Eric 'Doc' Smith Tosses Hat Into Increasingly Crowded District 10 Ring

Eric "Doc" Smith

Eric "Doc" Smith -- a musician and environmental activist who those keeping track of such things have noticed showing up at an increasing number of politically important events and standing on the podium side of a growing tally of City Hall demonstrations -- told SF Weekly this morning he's officially filing his papers today to run for District 10 supervisor.

Smith joins what is already the most packed electoral field -- he's the eighth would-be successor to Supervisor Sophie Maxwell to officially toss his cap in the ring -- and he expects throngs more locals to follow suit: "I imagine it will become ridiculously crowded," he says.

Here are the candidates thus far: Drug counselor Cedric Akbar, educator James Calloway, Marie Franklin, activist Espanola Jackson (described as "the ubiquitous Espanola Jackson" by the Potrero View -- make of that what you will), La Vaughan Moore, community worker Rodney Hampton, Jr., and realtor Diane Wesley Smith. Former Supervisor and State Senator (and current Integrated Waste Management Board member) Carole Migden is looming around this race, headed for either an improbable political comeback or the crushing political defeat that may end her career as an elected official once and for all -- should she choose to run. 

Smith, using the judicious language of an officially declared politician, noted that "A certain Ms. Migden is deciding" whether to run, "and I am undaunted in that regard."

We're putting our money on the crushing defeat as well.

For those following the eclectic D-10 political scene, Smith is a boardmember of the Biofuel Recycling Cooperative, and was appinted to the Mission Bay Citizens Advisory Committee this year by Mayor Gavin Newsom and to the Eastern Neighborhood Citizens Advisory Committee by Maxwell; he is the former Web maven for Randy Shaw's BeyondChron.com and decribes himself as a progressive.

Also, he invented a digital percussion instrument called the "drummstick" and has drummed or worked as a sound engineer for Madonna, Mickey Hart, Jimmy Cliff, Brian Eno, Gladys Knight, and others -- meaning he'd have the best musician stories of any supervisor since Tom Ammiano (Tom wasn't a musician -- but he always has the best stories).