Mercurial Supe Candidate Announces Date For Kickoff Event -- Or Will It Be His Withdrawal?

David Villa-Lobos -- now you see him, now you don't?

​If you send a mixed message -- but send it consistently -- are you really sending a mixed message?

That's the koan followers of local politics can ponder when it comes to longshot District 6 Supervisorial candidate David Villa-Lobos. The Tenderloin activist -- who was once hospitalized by thugs who objected to his Gavin Newsom shirt and later underwent a six-day hunger strike after Newsom blew off a community forum he organized -- yesterday announced an Oct. 15 event "kicking-off my supervisor candidacy campaign."

And yet, one sentence later, he postulated that the fete will mark "my withdrawal." Say what?

We caught up with Villa-Lobos and he explained what sparked his indecipherable missive -- the ongoing potential D-6 candidacy of Theresa Sparks, whom Villa-Lobos says told him she's "90 percent" committed to running. 

"She could announce at my event, and then I can stop spending money," said Villa-Lobos, who said he's already sunk nearly $5,000 into his supervisorial campaign. But if Sparks doesn't deign to enter the race at this time, "I'll go all the way -- and probably won't withdraw until after the kickoff," says Villa-Lobos.

Villa-Lobos earlier committed to drop out of the race and toss all his support to Sparks if she threw her hat in the ring. He says she hasn't returned his calls of late regarding this matter, however -- and she didn't return SF Weekly's calls, either.

Sparks is the former president of the Police Commission and now the head of the city's Human Rights Commission. She has been seen making the political rounds of late in tow with Jason Chan, Mayor Gavin Newsom's appointments secretary. Sparks has refused to rule out a run for the Board of Supervisors, and, connecting the dots, some are wondering if Sparks is Newsom's preferred candidate.

If that were the case, Villa-Lobos would drop out posthaste, as his loyalty to Newsom knows no bounds.

"If Gavin lost every dollar he had and was lying in the gutter in the Tenderloin, I'd sill be loyal to him," he says.