In This Issue

I GUESS I should be glad the Bay Guardian's name gets tossed around so much in political flyers. But just for the permanent record, in case anyone is confused, that slick piece going around that quotes some critical remarks we made about Matt Gonzalez is, in fact, produced by the Newsom for Mayor campaign and doesn't in any way reflect this paper's position on the runoff.

I don't think we've ever endorsed anyone for any political office without saying something a little bit critical. (Our endorsement of Art Agnos for mayor in 1987 was so full of criticisms that his campaign had trouble pulling out an actual positive quote.)

And it's absolutely true that we supported Angela Alioto in the general election and that we suggested Gonzalez lacked political experience.

But Newsom doesn't have a whole lot more experience than Gonzalez does – and we've never endorsed him for anything. We're strongly supporting Gonzalez in the runoff, and for the Newsom campaign to produce a flyer using our logo and a quote that's completely out of context to trash the person we've endorsed is sleazy, even by Newsom's standards.

But you can expect more of the same sort of slime over the next couple of weeks: the race for mayor is close enough to make the Newsom brain trust nervous, so they're tossing everything they can at Gonzalez and hoping some of it will stick.

Meanwhile, as Steven T. Jones reports, Alioto caught a lot of people by surprise Nov. 24 when she announced that she was endorsing Newsom – and that she was going to play a major role in his administration. At a press conference in her office, she tossed out the term "vice mayor," and Newsom sat there nodding. Then his campaign spokesperson told us there was no formal job for Alioto, that she would simply be an advisor to Newsom and serve on some task forces.

This whole thing is going to turn into a political mess for both of them. It's too bad, really: Alioto has just given up any hope of playing a future role in progressive politics in San Francisco.

A final note: We report on the tragic death of our former city editor, Ron Curran. Ron was a wonderful guy, a brilliant writer and editor. He was also a close personal friend, and I miss him already.