We don’t usually get into mayoral politics here in the Lower Haight. But last night, mayoral politics got into us!
Interim Mayor Ed Lee skipped last night’s mayoral debate, which focused on issues of community violence and was hosted by the Fillmore Neighborhood Association and District 5 Democratic Club.
The debate was scheduled from 6pm-8pm, and the mayor, though not confirmed, had been expected to attend. In fact, he was listed as such on the debate’s flyer.
Instead, Lee was 10 blocks to the south, having beers at Toronado and Mad Dog in the Fog.
We first caught wind of Lee’s visit to the neighborhood at 6:03pm, when Twitter user @joesarabia tweeted:
@haighteration Ed Lee is over at Toronado’s right now
At 6:43pm, The Examiner filed a report that Lee was on a “quest for a little face time with the community.” The report added that during his Lower Haight swing, Lee “was able to talk shop with people, discuss his golf game and have a few laughs.”
(We feel confident reporting that this marks the first and last time the topic of golf has ever been discussed at Toronado.)
Around the same time, Chronicle writer Chuck Nevius cozily tweeted:
#sfmayor. On pub crawl with mayor ed Lee. Yes you read that right. Much more fun than a debate he says
And in a lengthier post filed at 4am this morning, the Examiner glowingly discusses how the mayor, a “good tipper,” changed several voters’ minds during his visit, and made at least one woman “coo.”
Meanwhile, over on Fillmore, the Fog City Journal notes that a “visibly infuriated” candidate Michela Alioto-Pier called out Lee for his “completely disrespectful” absence. In Alioto-Pier’s words, “running for mayor and being the mayor of San Francisco is not always going to be a party.”
But come on — isn’t that a little harsh? The mayor just wanted to get out there and grab a few beers with the people! Nevermind that his drinking buddies just happened to be reporters, and the only time he could go on his bender was while all the other candidates were, you know, debating the issues.
Look, we totally agree with Ed on this one — we’d much rather have drinks at Toronado and Mad Dog than participate in a mayoral debate. Heck, we once skipped a job interview to go to the beach.
And we were definitely not surprised when we didn’t get that job, either.