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| Chris Daly -- would have been "hot" |
After Supervisor John Avalos
jumped into the mayor's race Monday afternoon, we started thinking: with so many candidates now running, how will voters decide?
To date, there are more than 30 potential candidates who want to be the city's chief executive. Of those, only nine are serious contenders (unless you count the CBS reporter who took out papers to do a first-person story).
And instead of boring readers with punditry about
why we are seeing so many candidates,
SF Weekly has decided to look at which ones are hot -- and which ones are not, politically speaking.
The top nine contenders -- in no particular order:
Joanna Rees: Not hot. Political consultants have been noncommittal about the unknown venture capitalist. But in our opinion, the fact that she's both nonpolitical
and knows how to make a lot of money automatically makes her hot, hot, hot.
Supevisor David Chiu: Lukewarm. The president of the Board of Supervisors wavers between being hot and not being hot just as much as he
oscillates between being a progressive and a moderate. Chiu staffers have confirmed this in the past by explaining the supervisor just plain doesn't like the "moderate" and "progressive" label, which in itself is kinda hot.
Bevan Dufty: Hot, then not hot, then hot again. As of a month ago, reporters had tuned out this Castro pol; he was no longer on the Board of Supervisors and he was
waning in the election, financially speaking. But if anyone knows how to flipflop overnight, it's Dufty.
Supervisor John Avalos: Hot. There's something to be said for being a purebred progressive who, if elected, would probably refuse to look at any crib notes before mayoral question time -- on principle. Oh, and we're willing to bet he would entertain the press by spinning his '80s vinyl in Room 200. That's hot.
Phil Ting: Not hot. Look, a title like assessor-recorder is already a handicap. And even though the famously boring Ting has tried to show his edgier side with his "Solutions Palooza" tour this past weekend, he still managed to get
upstaged by Lenny the service dog -- who could easily win ugliest pooch of the year.
Dennis Herrera: Hot. A double whammy -- he has a Hispanic last name,
and he fought for gay marriage. If you are still having doubts, Herrera has spokespeople galore standing by, ready to ship out a series of press releases detailing his awesomeness.
Leland Yee: Hot. Everyone has very strong feelings about Yee -- one way or another. But anyone who can
rile up Rush Limbaugh fans enough to get a series of death threats is definitely hot.
Michela Alioto-Pier: Hot? Quite honestly, we almost forgot about her until a recent Chamber poll put her in the top three among all candidates. Hi, Michela!
We were stumped on whether to put former
Supe Tony Hall in the "serious contender" category, and calling around to political consultants didn't seem to help. One of them made a good point -- he has name recognition. But then another one pointed out that Hall spoke at a recent Tea Party rally. We called Hall to find out why on Earth he was at a Tea Party rally. He told
SF Weekly he had no idea if it was a Tea Party rally, and he didn't even know the people who had asked him to speak. But he showed up anyway to give his diatribe about good government. Not hot.
So there you have it: Our list of wannabe mayors -- so far.
Follow us on Twitter at @TheSnitchSF and @SFWeekly
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