San Francisco Mayor's Race Offers Drama, but No Suspense

Powers, 42, got into the race to show that even the owner of a sex club could be a viable candidate in a city where ordinary people felt politics was moving beyond them.

"Everybody says we're bozos," Powers said. "And the forums did get a little squirrelly. You had Grasshopper smoking pot, and Kenny the Clown [a write-in] juggling fire. To try to tolerate that became a little difficult."

But tolerance long has been a core appeal of San Francisco, the American city where the alternative first joined the mainstream.

"The city of art and innovation," said Rinaldi, who carried the nickname "Chicken" from childhood into an adult career as an artist and impresario. He dove into politics to point out that the bohemian heart of the city was being pushed into the sea by luxury condos.

"There is an endless supply of millionaires and billionaires willing to pay endless amounts to have a pied-a-terre -- however it's pronounced -- here because this is where all the art and the cool stuff is happening," Rinaldi said. "Except that the artists and people who make the cool stuff can't afford to live here any more."

He said the incumbent is "not a bad mayor -- just not a great mayor for San Francisco." Last week, for example, Newsom delivered the annual State of the City address as a PowerPoint presentation. It was an aptly corporate choice for an incumbent who has welcomed massive real estate and commercial development, which rivals blame for crowding out everything else.

"I'm totally embarrassed to admit I moved back in with my parents," said Pearl Song, a budding biographer who gave her age only as over 40. "I do some light housekeeping for him, but it really doesn't justify my retired father taking care of me instead of me taking care of him."

The election comes 40 years after the intersection of Haight and Ashbury became a mecca for hippies in the Summer of Love. Its anniversary was marked by an outdoor concert the San Francisco Chronicle's Web site captioned "Summer of Love Handles." But the sensibility still suffuses the city's culture.

"San Francisco pushes an agenda that the rest of the country has to respond to, like gay marriage and the minimum wage," said Quintin Mecke, who runs an advocacy group focused on public safety and is running for mayor.

"After seven years of Republican rule, we want to be as far left as possible, because we have tilted so far to the right that moderation is not going to get us anywhere near balance."

Indeed, blogger Josh Wolf was compelled to run for mayor after President Bush commuted the sentence of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff. Not exactly a local issue.

But Wolf, who spent 226 days in federal prison for refusing to show authorities footage of violent street protests in the city's Mission District, noted that Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys finished fourth in the 1979 race on the slogan "There's always room for Jello." "There's a tradition here," Wolf said.