Josh Wolf for Mayor

August 15, 2007
For immediate release:

SAN FRANCISCO – On Friday, August 17th at 5:00PM the San Francisc mayoral candidates will gather on the lawn in front of City Hall for the first of many debates this election season. Twelve of the fourteen candidates have confirmed that they will participate in the forum. The debates will continue every Friday until the election and are being organized by the 2007 Mayoral Candidates Collaborative.

The origins of the Candidates Collaborative can be traced back to the 2004 District Five Board of Supervisors race when “Diamond Dave” Whitaker envisioned a forum through which candidates could unite around the issues they share, build alliances, and provide a forum for all the candidates. With the help of Julian Davis’ leadership the first Candidates Collaborative proved an amazing success and nearly all of the 22 candidates participated including Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi.

Organized by H. Brown and Josh Wolf, Friday’s debate is intended to revitalize the Candidates Collaborative for the 2007 mayoral race. Several candidates have expressed an interest in working together to ensure that everyone’s voice is heard, and the collaborative is expected to expand its plans in the near future.

The debate will start at 5:00PM and run until 6:30PM. The candidates will be provided with three minutes to introduce themselves and explain why they are running. Following introductions, the candidates will be granted an opportunity to ask a question to another candidate and he or she will have one minute to respond. The debate will conclude with the moderator taking questions from the audience. A different media outlet will moderate each debate; Luke Thomas of Fog City Journal has been asked to facilitate the first in the series.

The following candidates have confirmed that they will participate in Friday’s debate: H. Brown, George Davis, Tony Hall, Lonnie Holmes, Grasshopper Kaplan, Quintin Mecke, Wilma Pang, Michael Powers, Ahimsa Porter Sumchai, Billy Bob Whitmer, and Josh Wolf. The Mayor’s Office has not yet confirmed whether Gavin Newsom would be able to attend.