Monthly Archives: December 2010

Gaining Steam and Overcoming Doubts

07 Tuesday Dec 2010

Posted by in politics

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

After a long discussion with supporters, we decided to drop Not to Win, But to Nudge, which was our old campaign motto, in favor of:

Karthik for Mayor

Not Impossible

which leaves the matter a little more open-ended.

I’ve been feeling out responses from old friends. In all honesty, the legitimacy of my campaign is up to YOU.

I wonder, too, whether many of the artists and DJ’s I know from when I arrived for good to SF in 1993 – DJ Consuelo, the gang from Dalva, Rigo 23 and his crowd, any of the many hundreds of people I have enjoyed a drink with in neighborhoods around town over the years – will be supportive of this effort. I wonder whether my uncle, who has lived in Twin Peaks for more than thirty years will find it idiotic.

It certainly isn’t a joke. I have walked the length and breadth of the city over the last 25 years and know people in every neighborhood because I love it. I want to care for SF and feel prepared to lead us into less expensive, smarter, more efficient and caring government and away from corporate capital and smarm;

To bring back the SF values of compassion for the poor, homeless and renters in our town, and away from those who would “clean it up” by making it a mall that looks like every other city in the U.S.A.

To give the Office of Mayor of San Francisco an independent face, free of influence from Villaraigosa, the Clintons and others who are using our culture and our whole town to support ends we don’t support.

San Francisco was always an independent city with good values, different from the whole rest of the country.  What I represent in my campaign for Mayor is why we all moved here – a choice who’s not a Democrat, nor a Republican, nor a Libertarian, nor a Green, nor a Peace and Freedom candidate, but who shares the best values of all of these in SF and more that we share together uniquely as a free, progressive city.

Our values make SF the best place to live in the world – and they are being bought out by rich Democrats.

I hope all of you will see that what I’m doing is not only necessary, but that I’m really the best suited to do it. This is not, as JFR reminded me, quixotic.

So on your ballot in November please do make Karthik Rajan your first, second or third choice for Mayor

and you won’t be sorry.

In fact, I guarantee you it will feel good.

Karthik

Karthik For Mayor San Francisco 2011

05 Sunday Dec 2010

Posted by in politics

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

I will be officially launching my campaign for Mayor of San Francisco at 7a.m., Friday, the 21st of January at the Main Library in San Francisco.

I intend to run a campaign of transparency and this blog will serve that end. Feel free to respond, comment and make suggestions here.

On Thanksgiving, JFR and I launched the campaign website:

www.mtkarthik.org

and later that day, I walked with my good friend James around the Mission and floated the notion of my candidacy with him. James and I are old SF friends and it is comforting to have a stable voice reassure me it isn’t an utterly foolish thing to do.

We had a couple of  games of chess at Muddy Waters at 24th and then walked down to Mission Street, meandering. We ran into his friend Raul, who criticized my campaign promise to not accept 50k of the Mayor’s salary and rather to return $200k to the City at the end of my term as Mayor. Raul’s like, “Don’t give it back to the City?! Give it to Food Not Bombs … or somebody like that!” He was incredulous that I would do such an idiotic thing as trust the Board of Supervisors with money I could save the City! ha!

At 16th street we dropped into Forest Books, where we talked with Bob about my independent campaign for Mayor. Forest Books has been there for a dozen years and we reflected on how that corner has changed. James chose nonfiction while I picked a novel by Montalban.

Further up 16th street opposite Albion, where Swan’s car/residence was parked for a decade or more, we ran into Swan, himself. I didn’t tell him I was running for Mayor. I did tell him I remember picking up a Daily Swan the day Herb Caen died and that the first words were: “Caen died yrs. ago I say!” and we laughed. I also told him I remember the day they towed his car from Albion and what a shame and embarrassment I considered it. He called me his best friend. kinda bummed me out. I picked up four new  Daily Swan’s and, always topical, he was covering the Sit/Lie Law. We continued our stroll up to Mission Dolores, round past the palms to Market, then back down to Valencia.

We stopped at Zeitgeist. I was there when O.J. took the Bronco and the LAPD for a ride. I had gone to Zeitgeist to watch the NBA Finals. I walked James back near his spot. We had hot chocolate at Oaxacena and I made my way to North Beach.

I meant to go to Spec’s to see my favorite photograph of the City, but they were closed for the holiday and so I ended up at Vesuvio, where Janet and the others there had served food to many North Beachers and were winding down and cleaning up. The exposed heart of Baudelaire is gone and Janet and I talked about Ken Huerta.

Well, the Exploratory Committee to Elect Karthik for Mayor of SF 2011, is open for discourse.

Sincerely,

Karthik