Jordan makes runoff

After the thumping bass of a Rolling Stone's song had died down and dance troupes from Bolivia and Russia had taken their last choreographed steps, Frank Jordan took center stage to a crowd chanting "four more years."

Surrounded by red, white and blue balloons, Jordan strode up to a podium Tuesday night to announce, "the only special interests that I represent are the people of San Francisco."

"I can tell you that we are we going to win tonight," Jordan continued. "The citizens of this city have to decide to elect someone who will make public safety the number one priority of his administration, and who will continue to ensure that we have clean streets and a healthy business community."

As the crowd roared its approval, Jordan said his office would bring 35,000 new jobs to the city over the next four years, and that he "wouldn't mortgage the city's future with money that wasn't there."

As votes trickled in, (delayed by a computer breakdown in the registrar's office), and it became clear that the mayor had mustered enough votes to make the runoff, champagne and accolades for Jordan flowed freely. So did criticism of his runoff opponent Willie Brown.

As of early Wednesday morning, both candidates had received about 34 percent of the vote, with the other candidates conceding defeat.

Rufus Watkins, who said he has known Jordan "since he was a little kid," echoed the view of many of Jordan's supporters about the mayor's strengths.

"Jordan is a decent, down-to-earth man, and he knows the city," he said.

"When I was a teen-ager, and Jordan was a captain in the police force, he was very involved in the Bayview area. He was active with the SAFE program, which helped keep kids like me off the street," Watkins said.

SF State student Bronwyn Wornell, an intern for Jordan's administration, was impressed with his "graceful diplomacy," and his "bold stances on unpopular issues."

"I've seen how Mayor Jordan conducts himself in front of world dignitaries and in front of ordinary citizens. He treats everyone with the same quiet dignity," Wornell said.

Wornell, who also said that Jordan's Matrix program was a "bold step to improve life-threatening conditions in Golden Gate Park," thought that Brown was a "little too personable" for her tastes.

"He oozes personability," she said. "It's too much."

Elena Barbagelata, daughter of late supervisor John Barbagelata, takes that sentiment a step further.

"The main reason I'm involved in this campaign is to see that Willie Brown doesn't get elected," she said.

Barbagelata said when her father was supervisor he wrote San Francisco's runoff laws specifically to prevent Brown from becoming mayor.

"My father knew that Willie Brown would be term-limited out of office one day, and that San Francisco would be the little apple bobbing around that he couldn't resist.

"So he wrote a law requiring that the mayor must receive at least 51 percent of the vote, or face a runoff. That way, he figured Brown wouldn't get the mayorship in a cake-walk."

Barbagelata called Jordan a man of "integrity and incredible honesty."

Commenting on the infamous picture of Jordan naked in the shower, she said it was an example of Jordan's political naivet.

"You can take the boy out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the boy," she said, an ironic compliment for the candidate who has prided himself on having "never left the city."

Barbagelata also suggested that Brown should take a page from Jordan's book, and "stand buck naked in front of city hall," wearing a sign saying "This Space for Sale."

[ Golden Gater Online November 9, 1995 ]

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