In San Francisco it is the Democrats vs. the Democrats in San Francisco

In other cities the Democrats and the Republicans bicker with each other. But this is San Francisco so it's the Democrats against the other Democrats.

The Alice B. Toklas Democratic Club sent a formal letter to Aaron Peskin, chair of the Democratic County Central Committee protesting the DCCC's tactics against moderate candidates Mark Farrell, Scott Wiener, Theresa Sparks, and Steve Moss in the election last November. The committee paid for mailers that charged that the four were backed by ''far-right millionaire,'' Tom Coates.

"Such tactics don't win elections for Democrats,'' the letter says. "Rather they undermine morale and distract our party from fighting conservative propaganda and falsehoods.''

Farrell and Wiener won their races and in general the November elections were seen as a loss for the Peskin-led progressives who control the DCCC, which explains why he was dismissive of the charges.

"Must be a slow news day,'' Peskin texted. "I always tried to be gracious in victory.''

The Toklas Club, generally considered a moderate LGBT organization, is probably raising the issue with an eye toward November's mayoral election. Since a moderate Democratic candidate would likely face the same kind of attacks from the DCCC, the Toklas Club letter asks that the committee take up the issue for a "full, robust discussion'' Jan. 26.

As to the issue of whether the candidates took money from Republican Coates, it is complicated. Coates did contribute several hundred thousands dollars to the election. The money didn't go to the candidates, but into a fund called "independent expenditures.'' The candidates had no say in where the money went from there, nor did they have any approval over any mailers or ads. But the money did support the moderates.

So you make the call. There's only two things we can say with certainty. There will be plenty of drama at the Jan. 26 meeting. And second, not everyone will be happy when it is over.

Posted By: C.W. Nevius (Email) | Jan 18 at 04:30 PM

Nevius ducks pie attack

When people heard that someone threw a pie at me during the Chris Daly roast Wednesday night, almost everyone had the same question: What kind of pie?

I was hoping for a little more concern about me, but apparently the desire to know if it was banana cream or chocolate is irresistible. Frankly, I thought it was a shaving cream pie, but Andy Blue, a member of the pie insurgents, insists it was a cream pie so I'll take his word for it.

I guess I would have known if it had hit me, but that isn't a good trade-off as far as I'm concerned. I saw a woman coming at me with a pie in the ready position and I reached out and grabbed her arm as she threw, causing the pie to fly over my shoulder.

This gave me the chance to try out the following line: It was a progressive pie so it was way left.

Of course, I knew I was taking a bit of a chance going to the roast. Daly's supporters aren't exactly my biggest fans. I was asked to be a "surprise'' roaster by all around good guy Alex Clemens, a friend of Daly's, and I figured it would be fun.

I thought Jennifer Friedenbach, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness, handled it perfectly. She and I have disagreed on issues for years, but she came up before the roast started, gave me a ration of abuse for showing up, and we both left smiling.

Overall it was perfectly fine. I was booed and heckled a bit, but the lines — deftly crafted by David Owen — actually got a few laughs. I was taking a deep breath and thinking that wasn't as bad as I thought when I stepped off the stage and saw Blue and the pie woman closing in.

I was also tipped off by the fact that they had a photographer tracking me. After the pie missed, and a security guy jumped between us, Blue made an attempt to get back and grab the pie remnants for a second try. I put my hand on his chest, held him off, and said, "Andy, it's over.'' (Almost immediately I imagined a photo of me appearing to choke Blue.)

Since then the response has been really nice. Aaron Peskin, former President of the Board of Supervisors who's been dinged more than once in my column, left the stage and came over right away to see if he could get me a towel. Daly waved his arms to say he had nothing to do with the incident. A guy in a chicken hat rushed up, was held back by the security guard, but reached around to shake my hand and say, "I disagree with everything you write, but you showed some guts coming here.''

E-mails began flying this morning. Blue finally stepped up around noon, saying in an e-mail, "For the record I didn't do the pie-ing, though I give massive props to the person who did and consider the person a hero.''

He went on to say I am "a fear and hate-mongering bully and he deserves a pie in the face . . . and suffer a little public humiliation for all the feat and hate he spreads.''

So. Not a fan?

Actually, Blue and I have a bit of a history. He was a huge opponent of the sit/lie ordinance, which I supported. When the campaign began he started sending me e-mails telling me "You're going down. You're going to lose this.'' And other general smack talk.

This went on for a while until I wrote him back. Why don't you come down and have a cup of coffee with me, I asked. We can talk. There was a pause in the e-mails. Then he replied and said he didn't think it would be a good idea to meet at this time.

C'mon, I wrote back, I'm a pudgy, middle-aged, newspaper guy. I'm not going to hurt you. Man up.

Bottom line, he never took me up on the offer for a sit down.

While people like Blue may not be my biggest fans, the pie incident sent people reaching out to show their support.

I would say, however that my 19-year-old daughter is seriously pissed. And she was captain of her high school water polo team. I'd stay away from her for awhile, Andy.

Posted By: C.W. Nevius (Email) | Jan 06 at 02:40 PM

San Francisco's next mayor doesn't attract many votes

Wherever you go in San Francisco you hear speculation about who might be the next mayor.

So you will interested to know that a recent poll has Board of Supervisors President David Chiu taking a commanding lead with 30 percent of the vote. He is eight percentage points ahead of former mayoral candidate Matt Gonzalez and a full 13 ahead of City Attorney Dennis Herrera.

Actually, that might be a little misleading.

The survey is being conducted on SFmayorvote.com, and so far it has not exactly caught fire. There were roughly 70 votes cast. Chiu had about 20 votes compared to Herrera's nine.

"One of the things about social media is the producer-consumer dynamic,'' said Jesse Sanford, a graduate student at Cal who designed the site. "We just launched (Monday) morning and it is right after Christmas.''

You have to admit it is a novel approach. To vote you'll need a Twitter account. Tweet using #vote #sfmayor and the name of your candidate.

Sanford, who calls himself a "democracy activist,'' says the idea is to "counter the influence of money in politics'' by opening up the process.

He said he's not friends with any of the candidates on his list, nor has he been paid by any of the candidates. In fact, he said he has a horrible track record of picking winners (in the latest Board of Supervisors race for District Eight, he backed Raphael Mandelman).

But there are some quirks. For starters, the potential candidates are suggested by tweets. New additions to the list include Supervisors Eric Mar and Michela Alioto Pier and Marcy Berry. Marcy who? Yeah, we had to look that one up too. Marcy is apparently the chair of San Francisco's Libertarian Party.

There is also a bit of a cultural disconnect. Sanford said he knew that Sheriff Michael Hennessey and Public Utilities Commission general manager Ed Harrington were often mentioned as interim candidates, but he said he couldn't find much about them.

"Neither of them had a Wikipedia entry or a Twitter account,'' he said.

Posted By: C.W. Nevius (Email) | Dec 29 at 09:00 AM

Internet trolls attack former police chief after his stroke

Former San Francisco police chief Earl Sanders certainly has his issues. Just this month the Chronicle ran a story on a judge's ruling that Sanders knew a witness in a murder trial had given false testimony, but did not correct it, resulting in a tainted conviction.

But when it was reported that Sanders, 73, had suffered a serious stroke and was hospitalized, some of the online comments were incredibly vicious. Anonymous writers said things like, "I hope he dies and rots in hell . . . the hotter and longer the better.''

It's a familiar phenomenon. Cowardly internet trolls write the meanest possible posts, knowing that they will get a public viewing without anyone confronting them. The idea that these are people, with families and friends, seems lost, along with a sense of humanity.

But this time there was a response. Marcus Sanders, the chief's son, posted a reply. (In it, he refers to another case, where two defendants, Antoine Goff and John Tennison, were freed from prison after serving 10 years because the courts found some evidence was not disclosed during the trial.)

Here is the response in full:

''You are all talking about my father. And your comments are very cruel. Its easy to be cruel when you are hidden in the anonymity of the Internet. I am the Chief's son, Marcus Sanders - None of you have the courage to say what you've said in your comments to my face.

''If you had the courage I might educate you on the real facts about my father's over 30 years of public service, the circumstances of the Factual Finding of Innocence granted to my father and how his courage to stand up lead to the release of Tennison and Goff and this latest case. But, (spending) time to educate you would be complete waste of my energy in educating you ignorant Internet Trolls! You never deserved my father's time and service! That's why I spend my career getting rich and not serving a day working for an undeserving public!''

I reached Marcus Thursday afternoon and he confirmed he was the one who responded.

"We're used to the battle back and forth about my father in the news,'' he said. "But we're a family, going through a pretty tough time and when I read some of those comments I thought they were just horrible.''

Marcus said this was his first experience with internet trolls, but he wouldn't mind meeting up with some of them.

"I'm 6-2 and I weigh about 250,'' he said. "Come up and say that to my face.''

Posted By: C.W. Nevius (Email) | Dec 23 at 05:17 PM

Chief Earl Sanders suffers a stroke

Prentice (Earl) Sanders, San Francisco's first African-American police chief, suffered a stroke last week and is confined to the Davies Medical Center. Sanders, who was recently in the news over irregularities in a murder case he investigated in 1989, is expected to need a lengthy rehabilitation.

His friend, David Heller, said Sanders is "stable now, but he isn't ambulatory and has trouble speaking . . . but everyone is optimistic." Sanders served as chief of police for 14 months after he was appointed to the position in 2002.

Sanders was well known for his partnership with homicide inspector Napoleon Hendrix. Their most famous case was helping in the investigation of the Zebra killings. Sanders wrote a book, Zebra Murders, about the racially motivated homicides.

Heller says Sanders' family is encouraging his friends to visit or call to lift his spirits.

Posted By: C.W. Nevius (Email) | Dec 22 at 03:20 PM

Porsche-driving graffiti foe gets mayoral appointment

Back on Thanksgiving Day I wrote a column about Paula Mulhall, a real estate agent who jumps out of her Porsche with a paint roller and cleans up graffiti.

Mulhall, a high-energy, no-nonsense type, said she was just interested in cleaning up the neighborhood. She wasn't looking for a commendation from the mayor or an appointment to some board.

Well tough luck.

No sooner had the column appeared than Mulhall found a message on her answering machine. It was Mayor Gavin Newsom.

"He said he just read the article and would I consider being on the graffiti task force,'' Mulhall said. "I said, of course.''

The non-paid position will reinforce her inner Hoosier. She told me back in Novembmer that she's became a graffiti vigilante because, ''I was raised in Indiana. And it was just this barren wasteland. We didn't have real beauty. So that's why this offends me."

She's not the only one. Mulhall says the day the column appeared she began to receive e-mails of support from all over the country.

"One person e-mailed me from the Macy's Day Parade in Manhattan,'' she said.

And the next thing she knew she was standing on the Mayor's Balcony at City Hall being sworn in as a board member.

"It was quite a ceremony,'' she said.

Posted By: C.W. Nevius (Email) | Dec 21 at 02:15 PM

Shoe shine man, battles back from surgery with readers' help

Larry Moore, the Market Street shoe shine man who has gone from homeless panhandler to hard-working city favorite, is in good spirits but still facing a lengthy hospital stay following four extensive surgeries at SF General Hospital.

But he won't have to worry about losing his home while he is recooperating. Warm-hearted readers have stepped forward to donate to his expenses in a big way. Many of them have gotten to know Larry over the last two years as we have chronicled his determination to make his way without accepting welfare payments.

They helped him in June of last year when he needed money for a city permit to shine shoes, and they responded again this month when he learned that a serious infection in his back was going to require a series of surgical procedures.

A column about his problems prompted a flood of cards, letters, and checks to Loren Lopin, a Market Street attorney who has agreed

to be a clearing house for messages and contributions. (Lopin's office is at 625 Market, Suite 1600, SF, 94105)Lopin says he's gotten so much mail he's created a spreadsheet to keep track of it all.

"I have received 88 separate envelopes and some contain up to three separate checks,'' Lopin said Wednesday. "I am meeting tomorrow with a trustee of a (anonymous) foundation that said they would pay for six months rent. When I walked to the Rotary Christmas party yesterday a woman handed me $100 for Larry. Pretty cool!''

Credit should also go to Healthy San Francisco, the city's universal health care program. Thanks to it, Larry's medical bills are covered. I spoke to Larry on Wednesday and he said he's looking at four to six weeks in the hospital and then he'll be going home. I asked him what he would be able to do at that point.

"I'm going to work,'' he said. "People didn't look down on me when I got sick and I'm going to put all this behind me when I get back to work.''

Larry is a bit of a celebrity at San Francisco General (he'd love to get a card, by the way, just to say you're thinking of him.) Earlier in the week, hospital spokesperson Rachael Kagen stopped by to see him.

Kagen said she was just letting him know that she was there and if there were media requests she'd be happy to help coordinate them.

"Oh no,'' Larry said, "C.W. Nevius handles all my press.''

Posted By: C.W. Nevius (Email) | Dec 16 at 09:15 AM

Chronicle Readers Reach Out to Help Larry the Shoe Shine Guy

The response to today's column about the problems facing Larry Moore, the city's favorite shoe shine man, was immediate. E-mails began to pour in, beginning at 6 a.m. and have just begun to tail off.

So far nearly 80 have contained specific offers of financial help, ranging from a family trust that offers to pay six months of rent (anonymously) to 20 or more who offered a month's rent. There was an offer of a hot meal and greetings from a sitting judge.

And one attorney wrote to congratulate fellow lawyer Loren Lopin, who has helped Larry from the beginning, for being a stand up guy. I couldn't agree more.

As soon as the offers of help began to pour in, I called Lopin and asked if he had any ideas of how to handle the money. He offered to make his office a mailing address for checks. He'll accept them, then deposit them in Larry's bank account.

If you are interested in making a contribution (or if you'd just like to send Larry a card and wish him well) here's the address:

Loren Lopin -- attorney 625 Market St. Suite 1600 San Francisco, CA 94105

Posted By: C.W. Nevius (Email) | Dec 09 at 02:50 PM

World Series: All This and a Baseball Game Too

Is this the World Series or what? Walking into the ballpark before Wednesday's game, I ran into Giants' President Larry Baer. And while we were talking Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi walked up, wearing a Giants' orange scarf, and I was able to get an exclusive interview.

"Go Giants,'' she told the Chronicle.

And then just around the corner was former 49ers quarterback Steve Young and his family. Young introduced his two sons, one of whom was wearing a very hip fake beard.

Also walking the lower hallway, Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

Didn't see Joe Montana, but did get to meet the cutest Montana of them all, Montana Newsom. San Francisco's First Baby, who had her first birthday last month, brought her parents, Gavin and Jennifer, to the game. And, unlike some politicians who made an appearance, got on TV, and then left, the Newsoms stayed. Of course, with seats only a few rows up from the Giants' on deck circle, who wouldn't?

------------------------------------------

The most optimistic man in San Francisco walked up to the ticket window four hours before the first pitch with a question: "Are there any tickets for tonight's game?''

------------------------------------------

During the National League Championship series with the Phillies, the young son of right fielder Cody Ross stopped in at the Little Giants' kids ball park in left field. Youngsters can swing a plastic bat at wiffle balls thrown by staff.

"He was not only hitting them over the fence, he was hitting them over the net behind the fence,'' said an usher.

And how old is he?

"Four,'' she said.

------------------------------

Up in Section 321, they were delighted to be featured in a page one column in the Chronicle Wednesday morning. (Check out the view

from the upper deck seats in the photo.) The group was spotlighted because they'd formed friendships and social networks after meeting each other at ball games.

They even have an unofficial mayor, Mike Denton, who was given a T-shirt reading, "Mayor of Section 321,'' by his buddies. They had to raze Denton a bit when he showed up before the game.

"We did a little 'Pomp and Circumstance,' when he came in,'' said Chris Solberg.

-------------------------------------

Posted By: C.W. Nevius (Email) | Nov 30 at 10:34 AM

San Francisco Wants to Ban Happy Meals, Sailboats, and Lemonade Stands

San Francisco is a funny place. Everybody says that but nobody laughs. But why should the out-of-towners have all the fun? Lets take a less-than-serious look at some of the stories that made news this week. For example:

THE NEWS: The Board of Supervisors votes 8-3 to ban toys in happy meal unless they meet new health standards. San Francisco youngsters immediately become noticeably thinner. Is it possible they were eating the toys?

NEXT UP: Supervisor Eric Mar's bill to ban olives from martinis unless the gin/vodka is low-cal. Motto: Wouldn't you rather have a nice cup of chicken soup instead?

THE NEWS: Supervisors vote 10-1 not to landmark the aging North Beach Library, which is not only old, but unfortunately homely, and not architecturally significant. Only Supervisor Chris Daly votes in favor.

NEXT UP: Plans are hatched to landmark Daly as the official San Francisco Contrarian. Daly votes no.

THE NEWS: Supervisors raise questions about plans to bring the America's Cup to San Francisco. Sure it would bring in (sail)boats of money and international exposure to the city, but what is the deal with turning long-term development rights over to Larry Ellison. After all, what's there now — decaying, run down piers only suitable for a parking lot — is a wonderful advertisement for the city.

NEXT UP: Application is made for Historical Landmark status for the piers. The city is losing its rich history of decaying, run-down parking lots and something must be done.

THE NEWS: Members of the homeless advocacy community announce plans to challenge the new sit/lie law in court, despite the fact that over 130,000 San Franciscans voted in favor. Advocates said they had to go to court because they were worried about all those little girls with lemonade stands who might be tossed in the slammer under the new law.

NEXT UP: Rather than attacking every new idea to address problems on the street, the homeless groups come up with some ideas of their own. They take them to city officials, work out a compromise, and try to make it work for everyone. Naw, too far-fetched.

THE NEWS: In a surprising and tricky bit of legislative jujitsu, Supervisors David Campos, John Avalos, and Chris Daly introduce a motion to take nominations and appoint a "successor mayor'' (notice it doesn't say interim) next Tuesday. The move, if it works, may very well result in Campos winning the job.

That would also cut out the newly elected members of the Board, who will be sworn in January. The assumption is that, as the officeholder, the successor will have a leg up in the regular election a year from now. The supervisors say they are only making the move to insure a "smooth transition.''

NEXT UP: Deciding to make an even smoother transition, the current board decides to pick a successor to the successor. Assuming that the interim mayor is elected to a full four-year term in 2011, and then to a second term in 2015, that person would take over in nine years.

''I am thrilled and honored to be named mayor,'' said Henry Wong, a sopohomore at Lincoln High School. "I have been interested in local politics ever since I stopped getting toys in my Happy Meals.''

Posted By: C.W. Nevius (Email) | Nov 10 at 11:52 AM