It’s Election Day, and for “Chicken” John Rinaldi, even though he’s not going to win, this calls for a celebration. He’s not giving a concession speech; he’s throwing a party.
It’s Election Day, and for “Chicken” John Rinaldi, even though he’s not going to win, this calls for a celebration. He’s not giving a concession speech; he’s throwing a party.
The party, dubbed “Loser’s Ball” marks the end of a long, strange trip for Rinaldi, who’s gone through months of fundraising, gags, and increasingly, bureaucracy in his ceaselessly bizarre mayoral campaign.
Since the end of August, he’s been attempting to prove to the San Francisco Ethics Commission that, after raising more than $30,000 from campaign donations, he legitimately qualifies for city-sponsored matching funds. These matching funds could total up to $50,000. Three times Rinaldi’s applied for the funds, and all three times he was denied, due to, according to the Ethics Commission, “paperwork problems.”
Increasingly, Rinaldi and his attorney Terry Gross have been butting heads with John St. Croix, the executive director of the Ethics Commission, who has said that he won’t give Rinaldi taxpayer money “just because he says he qualifies for it.” St. Croix has challenged the paperwork for several reasons, initially because many of the donations were made via PayPal, and later because many of Rinaldi’s campaign donors classified themselves as either “artists,” or “self-employed.”
Rinaldi insisted that these arbitrations are unfounded; and that St. Croix is “trying to silence the people’s voices,” and denying the paperwork arbitrarily. After Rinaldi appeared before the Ethics Commission last month, the Commission unanimously decided that St. Croix must re-examine the paperwork once again to determine if Rinaldi qualifies. St. Croix has since refused. Rinaldi’s attorney, Terry Gross, is planning a lawsuit, claiming that all the paperwork is in order, and thus, the city is legally obligated to give Rinaldi’s campaign matching funds.
However, this lawsuit may end up being entirely academic, today being Election Day, and seeing how there is overwhelming evidence that Gavin Newsom will win reelection.
On that note, Rinaldi has been insistent that his campaign hasn’t been about winning; it’s about promoting the arts and the environment. He’s said from the beginning that he expected Newsom to win. But that hasn’t stopped him from taking shots at the current mayor, in typical Chicken fashion.
In October, during the only mayoral debate that Newsom attended, Rinaldi had 400 of his supporters dress up like zombies and congregate around the San Francisco Main Library, where the debate took place.
And last Saturday, Rinaldi staged a debate between himself and a homemade puppet likeness of Newsom in front of a packed crowd at Rinaldi’s campaign headquarters, Chez Poulet. At the “debate,” the papier-mâché “Newsom” stuffily spoke of his “accountability matrix,” and said that he won his first election four years ago because he “was the candidate with the most hair products.”
Rinaldi said that these stunts were performed to “expose the draconian nature of the election.” He said that Newsom only agreed to do the one debate, and even then showed up late, and only allowed 30 seconds for each of the other candidates’ rebuttals, which wasn’t enough to adequately flesh out issues. All the other mayoral candidates, Rinaldi included, have been holding debates every Friday on the steps of City Hall.
According to Rinaldi, The zombies were employed to demonstrate the autonomic, non-thinking behavior of San Francisco voters.
In sharp contrast to these staged antics, over the last week, Rinaldi and his closest supporters have been actively and legitimately trying to shore up more support for his causes of the arts and the environment, in much less showman-like ways. According to Rinaldi he’s been going door-to-door, putting door hangers on doorknobs, and “trying to get some exercise.”
The final dance step in this elaborately staged boogie between pranks and propaganda is the “Loser’s Ball” at 12 Galaxies on Mission, tonight at 9. While being mum on the details of the party, Rinaldi said, “It’s going to be a huge show.”
And what better way is there to finish this eccentric political trip than to go out with a big bang?