Trail Mix

The budget is balanced, but there are still bills to pay Relatively progressive city that we are, San Francisco voters in 2000 created a program that would partially fund the campaign of supervisorial candidates who agreed to disclose more, debate more, and in general run more-open campaigns.

But the problem with local government paying some campaign costs is that government has to, you know, actually pay those costs. And during this tight budget year, it apparently just seemed easier for the mayor's budget office to lowball that estimate.

So when the Ethics Commission (which runs the program) asked for almost $1 million based on an estimate of 28 candidates opting into the program, the Mayor's Office decided to go with an estimate of 20 candidates and give the agency just $670,000.

So how many candidates ultimately opted in? Try 48! Whoa there, said new director John St. Croix, who put his candidates and commission on notice that the agency will need to prorate the maximum $43,750 the voter-approved program promises each qualified candidate. Or something.

"Given the strictures of the budget, I assume the lower average was just part of making ends meet," he told the Bay Guardian.

Yup, welcome to San Francisco, Mr. St. Croix, where the best progressive reforms regularly get dashed on the rocks of economic reality ... or are sabotaged with that appearance.

Told of the snafu, mayoral spokesperson Peter Ragone told us Newsom would try to find a way to fix it: "I'm sure that we'll fund it." (Steven T. Jones)

Will he also be there to advise her when she votes? Sup. Jake McGoldrick seems to have a big fat target painted on his back. A key member of the progressive majority who squeaked into office four years ago, he is being slammed by nasty mailers, sneaky independent expenditures, and the full weight of the mayor's troops.

That weight is mostly swinging behind retired judge Lillian Sing, who's taking her cues from Mayor Gavin Newsom advisor Eric Jaye (who's also running the campaigns of Sup. Michela Alioto-Pier and school board member Heather Hiles, both Newsom appointees).

By the end of June, Sing had $71,793 in the bank, while McGoldrick had just $1,571 stashed away. But Sing so far seems to be living proof that cash can't buy you credible campaign substance.

On her Web site (www.lilliansing.com) she shies from taking a position on anything, and when the Bay Guardian asked for her platform, she said she was for "a strong economy, jobs, good neighborhood schools, promoting small businesses, health issues, and transportation."

Sounds like a candidate anyone could like.

Perhaps that's the point. Evidently working from the same playbook Jaye drew up for the mayoral campaign, Sing may be trying to cast herself as a unity candidate (which is, of course, a nice way of saying she's perhaps disingenuously trying to be all things to all people). And in a seven-way race made complicated by ranked-choice voting, it could be that Sing is gambling that she won't have to tackle those pesky policy positions.

When we asked about her position on rent control, she said she favors it but she's also for landlord rights. In a questionnaire she filled out for the Small Property Owners Association, Sing played both sides: though she said she supports rent control, she acknowledged supporting 1998's Proposition E, which would have eliminated rent control for some 50,000 units.

How does she explain that position? "My campaign consultant filled that out," she told us. "And now I have to live with it." (Rachel Brahinsky)

And the heir apparent for King of the Greens is ... Departing San Francisco Board of Supervisors president Matt Gonzalez has finally chosen a prince, endorsing the Green brother who helped helm his mayoral bid, Ross Mirkarimi, much to the dismay of sister Green Lisa Feldstein, who fired off a snippy press release blasting Gonzalez for engaging in "good ole boy politics."

Before the feathers verde flew, Gonzo told an enthusiastic crowd at the Horseshoe Café Aug. 11 that Mirkarimi was a progressive's progressive with an active history of battling for the right (or rather, the left's) causes yet still someone who plays well with people of all stripes and colors.

Mirkarimi's track record on local campaigns includes campaigning for public power, public campaign finance, police accountability and reform, district elections, demolition of the Central Freeway, the Sunshine Initiative, and the enactment of transgender rights in the mid-'90s.

"As Matt has prefaced, you know me. I have been a strong advocate of many issues for over 15 years, almost 20, here in San Francisco," Mirkarimi told supporters.

Maybe Feldstein really was wounded by the snub – or maybe she was just getting a bit of extra mileage out of her campaign theme of "the best woman for the job" – but she hit the gender thing hard, arguing that when Gonzo asked her to run, she thought it was because he actually wanted a progressive woman of color on the board.

"I really do believe that the board needs women," Feldstein told the Bay Guardian during her endorsement interview a couple days later. "A lot of the gridlock we see at the board is testosterone-driven."

Ouch, a pretty strong charge, but even our mostly male assemblage on the panel couldn't really disagree.

Meanwhile, Robert Haaland and Michael O'Connor attempt to double their pleasure and double their funds at the first joint fundraising campaign Aug. 26 at the Independent nightclub. The alliances are beginning. Say hello to instant-runoff voting, San Francisco-style! (Matthew Hirsch)