Election Campaigns

Progressively Worse: The Tumultuous Rise and Acrimonious Fall of the City's Left

Adachi Campaign Alleges Lee Door Hangers Violate Campaign Finance Law

Ed Lee​Interim Mayor Ed Lee is facing new allegations of wrongdoing on the eve of the election, capping a slew of ethical complaints that has dogged his campaign this fall.Public Defender and mayoral contender Jeff Adachi says he filed a complaint with the San Francisco Ethics Commission this morn ... More >>

Ed Lee Supporters' Latest Scandal Too Late For 50,000 Absentee Voters

FreeFoto.comRight now, the mailbox is Ed Lee's strong ally​It's never good when a campaign facing money-laundering charges has to stop and ask "which one?" Today's front-page Chronicle story -- slipping quickly off the SFGate page in favor of flash mobs, men who ride turtles, and web-only real est ... More >>

George Gascón and Dennis Herrera Share Consultants. Is That a Problem?

Trouble in motion...​We all know the query about who will watch the watchmen. But what about the watchmen's consultants? After Dennis Herrera's tubthumping that a full-blown investigation was required of alleged money-laundering after shuttle bus drivers claimed they were made to donate to Mayor E ... More >>

Ed Lee's Alleged Money-Laundering Is Manna From Heaven for Dennis Herrera

​City Attorney Dennis Herrera is calling for a criminal investigation into new allegations against his rival Mayor Ed Lee, whose donors are accused of  laundering money for his campaign through business associates as a way sidestep campaign contribution limits.The Bay Citizen broke the story ... More >>

Jeff Adachi Is Running for Mayor

Joe EskenaziThe pension candidate? ​In a last-minute maneuver, public defender and pension crusader Jeff Adachi has filled out the paperwork to run for mayor. Adachi -- both a lawyer and a politician -- has, since 2010, answered our queries of whether he'd run for mayor in the following way: "I ha ... More >>

Why the Ethics Commission Cleared the Run, Ed, Run Campaign of Any Wrongdoing

S.F. Ethics Commission hard at work​Yesterday afternoon, just after Mayor Ed Lee declared his candidacy for mayor, the Ethics Commission cleared Progress for All, the campaign that worked to get Lee into the election, of any illegal wrongdoing. But right before making that decision, the commission ... More >>

Run, Ed, Run Campaign Is Being Financed by Nine Donors

Nine people are running Run, Ed, Run​Recently, Chinatown guru Rose Pak told SF Weekly reporter Caroline Chen that a lot of the money being kicked in to the Run, Ed, Run campaign was coming from many people within the Chinese community -- in small amounts. But campaign finance records released yest ... More >>

John Avalos Gets Ambushed by Run, Ed, Run Campaign

Courtesy of Avalos for Mayor campaign Avalos tells Run, Ed, Run where they can stick their campaign signs​The ubiquitous call for Ed Lee to run for mayor came knocking at the most unlikely of all places -- Supervisor John Avalos' campaign headquarters. Over the weekend, Run, Ed, Run supporters wal ... More >>

Good Scout, Bad Boy: Examining the Virtues of Leland Yee

Courtesy of Avalos for Mayor campaign Avalos tells Run, Ed, Run where they can stick their campaign signs​The ubiquitous call for Ed Lee to run for mayor came knocking at the most unlikely of all places -- Supervisor John Avalos' campaign headquarters. Over the weekend, Run, Ed, Run supporters wal ... More >>

Ranked-Choice Voting Makes for a Boring, Undemocratic Political Mess

Courtesy of Avalos for Mayor campaign Avalos tells Run, Ed, Run where they can stick their campaign signs​The ubiquitous call for Ed Lee to run for mayor came knocking at the most unlikely of all places -- Supervisor John Avalos' campaign headquarters. Over the weekend, Run, Ed, Run supporters wal ... More >>

Who Understands Ranked-Choice Voting? Nobody.

Nobody understands ranked-choice voting ... especially the politicians who lose​The one thing that makes perfect sense about ranked-choice voting is that nobody seems to understand it. And a new poll validated this notion recently. According to a Chamber of Commerce poll, more than half of those w ... More >>

Mark Farrell Declares Victory in District 2

Mark Farrell says he's won. Does Janet Reilly concur? ​Update: Janet Reilly ConcedesMark Farrell -- who didn't have very many endorsements but did end up with more ranked-choice votes than favorite Janet Reilly -- has declared victory. "As of this evening, all the votes have been counted in Distr ... More >>

San Francisco Besieged by Tons of Political Junk Mail

Crap​A colleague recently plopped his accumulated political mail of the last three-odd weeks down on our desk. Campaign fliers alone stacked more than an inch high and weighed around a pound. The voter information pamphlet for the city and state nearly tripled the poundage. That's a ton of politic ... More >>

Kaiser Union Election Produces Winner, Legal Battle

Matt SmithTime to put the signs back in the shed.​The Service Employees International Union yesterday decisively won an election to represent 43,000 workers at Kaiser medical facilities around California, an occurrence academic observers predict could be the death knell for dissident leader ... More >>

Labor Pains

A fight between two unions here could set the course of the U.S. labor movement.

Steve Cooley's Potential Finance Scandal Ignites Kamala Harris Press Storm

Steve Cooley is accused of taking funny money from not-so-funny people​San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris has wasted no time jumping on a report by our sister paper, LA Weekly, accusing her opponent in the state Attorney General's race of hypocrisy. The article, which ran yesterday, not ... More >>

Jeff Adachi for mayor!

Steve Cooley is accused of taking funny money from not-so-funny people​San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris has wasted no time jumping on a report by our sister paper, LA Weekly, accusing her opponent in the state Attorney General's race of hypocrisy. The article, which ran yesterday, not ... More >>

Fight Ends For Good Government Advocate Joe Lynn, Who Dies at 64

Over the summer, Joe Lynn's condition grew so dire that his close friends gathered for somber discussions about the pending decision to pull the plug. At the time, one of them told me "It will take a miracle" for Lynn to ever wake up again. And yet, after 50 days in California Pacific Medical Cente ... More >>

Going, Going, Gavin: What's Next For Newsom, City, State?

​ It's unlikely anyone has ever publicly announced he's taking a job so he can spend less time with his family. But countless folks turning in their resignation letters have chalked up the decision to jump ship to a desire to spend more time with the fam. Gavin Newsom joined that lengthy list ... More >>

A mayoral wannabe confronts MUNI safety, but gets run over by the accident data

​ It's unlikely anyone has ever publicly announced he's taking a job so he can spend less time with his family. But countless folks turning in their resignation letters have chalked up the decision to jump ship to a desire to spend more time with the fam. Gavin Newsom joined that lengthy list ... More >>

Good Government Advocate Joe Lynn Rises From the Dead -- Almost

Joe Lynn -- a former commissioner and staffer with the Ethics Commission and a self-admitted good government kvetch who was a fixture at the commission's meetings -- is now able to do something many people dream about, but few experience. He can read his own obituaries. Lynn told SF Weekly he's le ... More >>

What’s in David Chiu’s political baggage?

Joe Lynn -- a former commissioner and staffer with the Ethics Commission and a self-admitted good government kvetch who was a fixture at the commission's meetings -- is now able to do something many people dream about, but few experience. He can read his own obituaries. Lynn told SF Weekly he's le ... More >>

The Face That Launched A Thousand Quips: Tom Ammiano Bids Adieu to His Constituency

Finally, a reason to visit Sacramento By Joe Eskenazi After eight years of racking up some of the world’s best off-color, gay-themed double-entendres – and, incidentally, governing San Francisco – Supervisor Tom Ammiano tossed a few last one-liners to his adoring public before opting to lea ... More >>

Video: Nader's Back!

Finally, a reason to visit Sacramento By Joe Eskenazi After eight years of racking up some of the world’s best off-color, gay-themed double-entendres – and, incidentally, governing San Francisco – Supervisor Tom Ammiano tossed a few last one-liners to his adoring public before opting to lea ... More >>

Poll suggests runoff likely in judicial race

Finally, a reason to visit Sacramento By Joe Eskenazi After eight years of racking up some of the world’s best off-color, gay-themed double-entendres – and, incidentally, governing San Francisco – Supervisor Tom Ammiano tossed a few last one-liners to his adoring public before opting to lea ... More >>

Election, Stage Left

Political theater may preach to the converted, but it can still teach us something about the world

Obama in Oakland — Barack's California Epicenter Draws Neophyte Canvassers; "Never go inside the house"

Political theater may preach to the converted, but it can still teach us something about the world

Chicken John Campaign Funds Denied by City of SF

Political theater may preach to the converted, but it can still teach us something about the world

Chicken Man

Somebody out there thinks joke mayoral candidate Chicken John Rinaldi ain't funny

Governor Newsom?

Not likely, given his lack of spine in opposing the initiative promoting more parking

Slush Daddy

Not likely, given his lack of spine in opposing the initiative promoting more parking

Fall Gal

A money-laundering scandal may have helped bring down former Secretary of State Kevin Shelley. But indicted political maven Julie Lee stands to pay the ultimate price.

Tilting at Political Windmills

Some people, like attorney Paul Melbostad, just don't know when to quit. Bully for him.

The Ackerman Election

The school board races focus on a superintendent's future and progressive versus downtown political infighting. Kids aren't much mentioned.

Lesson Learned

Beaten in the mayor's election, S.F. lefties vow to sign up absentee voters for future campaigns

Plugged

An elections commissioner's on the hot seat after his name appears on a DA's endorsement list

Left in the Lurch

In jingoistic times, Steve Williams exhibits precisely the kind of faux progressivism we don't need in a city attorney

South to the Future

Fox to Air Presidential Pageant 2000

A Republican by Any Other Name

GOP candidate sniffs out chances in district elections

Missing in Action

Why there's no more Knight in the Knight Initiative

Smoke and Mirrors

Hype over the Laguna Honda bond issue hides some ugly facts

Booty Call

Wherein a handful of politicos, a party that's trying not to be a laughingstock, and the singer in a '70s disco cover band unite to rewrite San Francisco politics or try to, anyway

What's the Harman a Big Checchi Account?

Conflict of interest and the Democrats' wealthy wannabe governors

Uno Mas

Ed Rollins fights another round in California state politics

The Grid

Ed Rollins fights another round in California state politics

Blakk Power

San Francisco drag queen Joan Jett-Blakk aims for the presidency

The Longest Shot

Dark-horse mayoral hopeful Joel Ventresca wants your vote

Letters

Dark-horse mayoral hopeful Joel Ventresca wants your vote

Paper Trails

Dark-horse mayoral hopeful Joel Ventresca wants your vote