Here's a couple of interesting points that I've now heard twice about the SF Mayor's race.

Anyone running against Newsome would have automatically gotten 42% of the vote. Apparently Ammiano back in 1999 received the same amount. So if it was Leal, Ammiano, even Aliotio running against Newsome, wouldn't gotten 42% of the vote.

5 percentage points that went to Gonzalez was due to a Willie Brown backlash. There was so much hatred of Willie Brown, that there were people in San Francisco who wouldn't have voted for Newsome just because Willie Brown endorsed him.

Pundits are also saying that many people are tired of the Demo party machine, and that weariness brought The Gropenator (new term for Arnie courtesy of Bernie Ward) the Cali Republic's governor seat, and brought many votes to Gonzalez.

It makes you wonder that if there wasn't the Willie Brown factor, would Newsome have won by 12 percentage points as did Kamala Harris in the DA's race.

The big loser is the San Francisco Bay Guardian. They endorsed Hallinan and Gonzalez and lost on both endorsements.

I was listening to all the post-election night coverage, because I love politican spin and I wanted to see how this election would be spun.

The funniest bit I heard, and perhaps this is indicative of the intelligence of the Green Party campaign, was the Green Party saying that they were going to go after Newsom's supervisor seat.

Newsom ran in the Marina district, which is a yuppie enclave with one of the highest per capita median income levels in the districts. Most people there are conservative, and I would even venture to say many of them are republicans as well. Marina people and their self-centered, rich and selfish ways are the butt of many inside SF jokes.

How the Green Party thinks they're going to take the Marina is something only they know.

If the Greens do get a supervisor to win the Marina district, then I think the Demo party in San Francisco has something to seriously worry about. But I think not.

I'm proud to say I'm one of those absentee voters who voted for Gavin Newsome, and elected him the mayor of the city and county of San Francisco.

I was nervous on the way back from my writing seminar. I knew Gavin would win, but I was still remembering when I thought Al Gore had won the 2000 presidential election and the disappointment I felt afterwards. I was tempted to ask someone on my muni ride home, but I was tired and didn't want to get into a political discussion.

I even half convinced myself that I was going to go to bed as soon as I got home, and not worry about who won till the morning. But my curiousity was killing me, so I turned on the TV just in time to see Newsome give his victory speech.

I was clapping with joy alone in the dark in my living room and thinking to myself, yes Brenda, despite what people say, in San Franciso there is a God.

Here's an interview with Andres Serrano, by noted art writer Coco Fusco. This guy is a trip. He's lately been photographing members of the Klu Klux Klan.

Shooting the Klan: An Interview with Andres Serrano