The accused astroturfers from Left Coast Consulting plan to step up their attempts to nudge temporary mayor Ed Lee in to the current mayor's race by opening up an unofficial official campaign HQ this weekend. Although previous efforts to sway the mayor have been limited to photos of smiling constituents holding cartoon likenesses of His Temporariness (see above), the folks behind RunEdRun.org hope a physical presence in an office at 1565 Mission will lend the campaign an air of legitimacy. (Spoiler alert: it won't — the location was formerly Home Menu Restaurant, a takeout joint most famous for running a huge credit card scam.) As a spokesperson for the Mayor's Office explained to the Examiner, "this is not associated with Mayor Lee."

Still, Chinatown puppetmaster Rose Pak got her invite to Saturday's campaign kickoff (more like a false start, really) and plans to make an appearance, but that's not all she's been up to. Today, the Chronicle's Matier & Ross report that Pak attempted to turn a recent San Francisco Giants game in to an Ed Lee rally when the Mayor was scheduled to throw out a ceremonial first pitch. Pak order 20,000 fake mustaches to be handed out before the game and paid for "Run Ed Run" to appear on the billboard ribbons around the upper deck of AT&T park right when Lee went in to his windup. Momma Chinatown backed out of the plan when she heard Lee would use the occasion to commemorate the fallen SFFD firefighters, telling Matier & Ross, "Now I have 20,000 mustaches... and I want to stick them on his ass." Why then, did she not distribute said mustaches to the patrons at House of Prime Rib? Willie Brown's upper lip is looking a little cold these days.

[SFEx]
[Matier&Ross]