1975 San Francisco mayoral election

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1975 San Francisco mayoral election
Flag of San Francisco.svg
  1971 November 4, 1975
December 9, 1975
1979  
  George Moscone, 1975.jpg John Barbagelata Edit Crop.jpg DIANNEFEINSTEIN Alt Crop.jpg
Candidate George Moscone John J. Barbagelata Dianne Feinstein
Party Democratic Republican Democratic
First-round vote66,19540,54039,344
First-round percentage31.52%19.31%18.74%
Second-round vote101,52897,213
Second-round percentage51.09%48.91%

  Milton Marks, 1975.jpg
CandidateJohn A. Ertola Milton Marks
Party Nonpartisan Republican
First-round vote30,36027,910
First-round percentage14.46%13.29%

Mayor before election

Joseph Alioto
Democratic

Elected mayor

George Moscone
Democratic

The 1975 mayoral election was held to select the 37th mayor of San Francisco, and was held in two parts. In the November regular election, then-Speaker of the California State Assembly George Moscone placed first with conservative city supervisor John Barbagelata second and moderate supervisor Dianne Feinstein coming in third. [1] Moscone and Barbagelata thus both advanced to the mandated runoff election in December where Moscone narrowly defeated the conservative supervisor by 4,400 votes, [2] a margin of less than 1%. [1]

Contents

For the rest of his life, Barbagelata maintained that the People's Temple religious cult, led by Jim Jones, committed election fraud by bussing in out-of-town church members to double and triple vote for Moscone under the registrations of dead voters. [2]

Proposition B

With Moscone in office there was a move to redefine how the city's governing Board of Supervisors should be selected as well as paid. [3] Neighborhood activists at that time sought to reduce the influence of downtown businesses and thus the method for selecting supervisors. Their aim was to create a new system of neighborhood-based supervisors. Many of the existing supervisors did not even live in the city itself. The activists founded the SFDE (San Franciscans for District Elections) and managed to get placed the initiative - so-called Proposition T - on a local ballot in November 1976. The ballot was successful but a group of existing supervisors, including Barbagelata, then met to plan a repeal election. However, Barbagelata then took the repeal further by getting put forward a more radical ballot, Proposition B, which called for the recalling of the mayor [Moscone] and a number of other high elected officials in the city. The scheme was referred to as the "fire everybody petition". According to Chester Hartman, in his 1984 book City for Sale: The Transformation of San Francisco, many viewed the measure as Barbagelata's attempt to get back at Moscone, who, he felt had "stolen" the 1975 mayoral election from him. In Moscone's own words: "There's only one goal in his [Barbagelata's] mind and that's to dump me. I just know that his plan has nothing to do with reform, and if John [Barbagelata] tries to sell that to anybody it's a loser." On August 2, 1977, Barbagelata's Proposition B lost 64% to 36%.

Results

First round

San Francisco mayoral election, 1975 (first round)
November 4, 1975 [4]
PartyCandidateVotes%
Democratic George Moscone 66,195 31.52
Republican John J. Barbagelata 40,540 19.31
Democratic Dianne Feinstein 39,34418.74
Nonpartisan John A. Ertola30,36014.46
Republican Milton Marks 27,91013.29
Nonpartisan John C. Diamante2,2181.06
Nonpartisan Roland Sheppard1,0800.51
Nonpartisan Ray Cunningham1,0610.51
Nonpartisan Josie-Lee Kuhlman4770.23
Nonpartisan Donald Donaldson4330.21
Nonpartisan Nicholas F. Benton3620.17

Runoff

San Francisco mayoral election, 1975 (runoff)
December 9, 1975 [5]
PartyCandidateVotes%
Democratic George Moscone 101,528 51.09
Republican John J. Barbagelata 97,21348.91

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References

  1. 1 2 Nolte, Carl, CITY HALL SLAYINGS: 25 Years Later, San Francisco Chronicle, November 26, 2003
  2. 1 2 Cothran, George. Barbagelata's Return? Archived 2014-12-07 at the Wayback Machine , San Francisco Weekly, November 18, 1998.
  3. Chester Hartman, City for Sale. The Transformation of San Francisco. University of California Press, 1984, pp. 227-234.
  4. "RaceID=130503". Our Campaigns. Retrieved June 3, 2019.
  5. "RaceID=130504". Our Campaigns. Retrieved June 3, 2019.