Who Wants To Be The Mayor (Maybe)
Okay, so we've covered the people who aren't running against Gavin Newsom for mayor in 2007, and we've covered the people who are. Who next but the undeclareds? Here's your list of the people that are being openly speculated about for a run (and thank you, Jackson, for reminding us to cover this!)
Carole Migden: Well, this is a complicated story. You may need to draw diagrams. So Carole Migden is currently the state senator for San Francisco. Mark Leno is currently the state assembly member for San Francisco. Migden and Leno used to be pals but now Leno no longer speaks to her because she endorsed his opponent Harry Britt for Assembly back in 2002.So Mark Leno is openly speculating about running for Migden's seat in 2008 (when he'll be termed out).
After Migden summarily dismissed those rumors (calling Leno "a little bit nutty" and saying "he's out of a job, what else is he going to do"), there's now counter-rumors that Migden is thinking about running for SF mayor. There's a number of theories behind this thinking: either Migden wants a backup job, Migden wants to up her profile among progressives (who will be a key part of Leno's State Senate strategy), or -- hey, maybe she just really wants the job. Who knows? Well, we're looking forward to our favorite frizzy-haired loose cannon pushing the wrong buttons around here!
Picture of Carole Migden with Ben Affleck from Migden's website.
Tony Hall: Okay, there's only two people in this "possibly speculating about a run" category, and former supervisor Tony Hall's the other one. Here's today's money quote: "The guy's [Newsom] got all the money and the media on his side, but I don’t think he has any integrity."
And as Sasha at Left in SF points out, we probably won't be able to support a parachute-in-at-the-last-minute campaign this time around, unlike before, because we won't have a runoff election for that last minute person to gain momentum. So would-be mayors, get those nomination papers (.pdf, and from the Nov. election) ready to go now!