Consultant Johnny K. Wang

By Steven T. Jones
The political consultant handling the recall campaign against Sup. Jake McGoldrick, Johnny K. Wang's JKW Consulting, has a client list that is raising questions about the real motives behind bumping off McGoldrick. For starters, there's the reelection campaign of Mayor Gavin Newsom, who would get to appoint the replacement. Then there's Google and Earthlink, which Newsom wants to contract with to provide free wireless Internet service to city residents, a deal that McGoldrick has taken the lead in scrutinizing. Finally, there's a pair of malevolent downtown players, Citizens for Reform Leadership (an attack group created by Newsom moneyman Jim Sutton) and the San Francisco Multi-Employer Group (which represented the big downtown hotels that locked out their workers instead of bargaining with them in good faith). And this is the campaign about which co-chair Keith Wilson said, "This is not being funded by downtown money, this is a grassroots indigenous effort." Sure, an effort that just happens to dovetail perfectly with downtown interests.