No, Chris Daly Won't Endorse Theresa Sparks. She Can Live With That.

So by the time Sparks finally filed to run a few weeks back, it was no longer any secret that Daly will be throwing his progressive heft behind another candidate in the race. 

Sparks' response to Daly's dis? Fine with me.

Well, actually, when we first asked Sparks if she'd even want Daly's endorsement, she waffled for a second, "It hadn't occurred to me. I don't know." And then: "No, probably not. Because he and I see the world completely different when it comes to these groups of neighborhoods. ... I would not have done things he's done throughout the years. He says he felt he single-handedly blocked the development of Market Street and he's going to continue to do that. I would want to work out a compromise for the various factions there and talk through it. He holds the city hostage over this area, and I just don't get it."

Chris Daly

​Sparks said she had "no response" to Daly's turgid prose regarding the Weekly story, but then added what sounded like a response to us: "A lot of people say I hope he keeps doing that. That's the biggest thing he can do to help you."

Sparks says she didn't want to make the campaign personal. "I'm hoping -- maybe this is naive -- I'm hoping we can have this campaign and it can be about the issues and not personal attacks." She says her biggest plans for the urban district that includes SOMA and the Tenderloin are improved public safety, cleaning up Mid-Market, and creating more jobs. So far Sparks has rounded up three honorary co-chairs for her campaign -- Sen. Mark Leno, comedian Margaret Cho, and Stuart Milk, Harvey Milk's nephew.

The candidate says she doesn't want to continue to talk about Daly during this whole campaign. "I'm not running against Chris Daly, I'm running to help the neighborhoods and the people." But even Sparks, who only moved to District 6 herself last fall, couldn't resist taking a shot at the current occupant of the job she covets: "Quite frankly, he doesn't live here anymore. His interests lie elsewhere."

An earlier version of this story implied that Daly wrote SF Weekly was compensated by powerful Downtown interests to write its Sparks feature. He didn't state that -- though he did, incorrectly, claim that SF Weekly's piece was part of some sort of top-down, highly organized campaign.