says, pushing for reform of the San Francisco Police Department and an end to the corruption rampant in Mayor Willie Brown's city hall. He's demonstrated his commitment by prosecuting the likes of a Brown-friendly school district official for alleged theft of public funds and Hector Chinchilla, former Planning Commission president and a Brown supporter, for alleged ethics violations. Message? He's the only candidate the public can count on to take on the power structure when its members break the law.

If Hallinan can successfully make the district attorney's race about reform, he'll be in a good position to defeat opponents Bill Fazio, a criminal defense attorney who represented a Fajitagate defendant, and Kamala Harris, who works in the City Attorney's Office and has strong ties to the Brown machine. But if the challengers can make this race a referendum on Hallinan's management style and contentious relationship with the SFPD, he could have a hard time keeping his job.

"In general, the candidate that controls the message is in a much better position," political consultant David Binder, who is handling polling for Harris, told us. "It is key to any political campaign in the country. And in this particular campaign, because of the emotion attached to the police reform issue, it's even more important."

As Fazio and Harris describe it, the race is about competence. The district attorney may be well intentioned, but they say he can't execute his plans or manage an office.

"I don't disagree with the spirit of what he says," Harris said at the May 21 debate. "But we need a district attorney who can be competent and effective."

Fazio was even more direct: "I think he stands for incompetency."

Fazio and Harris are trying to use the cop corruption case against Hallinan, and they see Judge Kay Tsenin's April 4 decision to dismiss the conspiracy charges against the brass as a vehicle with which to run Hallinan out of office.

"It's scary when the district attorney moves forward with charges he knows he can't prove," Fazio, who represented Greg Corrales – one of the indicted officers – said at the debate.

At the debate Hallinan attempted to pin Fazio and Harris down on the question of reform. He asked them if they would support an initiative, crafted by Sup. Tom Ammiano at Hallinan's request, that would break the mayor's stranglehold on the Police Commission – the body that is supposed to hold the SFPD's brass accountable.

Fazio said the idea of giving the San Francisco Board of Supervisors the right to make some appointments was sensible. But Harris refused to take a position, saying she needed time to review the legislation. Fazio's and Hallinan's camps suspect she is stalling because of her desire to get the endorsement of the San Francisco Police Association, the political arm of the SFPD.

Harris's campaign manager, Jim Stearns, said Harris's response at the May 21 debate had nothing to do with seeking the POA's endorsement – which went to Fazio in 1995 and 1999. But Hallinan's camp contends there's something even bigger going on behind the scenes. Since Harris enjoys support from the same power structure that so strongly defended the top cops against Hallinan's attack, she can't mount an effective challenge to their authority.

"[Harris] is 100 percent a product of the power elite of San Francisco," Marc O'Hara, Hallinan's campaign manager, told us. "Her crowd is the crowd that supports the police department."

Indeed, a review of Harris's $100,500 in contributions shows that roughly $30,000 came from members of the city's moneyed social set and top echelons of power. She has frequently socialized with that crowd since at least 1995, when she placed the famous "DA MAYOR" cap on Brown's head to celebrate his winning election to the city's top post. At the time, she was his girlfriend.

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