February 1, 2008

Happy Harvey Milk day

What do you do if you are a gay liberal Democrat locked in a tight primary race against another gay liberal Democrat? You propose to make a new holiday to honor San Francisco's best-known gay leader.

That's exactly what Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, is doing today in a press conference on the steps of San Francisco's City Hall.

Leno, who is challenging Sen. Carole Migden, D-San Francisco, in her bid for reelection this year, will announce legislation to create an official state holiday to honor Harvey Milk, San Francisco's first openly gay supervisor, who was assassinated in 1978.

The holiday won't be a paid day off for state workers, Leno's office notes, and would be celebrated on May 22, Milk's birthday.

That's less than three weeks before the June primary, in case you were wondering.

Migden was formerly the president of the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club of San Francisco.

As for the June primary race between Leno and Migden, campaign filings released on Thursday show Leno with roughly $185,000 cash on hand, after spending $489,000 in 2007 and raising $674,000.

The incumbent senator's accounts are harder to decipher, with money flowing back and forth between two committees, the Re-elect Senator Carole Migden committee and the Friends of Senator Carole Migden committee. Her use of campaign funds is the subject of a complaint from the Leno campaign at the Fair Political Practices Commission.

She reports roughly $290,000 cash on hand, accounting for debts, in her primary reelection account. (The second account has another $645,000. A third Migden account, her a legal defense fund, reports spending $125,000 in 2007, though it reported no donations.)

Migden also reports raising almost $869,000 in 2007, including at least $50,000 from her fellow Democratic senators.

Posted by Shane Goldmacher on February 1, 2008 10:17 AM