Is City Hall Next on Brown's Political Juggernaut? : Elections: As San Francisco prepares to vote Tuesday, Frank Jordan, beset by gaffes as self-proclaimed 'citizen mayor,' trails the former Assembly speaker by double digits in polls.

By JENIFER WARREN and DAN MORAIN

Dec. 10, 1995 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITERS

SAN FRANCISCO — Months ago, before veteran Assemblyman Willie Brown announced that he was running for mayor, he declared that he could not afford to live on the job’s annual salary. Paychecks totaling $139,000 a year, it seemed, were not meaty enough to sustain a lifestyle of luxury cars and Brioni suits.

In the end, of course, Brown decided to risk his version of poverty and leap into the race. And now, with the election just two days away, it appears that he had better start pinching his pennies.

By all indications, Brown is on the cusp of extending his remarkable 30-year political career by capturing power at San Francisco City Hall. Polls show the former Assembly speaker with a double-digit lead over incumbent Mayor Frank Jordan, and endorsements, momentum and money keep flowing his way.

“This election really has the feel of a coronation,” independent political consultant John Whitehurst said. “It’s as if Brown has already won and is using this time to assemble a government.”

Naturally, Jordan and his troops disagree, and the mayor--an avuncular chap who was born and raised in San Francisco--is running hard. Each day, he dons his Reeboks and strolls another stretch of the city, shaking hands, wooing votes and slamming Brown. His new campaign mantra? “While Willie Brown talks the talk, Frank Jordan walks the walk.”

But for many San Franciscans, Jordan’s winning appeal in 1991--as a “citizen mayor” with no political baggage--has seemingly dimmed. Many voters, it seems, now consider his outsider status a liability and pine instead for a dynamic leader who can wield clout and use his charisma to get things done. Brown supporters say the former speaker--a masterful power broker with a national reputation--is just the man for the job.

“Willie Brown is going to be a star-quality mayor,” said Art Agnos, who lost his title as mayor to Jordan four years ago. “He will walk into the White House or the Statehouse and immediately get attention. Frank Jordan is a wallflower who can’t get attention from the doorman, let alone the main man in the White House.”

As for Brown, he sounded supremely confident in a recent interview--even comparing his skills to the “God-given” talents of a San Francisco legend, former 49ers quarterback Joe Montana.

“Frank Jordan has screwed up every step of the way. He is a nice man inappropriately situated. . . . The people of San Francisco deserve something better, and I will deliver.”

Brown, 61, is a Democrat who has represented San Francisco in the Assembly for 31 years but is being forced out by term limits. He has been the odds-on favorite since finishing first in the Nov. 7 primary and would be the city’s first black mayor.

Jordan, 60, a Democrat, career cop and former police chief, finished second to qualify for Tuesday’s runoff. Civil rights attorney Roberta Achtenberg was eliminated when she placed third.

Achtenberg, a lesbian, quickly endorsed Brown and urged her followers to hand him their votes. Another vanquished mayoral candidate--Republican Ben Hom--now backs Brown as well, as do 10 of the 11 San Francisco supervisors.

In the face of this juggernaut, Jordan has fought mightily. To court the gay and lesbian vote, he opened a campaign office in the city’s heavily gay Castro District and appointed a new airport director who is gay.

But Brown has been a vigorous defender of gay rights in the Legislature, and one poll found that 71% of those who voted for Achtenberg in November plan to vote for the former speaker.

Among those is Supervisor Susan Leal, a lesbian. Her endorsement of Brown is striking because Jordan appointed her to the Board of Supervisors two years ago. “We need a leader who can bring the city together,” Leal said. “Willie Brown doesn’t sit back and wait to see what happens. He takes charge.”

Good evidence of that comes from Brown’s tenure in Sacramento. During his 15 years as the so-called “Ayatollah of the Assembly,” little happened unless Brown decreed it, and he frequently used his skills and power to stifle debate on contentious issues.

But would that imperial style work in San Francisco, where a multitude of warring factions like to have their say over even the most minor and mundane matters?

Rich DeLeon, chairman of the San Francisco State University political science department, called the city’s policymaking process “incoherent” and wondered whether Brown, a man not known for his patience, will “put up with all the crap.”

“How will he react to the chaos? Will he try to smite his enemies and eventually end up doing himself in?”

Whoever emerges victorious Tuesday will confront a daunting job. Beyond the basic challenges of leading a city of 724,000 people with an annual budget of $2.9 billion, San Francisco’s mayor faces a crush of urban problems, from a faltering municipal transit system to homelessness, deteriorating public housing, the continuing AIDS epidemic, an unreliable 911 emergency system, and $600 million in looming federal budget cuts.

Jordan insists he can handle it, saying he inherited “a city in crisis” four years ago and has turned things around. Because of his efforts, he says, serious crime has dropped 20%, streets are cleaner and police have cracked down on aggressive panhandlers.

But along the way, Jordan also developed a reputation as a bumbler. In perhaps the most embarrassing example of his woes, he has gone through four police chiefs. The current one--Anthony Ribera--is on trial on sexual harassment charges, generating daily news stories that sting a mayor fighting for his political life.

And just before the primary, Jordan damaged his own cause when he inexplicably posed naked in the shower with two radio disc jockeys. The mayor said his goal was to show voters he is “squeaky clean” and has “nothing to hide.” But the episode--which led to a photograph widely circulated in Bay Area papers--raised questions about his judgment and badly stalled his campaign.

During the five-week sprint to Tuesday’s election, Jordan has tried to persuade voters that Brown is essentially unfit to be mayor. Again and again, he has attacked Brown for collecting millions of dollars in special interest contributions while speaker and for representing developers and cocaine dealers as a private attorney. Jordan even traveled to Sacramento to pose before the Capitol dome and accuse Brown of leaving the Assembly “tarnished” and “in total chaos.”

“For Willie Brown, it’s all about money,” Jordan said during a televised debate in the campaign’s final week, flashing a dollar bill for emphasis. “For Frank Jordan, it’s all about the public trust.”

Brown, meanwhile, has kept a relatively low profile in recent weeks, perhaps wary of making a major gaffe that might threaten his commanding lead. But he has made good use of the shower affair. One radio advertisement uses the 1959 Bobby Darin song “Splish Splash” to remind voters of Jordan’s sudsy stunt.

Regardless of whether he wins Tuesday, Brown is leaving the Democrats in the minority in the Assembly and without a leader. Although he had his close allies, Brown never groomed a successor, perhaps because he never wanted to risk a challenge from a student taught too well.

The legislator most likely to inherit Brown’s mantle is veteran Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar). But Katz--who will be forced out by term limits next year--is battling first- and second-term Democrats who have designs on the leadership post.

“Willie had tremendous talents--his intelligence, his ability to intimidate, his ability to cajole,” Assemblyman Louis Caldera (D-Los Angeles) said. “There’s no one [remaining in Sacramento] who has those kinds of abilities.”

Also Tuesday, San Franciscans will pick a new district attorney to replace Arlo Smith, who suffered a startling loss in the primary after 16 years in the post. Normally a sleepy race, this contest has been a colorful one, too. At one end of the spectrum is Terence Hallinan, an ultra-liberal San Francisco supervisor and defense attorney who wants to legalize prostitution. The law-and-order candidate is Bill Fazio, a career prosecutor fired in April after he announced he was running against Smith. Polls show a dead heat.