Okay, okay, okay, okay -- we hear you about Laughing Squid's scoop that Chicken John running for mayor, folks! We were totally slammed at work today, that's why we're getting this up late.

Who's Chicken John? He's a local countercultural legend! He's a Burning Man guy, the former owner of the Odeon Bar, and he hosts Ask Dr. Hal on Pirate Cat Radio. We had absolutely no idea! (Steve Jones at the Guardian knew, though.)

And now he's running for mayor! On the platform that San Francisco needs more whimsy and art. Yay fun! Chicken John'll get along great with Chris Daly! Click here and here (you must use both pages) if you want to sign Chicken John's petition to qualify to run, and then email him so he can pick them up. He needs 1000 10,000* signatures by July 26th to avoid having to pay the $5000 fee.

Also, Josh Wolf wants to run for mayor. He says he'll wear a webcam 24 hours a day to promote open government.

After the jump: excerpts from Chicken John's mayoral campaign manifesto.

*Noted per the comment in our tips line from candidate C. John himself! Sorry about the mixup (.pdf, page 9) -- you need 1000 to run for supervisor, which is why we got confused.

Picture of Chicken John by Scott Beale/Laughing Squid. More info on the event this illustrates here.

Here's his manifesto:

... we change the way politics is done by using our secret weapon: art & innovation. After we do that we stop *greenwashing this city* and I hold a raffle to see who gets to drive the truck that knocks down that f***ing bow and arrow thing on Embarkadaro that insults each and every artist in SF. We shed some light on the fact that the Art Commission of SF has a $9 million dollar budget and spends 90% of it on administration costs and consultant fees. In our *green* city, Builders Resources (SF’s Urban Ore) is being squeezed out. Whatever.

There is a giant land grab going on and none of it is being earmarked for temporary sculpture or anything like that. Slowly, it all gets nailed down and if you’re ‘in’ you can get a piece of the action. If you’re not ‘in’, then you get a form letter. I single handedly produce 50 times what the SF Art Commission does and I couldn’t get the director to answer a phone call for 4 months. Civil servant my entire ass. And on and on… there are things that affect us that we can defend that will be of benefit to all San Franciscans. And it’s all really easy.

....

There is no doubt that Gavin Newsome will likely be our next Mayor. But there is value in fighting the good fight even if ‘winning’ isn’t your main objective. I have engineered my entire life around the embrace of the amateur. To live life as art. Mediocrity is not an option. Samuel Beckett’s quote fills me with possibility and adventure: “Fail again. Fail better.” I honestly feel that right now San Francisco, the city of Art and Innovation, lacks whimsy. It lacks a decision making body that results in the manufacture of ‘Units of Interesting’. We need there to be a Units of Interesting factor in some of the decisions. The acronym sucks, or it would be the new catch-phraze. UoI. Whatever.