One of San Francisco's most famous living residents (not too far behind schizophrenic sign-carrier Frank Chu) is mayor Gavin Newsom, loved enough that he's likely to get re-elected to another four-year term this fall. He'll have to defeat a few city supervisors and possibly other city officials. But two odder San Francisco figures could enter the race. One's an activist who would wear a camera on his head; the other's an artist who's organized events like "Porneokie" and the "Ask Dr. Hal Show."

Videoblogger Josh Wolf made national news when he refused to hand over a video of a protest to the FBI. The feds said he was withholding evidence of a crime; they believed Wolf had caught video of a protester damaging property (which was being prosecuted as a federal crime). Wolf argued that demanding the tape violated his press freedom rights as a journalist. Wolf was jailed for refusal to comply; he stayed in jail longer than any other American journalist has done to protect source materials, until the prosecution allowed the judge to free him. Now he's commented that he's thinking of running for mayor. To promote government accountability, Josh says that he would wear a camera to document his work life. (Accountability might be a touchy subject for Gavin Newsom, who confessed late last year to having an affair with the wife of his deputy chief of staff.)

The real candidate to root for is John Rinaldi, aka Chicken John, who has announced that he plans to run and is collecting signatures to put him on the ballot. John, a local artist, made it clear that he's serious. "Running for Mayor of San Francisco isn't something you do as a prank. As a joke. It would be an insult to the people who supported you and I think that making a mockery of the political system would be temeritous."

The first plank of John's platform is to revamp the city's $9-million-budget arts council. "I single handedly produce 50 times what the SF Art Commission does," he wrote to his mailing list, "and I couldn't get the director to answer a phone call for 4 months. Civil servant my entire ass." John is stirring, inspirational. "I honestly feel that right now San Francisco, the city of Art and Innovation, lacks whimsy," he says, and who better to bring back the whimsy than a man who built art cars (one was powered by coffee grounds), then sold the cars to buy a bar for performance art?

As for John's connection to tech, he's friends with Scott Beale, a long-time member of San Francisco's counterculture as well as a fixture in San Fran's geek scene. He may be a long shot for mayor, but he could definitely carry San Francisco's "fun" vote.

(Photo by Scott Beale)