SAN FRANCISCO POLITICS is a contact sport, and everyone expects a few elbows and shin kicks here and there. But the attacks on Sup. Gerardo Sandoval by Don Fisher, attorney Jim Sutton, and political consultant Duane Baughman that were first reported in the San Francisco Chronicle are on another level altogether and inject a personal viciousness into local politics that ought not to be tolerated.

The story goes back to 2003, when Sandoval voted to support legislation banning chain stores in certain neighborhoods. Fisher, the head of Gap, Inc., had warned Sandoval that he would be punished if he voted for the legislation; the next fall, Fisher helped fund a string of the most foul-hit mailers we've ever seen. Sandoval was accused of being a friend of John Ashcroft, of failing to support abortion rights, of failing to help people with AIDS – and, in effect, of being a Nazi sympathizer. Some of the fliers were sent out anonymously, and to this day, there's no real concrete proof of who paid for or produced them.

But all signs pointed to Fisher and Baughman, and Sandoval sued for an injunction to halt the tsunami of sleaze. A judge agreed – but when Sandoval won reelection despite the attacks, his opponents kept going. They filed an entirely inappropriate SLAPP motion (under the Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation law, which was designed to help small public-interest groups battle big corporations) and won a judgment against Sandoval. Now they want him to cough up $150,000 in legal fees, which the supervisor, a former public defender who now makes about $80,000 a year, can't possibly pay. If Fisher and Baughman persist, Sandoval, who has a young child, may lose his house.

In the end, what's going on here is a billionaire power broker and a greedy consultant trying to destroy a politician who defied them. After the election, Sandoval was ready to let the matter lie; he even waived the right to ask for any damages from his suit. But Sutton, Fisher, and Baughman – whose obnoxious, giddy remarks to the Chronicle demonstrate how pleased he is to be squeezing Sandoval – won't let go.

This is now a political issue, not a legal one. Mayor Gavin Newsom, who hired Sutton to advise his campaign and who is friendly with Fisher, needs to let these attack dogs know that their conduct is not acceptable – and that, if they continue to poison the atmosphere of local politics, they will have no future in this town.