Campaign Watch

Party buzz: Over at Ruby Skye, at the Bay Guardian's Best of the Bay party Aug. 7, the Davis recall was taking second place in the political gossip category. Everyone wanted to discuss the San Francisco mayor's race – and the fact that Sup. Matt Gonzalez was jumping into the fray. The emotions were decidedly mixed.

On the edge of the dance floor, Green Party activist Medea Benjamin, who had already endorsed Sup. Tom Ammiano, was bubbling over with excitement: Gonzalez, she said, would bring new life and energy to the race, energize the progressive community, and put the Greens in the spotlight.

A few feet away, mayoral candidate Angela Alioto was holding forth with a very different tone. "The left has got to unite, not divide," she said, visibly fuming. Of course, she insisted Gonzalez wouldn't hurt her campaign that much – she was more worried about Ammiano (whom she has for months been urging to drop out of the race). "I feel badly for Tom," she said. "He's an historic figure. This hits right in his base, and I hate to see that happen to him."

Ammiano, who has been much more restrained, even sedate in his response to Gonzalez's decision, told us he appreciates Alioto's concern but he's not going to panic. "We've been through these things before," he said. "I'm just going to keep on running for mayor." (Tim Redmond)

Grist for the mill: If nothing else, the last-minute mayoral scrambling has stirred up some fascinating – if not exactly credible – rumors. The most spectacular: Gonzalez, one report had it, was going to ask the Green Party members on the San Francisco Board of Education to oust Superintendent Arlene Ackerman – and replace her with Ammiano (who has two master's degrees in education). Ammiano would, of course, drop out of the mayor's race and endorse Gonzalez. According to one source, Mayor Willie Brown was among those who gave this enough credence to at least make some inquiries.

Gonzalez and Ammiano each dismissed the story as nonsense: "Science fiction also seems to have a role in this campaign," Ammiano said. (Redmond)

Matt on Matt: In an interview in the Bay Guardian office Aug. 11, Gonzalez sounded a conciliatory tone toward his fellow progressives in the race, saying he wouldn't try to steal endorsements that Alioto or Ammiano had already won: "You can create a lot of bad blood that way."

Gonzalez is already feeling some of that rancor from leaders in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community who were backing Ammiano, but it wasn't enough to keep Gonzalez from raising $10,000 on his first day in the race and using some of it to open his campaign headquarters in a section of the Lower Haight's Horseshoe Café.

His basic line is that he offers a stronger progressive alternative to Gavin Newsom than the other candidates do, something well illustrated on the November ballot by Newsom's latest anti-homeless measure and Gonzalez's measure to boost the pay of the lowest-paid workers.

"I like the dichotomy," Gonzalez said. "Newsom is going after panhandlers, and we're trying to increase the minimum wage." (Steven T. Jones)

Ghost of politics past: In her bid to oust incumbent district attorney Terence Hallinan in November, Deputy City Attorney Kamala Harris, who once worked for Kayo, has accused Hallinan of "unethical [management] practices" and "unprofessional conduct." Her Web site claims she will establish a "zero tolerance standard for political, criminal and ethical misconduct for all attorneys in the D.A.'s office."

Sounds impressive, except there's one problem. Harris herself has been accused of running afoul of the city's laws enforcing ethical conduct in campaigns when she took a leave of absence from her job in fall 2000 to help run former supervisor Amos Brown's failed reelection efforts.

She's busy trying to convince voters she's not a player in the old Willie Brown machine. But no former supervisor could offer a better example of the pro-developer, anti-neighborhood, Brown-controlled board than Amos Brown. That's unsavory enough – but now Harris is facing possible charges from the San Francisco Ethics Commission for failing to follow city law and register as a political consultant (a requirement for anyone making more than $1,000), according to an anonymous complaint filed Aug. 11 with the city agency.

City records show Harris received two payments totaling more than $8,000 from the Brown campaign, but the agency has no record that she ever registered as a consultant. Breakers of the law can be charged $5,000 for each violation and charged with criminal misdemeanor. And that's not the sort of thing an attorney eyeing the city's top prosecuting job would want on her résumé. Jim Stearns, Harris's campaign manager, had no comment. (Savannah Blackwell)

A final note: The message on Ammiano's answering machine last week: "The entire Board of Supervisors has entered the mayor's race, so if they win, they can veto and override themselves into oblivion." (Redmond)