Hellman to Run for Mayor of San Francisco?

By Geremy Shea

April 1, 2011

Warren Hellman, the San Francisco financier with deep ties to the city’s civic establishment, is set to announce today an exploratory campaign for mayor, according to people with first-hand knowledge of Hellman’s plans.

The gruff and casual millionaire – who is not particularly given to public speaking – is expected to declare his candidacy in song while strumming a banjo on the steps of City Hall shortly before 11 a.m. this morning.

Hellman, who is also the chairman of The Bay Citizen, will bar The San Francisco Chronicle from the press event, according to Hellman insiders.

In a shock move following apparently successful pension reform talks, Hellman has tapped Jeff Adachi, the public defender, as his finance director while Tim Paulson, the head of the San Francisco Labor Council, will organize his field campaign. Insiders also said Nathan Ballard, the glib spokesman for Prop. B and former Mayor Gavin Newsom, will take over as communications director to do whatever it takes to get positive media coverage for Hellman’s campaign.

Speaking by telephone this week from Hong Kong, Rose Pak, the Chinatown power broker, said she would not support Hellman because “he’s not fucking Chinese.”

People's Republic of China attaché Rose Pak.

An aide to Willie L. Brown Jr. said the former mayor could not immediately comment because he was dining with his friend Sonya.

BFFs Willie Brown and Sonya Molodetskaya.

“Let’s be honest, Da Mayor was probably the one who convinced Warren to run,” said the aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Mayor Edwin M. Lee, speaking to reporters at his fiftieth budget townhall–or merchant walk, we don’t know which — said Hellman would add unpredictability to a tight race.

“I think this definitely mixes up the race,” said Lee. “I wouldn’t want to be running against Warren. Then again, I’m not running.”

He paused, and added: “Unless Rose says so.”

San Francisco interim mayor, Ed Lee.

When asked about Hellman’s impact on the race, Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi responded with an unintelligibly long and contorted sentence.

“It would behoove us to rethink the best approach at this juncture in the realm of mayoral candidacies as it pertains to competitive candidates that,” he said trailing off before adding: “Oh, by the way, foot patrols.”

Supervisor and Sheriff hopeful, Ross Mirkarimi, with his son, Theo.

And when reached shortly after 4:00 p.m. on Thursday, Aaron Peskin, the San Francisco Democratic Party chairman, was altogether unintelligible.

“Fuck,” said Peskin, adding: “Fear the beard.”

Aaron "Fear the beard" Peskin.

FCJ Editor

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