John Avalos: Will He Run for S.F. Mayor?

He has what Chris Daly doesn't -- electability

​Not too long ago Supervisor John Avalos said, verbatim, that he was not running for mayor of San Francisco. Suddenly, in the last week, the District 11 supe has changed his tune and surprised people with talk -- serious talk -- about jumping into the race.

Curious about this out-of-the-blue about-face, SF Weekly called Avalos last night to ask him whether he truly wanted to become the city's chief executive.

Avalos told us that he had initially considered entering the race after it became clear that the election was the moderates' to lose. But for some reason or another, he found that people were not jazzed about the idea of his running.

So he left it at that.

Asshole, hippie for mayor?

​But then this whole Twitter deal happened, and Avalos lost his pet proposal -- to ban the Botanical Garden fee for tourists.

But any progressive could jump into the race to try and ward off the moderate majority at City Hall. So why Avalos?

Because he isn't Chris Daly.

As everyone knows, Daly is plain unelectable. The prolifically profane former District 6 supervisor proved this when he sank to a new low during the last three weeks of his tenure on the board when he threatened to haunt Supervisor David Chiu and the moderates. Although, as we have pointed out before, you have to be dead to haunt someone.

Daly, then punctuated his public temper tantrum with his now-famous saying, "It's on like Donkey Kong." He then hosted his own roast where he was respectfully remembered as an asshole and a hippie -- in that order.

In the last month, Daly has started rattling the cage again, making claims that he will run for mayor (and he will) if no other progressives step up and declare their candidacy in the overly crowded field of moderates.

"They think we are not going to have a candidate, but we will," Daly told SF Weekly last month. "And if it's not anyone else in the near future, it will be me."

Maybe the progressives in town realized that Daly was serious, which then made Avalos seem more appealing.

"I'm talking to all the same people who weren't that enthusiastic about it before, and they are willing to relook at it," Avalos says of his potential bid.

So when will he make a final decision?

"I think shortly -- within the next week," Avalos says.

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