I LOVE ELECTION season in San Francisco; it's so festive. People around here take their electoral politics very seriously, and sometimes it seems as if almost everyone is involved in some kind of campaign, so the closer we get to November, the more the streets seem like some kind of ongoing political festival. Campaign signs are everywhere. With district elections, there are candidates all over town, walking precincts, ringing doors, shaking hands, going to debates ... for junkies like me, it's a two-month carnival.

Like every carnival, it has its bizarre moments – like the day last week when Rose Tsai, a candidate for supervisor in District One, told us she opposes same-sex marriage but doesn't consider that an infringement on gay or lesbian civil rights, because "they can still marry someone of the opposite sex."

And there's the scary stuff, like the information Sup. Jake McGoldrick's campaign put together showing that 11 of the top contributors to SFSOS (which is going after McGoldrick and other liberal supervisors) also gave big chunks of money to the Bush presidential campaign. (One of the SFSOS men, discount brokerage mogul Charles Schwab, gave money to the likes of Rick Santorum and Pete Coors. Lovely company those SFSOS-ers keep.)

All of this, and much more about the campaign (including the verbatim text of the Tsai comments), is in our Trail Mix column, on page 13.

On the Web at sfbg.com is the story of a class-action lawsuit filed in Ohio against Village Voice Media and the publisher of the SF Weekly, New Times Inc., charging that the two alt-weekly chains illegally fired a bunch of employees when they cut a deal to shut down two papers in 2002. (And while we're on New Times: There are now 1,000 U.S. soldiers dead in Iraq, and all the SF Weekly seems to do is make fun of antiwar activists. What side are you on, anyway?)

Finally, with this issue we say good-bye to J.H. "Tommy" Tompkins, our arts and entertainment editor for 14 years, who is moving to Los Angeles. Tommy transformed our A&E coverage, hired and trained some of the top music and film writers in the country, wrote some awesome stories, did more than anyone else in editorial to help diversify the staff ... and there was never a dull moment working with him. Miss you, man. Look out, L.A.

Tim Redmond