McCracken Disavows Stanford

In the City Council election, one persistent piece of inside baseball concerned political consultant and opposition researcher Jason Stanford's involvement with the Jason Meek­er Place 1 campaign – first as Meeker's campaign manager, then for the ostensibly independent ad campaign financed by Discount Electronics CEO Rick Culleton, attacking incumbents Lee Leffingwell and Jennifer Kim. With Leffingwell a potential mayoral candidate in 2009, there has been speculation that Stanford – a friend and associate of Place 5 Council Member Brewster McCrack­en, also mulling a mayoral run – was in the race to bruise Leffingwell and thereby boost McCracken's chances next May. However, in a conversation with the Chronicle last Friday, McCracken said Stanford would have no role whatsoever in his potential mayoral bid. Noting that the issues the Stanford-drafted ads hammered effectively hurt him as well (the Las Manitas loan fracas and voting to increase council pay), McCracken said he was "really displeased" to learn about Stanford's involvement in the Culleton campaign and added, "I'll never work with the guy." Queried further on his mayoral ambitions, McCracken said he would speak more freely after July 1 – the date when state "resign to run" laws would allow sitting council members to formally declare a run.