Supervisor Bevan Dufty, who will be termed out of his District 8 seat in January 2011, will officially declare his candidacy to be San Francisco's next mayor when he pulls papers to enter the race this morning, Thursday, September 24. He is the first person to do so for an election that is more than two years away.
Dufty, 54, has made no secret of his desire to succeed Mayor Gavin Newsom, who will be termed out of office in January 2012. Should he be elected, Dufty would be the first openly gay person to be San Francisco's mayor
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Dufty has hired Steve Hildebrand, the openly gay deputy national campaign director for President Barack Obama's presidential bid last year, as a campaign adviser. Dufty was one of the first elected leaders in the Bay Area to sign on to Obama's campaign during the Democratic primary race.
He said he admired the grassroots campaign Hildebrand orchestrated for Obama and asked him to help him wage his own "neighborhood block by neighborhood block" mayoral pursuit.
"I was drawn to him because of the type of campaign he leads," explained Dufty when asked why he picked someone who doesn't live in San Francisco to help with his bid for Room 200 in City Hall.
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