Breaking news: Mabel Teng has resigned as the San Francisco assessor. After a sunny start as the face of gay marriage, Teng was facing increasing scrutiny over her, um, unorthodox hiring procedures in the assessor/recorder's office, at the same time as she was going through a divorce and moving her twin daughters to college. As the article says, "her heart was no longer in the job."

Teng had been initially sort-of cleared of any official wrongdoing in the probe (though everyone agrees that it all looked very suspiciously nepotistic (is that a word?)), and she wasn't up for reelection until 2006, but it sounds like she just kind of needed a break.

We wonder who Gavvy-Gav will nominate for the position, with its odd mix of boring (property assessment), exciting (same-sex marriage licenses!), and felonious (that FBI probe of Doris Ward!). How much you wanna bet it goes to Willie Brown?