Agnos Breezes to Victory in Runoff for S.F. Mayor

Liberal Assemblyman Art Agnos breezed to victory by a 2-to-1 margin over city Supervisor John L. Molinari in their runoff race Tuesday for mayor of San Francisco.

With 395 of 711 precincts counted, Agnos had 67,369 votes, or 69%, to Molinari’s 29,352. Voter turnout--estimated at 36%--was hampered by rains early in the day and further discouraged by opinion polls indicating an Agnos landslide in his bid to succeed Mayor Dianne Feinstein. She is barred from a third four-year term.

Agnos, 49, once a long-shot candidate, overtook Molinari, 52, a City Hall veteran, with an upbeat, grass-roots campaign. Both candidates in the nonpartisan race are registered Democrats.

Even as voters settled one political battle, however, they set up another--a race to decide who will succeed Agnos in Sacramento.

Former Rep. John Burton, one of Agnos’ mentors, has said he may run for the vacant Assembly seat, but so will political consultant Dick Pabich, a favorite of the gay community that often has supported Agnos in recent years.

Ironically, Burton and his powerful brother, the late Rep. Phil Burton, gave Agnos the political muscle he needed 10 years ago to defeat Harvey Milk, a popular homosexual camera store owner. Milk went on to become a city supervisor--and was assassinated along with Mayor George Moscone in 1978--but the political wounds between Agnos and the politically active gay community were slow to heal.

When he takes office in a month, Agnos will shoulder a number of difficult problems, not the least of which are a projected $87.4-million budget deficit next year and a costly AIDS problem that grows costlier every month.

Agnos was reluctant during the campaign to talk specifically about what he would do to remedy the deficit, even as City Controller James Farrell warned that the city could be forced to lay off 1,300 of its 23,000-person payroll.

Layoffs would be politically tough, given the strength of municipal unions and the support given Agnos by city workers. Other options, however, are less attractive. Raising public-transit fares to $1 would alienate an army of bus riders and strap-hangers, while delaying capital spending could violate a court order calling for expanded jail facilities.

At the same time, Agnos will be expected to make good on a campaign pledge to encourage new, affordable housing in a densely populated city with some of the nation’s highest housing prices. He promised new, low- to moderate-income housing at the same time he opposed the demolition of single-family houses to make way for less-attractive but less-expensive apartments and condominiums.

Battleship Issue

Agnos also will have to battle the U.S. Navy over the battleship Missouri. The Navy wants San Francisco to be the battleship’s home port, but Agnos sided with anti-nuclear and peace activists in opposing Feinstein’s plans to dredge the bay and have new port facilities built to accommodate the ship.

He also will have to try to find a new home for the baseball Giants. Owner Bob Lurie has said the team will not play in drafty Candlestick Park after it plays out its lease in 1994. Agnos opposed the team’s plans for one downtown stadium, but said he would support one in a another location. Finding space for a ballpark in crowded San Francisco was not easy for Feinstein, however, and if Agnos fails as well, the team could flee to San Jose--or beyond.

Results from Tuesday’s election were delayed because of a quirk in San Francisco’s charter forbidding any other issue from sharing the ballot with a mayoral runoff.

Concurrent Elections

Since the Board of Supervisors needed voter approval to build low-income housing over one Nob Hill boulevard, it held two concurrent elections--one each for the mayor’s race and the housing issue, known as Proposition X.

For this technicality to work, however, the two issues required separate ballots--and separate computer runs to count them.

The housing measure was winning handily in early returns.