Fiona Ma's Right-Hand Man Bill Barnes Quits, Heads Back to S.F.

Assemblywoman Fiona Ma's chief of staff, Bill Barnes, surprised his fellow San Francisco politicos earlier this month by abruptly handing in his resignation. Barnes didn't give the standard line of wanting to spend more time with his wife and children -- he doesn't have any. Instead, he told SF Weekly "We've got a progressive majority on the Board of Supervisors and I wanted to be back in San Francisco. There's no more to it." We'll give it to Barnes, commuting to Sacramento is a grind.

Rumors had tied Barnes to an opening in the office of Supervisor Michela Alioto-Pier, a potential 2011 mayoral candidate. Barnes confirmed he'd spent election night with Alioto-Pier, whom he volunteered for when she ran for Secretary of State in 2002. He denied he has any job lined up in the city, however -- and, at Friday's Tom Ammiano shindig, he told several partygoers that word he would soon be working for Alioto-Pier was nothing more than a rumor.

Barnes says he has "nothing firm lined up." Yet based upon the enthusiastic "welcome back" he received from several powerful city progressives on Friday, don't expect him to be out of a job for long. -- Joe Eskenazi