-Caveat Lector-
"Ammiano ran for Mayor on a platform of undoing corporate tax breaks,
imposing campaign finance reforms, giving neighborhoods more local say over
developments and declaring an ``immediate war' on gentrification to preserve
affordable housing.
"Alarmed corporations, union leaders, and real estate developers poneyed
up nearly $2 million to ensure the election of his opponent, incumbent
Democrat Willie Brown."
During the last weeks of the campaign, fellow-traveller "liberals" Bill
Clinton and Jesse Jackson flew to San Francisco to publicly pledge their
support for Brown.
I voted AGAINST Brown, of course. The Bad Guys won -- as usual.
Proof again that "Democracy will never work, because when it comes down
to voting for 'the lesser of two evils,' supporters of evil outnumber
everyone else at the polls."
Brown was re-elected by 60% of a 30% voter turnout -- in other words, by
only 20% of the citizenry of San Francisco. Nowadays in America, that's
called a "landslide."
Brown Re-Elected San Francisco Mayor
By MICHAEL WARREN
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Mayor Willie Brown easily won a second term, fighting
off an upstart populist challenge with the help of soft money from interest
groups and businesses that depend on City Hall.
``You have no idea how relieved I am,'' Brown told hundreds of supporters at
Fisherman's Wharf wearing a baseball cap emblazoned with the words ``Still Da
Mayor'' in gold.
With 95 percent of the precincts reporting today, Brown had 115,299 votes, or
60 percent, to 77,663 votes, or 40 percent for Tom Ammiano, one of the few
politicians in the city who doesn't owe anything to the master of the
Democratic Party machine.
Ammiano, an openly gay city supervisor, energized his followers with talk of
undoing corporate tax breaks, imposing campaign reforms, giving neighborhoods
say over new developments and declaring an ``immediate war'' on
gentrification to preserve affordable housing.
Alarmed corporations, union leaders and developers spent more than $1.4
million in the last two weeks to help ensure the re-election of Brown, one of
the nation's most powerful Democrats.
Ammiano and his supporters were outspent more than 10-to-1.
``I'm thrilled. For us it means we're going to protect economic growth and
success in the city for four more years, instead of diverging on an extreme
path,'' said Mark Mosher of San Franciscans for Sensible Government, a
business group that spent more than $400,000 to ensure Ammiano's defeat.
Many residents regarded the race between the 65-year-old Brown and Ammiano,
who turned 58 today, as a battle for the soul of a city once known as a Paris
of the West but whose bohemian character is now threatened by the booming
economy.
``Dot-com'' companies have brought more than 30,000 highly paid jobs in
recent years to the city, pushing rents beyond the reach of middle-class
families as well as the artists and activists San Francisco is famous for.
In the end, even voters of this famously liberal city sided with Brown, who
stressed his proven ability as a dealmaker and said Ammiano lacks the
political skills needed to force developers to add affordable housing and
ease traffic.
Ammiano, a former schoolteacher and standup comic, will continue as president
of the city's Board of Supervisors, where all but one of his colleagues
endorsed Brown.
He said he would run again for mayor in four years.
``I am not conceding the war. I am conceding the battle,'' said Ammiano, who
would have been the first openly gay mayor of a major American city. ``My
voice may be high, my orientation may be gay, my politics may be left, but we
are right. We moved San Francisco forward.''
Brown hasn't lost an election since 1964, when he reached the state Assembly
by campaigning as an antidevelopment crusader. He served 31 years, including
14 1/2 as speaker, the longest tenure of anyone in the Legislature's most
powerful post. He relished his power, describing himself as ``The Ayatollah
of the Assembly.''
Forced out by term limits that voters imposed largely in reaction to his
imperial tenure, Brown became the city's first black mayor in 1995. He
presided over a booming economy, adding 4,000 jobs to the payroll and $1
billion to the budget.
He kept his style as mayor, even wearing a crown and ermine cape in a theater
performance. Posters sprung up all over the city in recent weeks with that
picture surrounded by dollar signs, and Ammiano even accused the mayor of
getting his ``hand caught in the cookie jar.''
But ongoing FBI probes into corruption allegations in several city
departments haven't touched Brown, and voters resoundingly decided to keep
their flamboyant leader for another term.
Among his cheering supporters was Joe O'Donoghue, head of the Residential
Builders Association, which campaigned against Ammiano.
``Any time you have a movement like he generated, it's cause for concern. But
it actually stimulated us into action. Now we can get down to business in
this city,'' said O'Donoghue. ``Had Ammiano won, this city would have flared
into warring camps.''
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