My week for covering politics it seems. Was sent all the way down to Bakersfield, California for an Arnold rally. Long drive to hear the same old scripted speeches. Arnold was trying to drum up support for his California recovery plan but I think the audience was more interested in seeing a movie star than listening to a politition.

Next, I covered part of the SF mayor's run-off race between Democrat Gavin Newsom and Green Party member Matt Gonzalez. Ex-president Bill Clinton showed up to support Gavin and his wife Kimberly (above), cracking jokes between serious talk about getting out and voting for Newsom. It worked I guess, Newsom is now the new mayor.

On election day, I was sent out to look for polling place feature photos. These photos usually run in the early editions, and are yanked in the later editions as fresh photos come in. Weather on this day was terrible. Because of it, turnout was expected to be low but that wasn't the case for this one. A close mayor's race and a district attorney race brought out more voters than expected. This garage in a SF neighborhood was used for one of the polling places.

On election night, I was assigned to cover Terance Hallinan, who was trying to keep his job as the SF District Attorney. He lost and after his concession speech, he gave his 10 year old daughter Vivian a kiss to cheer her up.

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