Brown Takes 1st Step Toward S.F. Mayor Bid

With his three-decade tenure in the Assembly ending, Speaker Willie Brown has filed papers allowing him to raise money to run for San Francisco mayor, and he said Thursday that he intends to announce the first weekend in June whether he will enter the race.

Brown has been saying for months that he is considering running against Mayor Frank Jordan, a former San Francisco police chief.

Although Brown has set dates for an announcement in the past, he said he will “tell the whole world what I do intend to do with reference to the mayor’s race at that time [June 3]. I will say whether or not I’m going to run.”

On Thursday, Brown filed a statement of organization with the secretary of state’s office, creating a new campaign committee called Willie Brown for Mayor. The committee will be headquartered in San Francisco.

On Wednesday, Brown signed documents at the San Francisco registrar of voters office allowing him to establish a committee to raise and spend money on the mayoral race, a step required by San Francisco ordinance. The election is set for November, with a possible runoff in December.

Brown’s speakership could end early in June, when Republicans are expected to gain a 40th seat in the 80-member Assembly, to the Democrats’ 39. But Brown said that whether or not he runs for mayor, he intends to remain active in the lower house for the rest of the year and plans to take a lead role in budget negotiations this summer.

Jordan and Brown already are sparring. Jordan is sending missives to reporters and others detailing Brown’s wealth and criticizing him for a recent comment that he would have difficulty living on the mayor’s annual salary of $137,000.

Under San Francisco’s charter, Brown, who has practiced law while in the Assembly, would be required to give up his outside business. Brown says that he helps support a wife from whom he is separated and three grown children, and that Jordan moved from a modest home to a mansion in tony Pacific Heights after his election.

“The issue in San Francisco is whether or not one can get that city in the spirit of being optimistic about itself, and that’s a leadership issue,” Brown said Thursday.