A supporter of state Senator Carole Migden (D-San Francisco) agreed this week to remove an entry on his personal blog that attacked her opponent for her 3rd District Senate seat as a "kiddie porn king." After more than a week of defending his post and attacking those who criticized it, the blogger finally agreed to remove it after Migden phoned him Tuesday, March 13.

Writing on his personal blog MikeOpera, Michael Colbruno , a former Migden staffer and a vice president for governmental affairs with Clear Channel Outdoor, criticized Assemblyman Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) not only for launching his Senate campaign but also for defending what he labeled a "kiddie porn" bill on a Fox News show.

Colbruno, an out gay man, took issue with Leno for "saying that going after child pornographers was the new McCarthyism and saying that penalties shouldn't be worse than for stealing a bike."

After praising his former boss for her record as a lawmaker in Sacramento on his blog, Colbruno renewed his attack against Leno for his legislative play.

"The Senate is a serious legislative body and the thought of Mark Leno standing in those chambers defending child pornographers must be making our California 49er founding families role in their graves. I know one group who will be happy: NAMBLA," wrote Colbruno, referring to the North American Man/Boy Love Association.

Within days the posting had been picked up by several blogs and circulated among LGBT politicos, who denounced it as a sleazy campaign tactic and called on Migden to "renounce and denounce" Colbruno's posting.

This week a spokesman for the Democratic Caucus in the Senate, Paul Hefner, said he had spoken to Migden about the post and that, "She has made it very clear about the posting in question she certainly does not approve of it."

Hefner added that Migden "has asked and is asking her supporters not to engage in negative campaigning."

Both the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club's board and the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club's political action committee adopted resolutions against Colbruno's rant.

"The kind of comments levied against gay men and trying to associate them with child pornography is a historic tactic of the very conservative, right-wing arm of the Republican Party. It is shameful and has no place in the Democratic Party process, especially in San Francisco," said Alice Club Co-Chair Julius Turman.

Even the author of the bill, Orange County Republican Todd Spitzer, told the SF Bay Guardian the attack on Leno was unfair and unfounded, adding "He and I were vigorously involved in this whole debate, and I have never known him to be supportive of child pornography."

By Saturday, March 10, seven days after his initial posting, Colbruno claimed that his blog "was nothing more than a personal blog viewed mostly by my close friends and family" and complained that "the 'Lenonites' decided to attack me and the 'clean campaigners' were suddenly calling me a 'scumbag' and 'sleazy.'" He attempted to return the focus to Migden and why she deserves to be re-elected.

Yet Colbruno's anti-Leno swipe and his refusal to apologize for it seems to have only hurt Migden, who like Leno has signed a pledge not to engage in negative campaigning. Several people commenting on the blog dust-up have speculated Migden authorized the smear against Leno.

Such an impression, in tu

Assemblyman Mark Leno. Photo: Rick Gerharter

rn, could be used against her with voters, whom Leno discovered in a poll he commissioned are less likely to vote for Migden when given negative information about her.

Colbruno acknowledged as much in a phone interview from Washington, D.C. with the Bay Area Reporter Tuesday. At first, Colbruno reiterated his stance that his rant was an appropriate attack against Leno's work as a legislator and that Leno, in fact, had been the first to go negative.

"I don't understand what all the uproar is about. All it is is putting his public record out there. You cannot get into a race with an incumbent and not expect that your record is going to be scrutinized," he said. "They threw out the first volley by doing this push poll � which I thought was misogynistic and despicable."

But then Colbruno called back to say that he had spoken with Migden and decided to remove the posts from his blog. He also stepped back from a pledge he had made to release even more dirt on Leno.

He insisted, "Carole didn't know about this. She got drug down by this" and that "we will see how the campaign proceeds. If they want to play above board then everyone else will play above board."

He added, "I really do hope the negative stuff is behind us. I do look forward to a campaign where the candidates' public record is explored. I am confident at the end of the day the incumbent will prevail. She has a stellar record to stand on."

A spokesman for Leno's campaign, Rufus Jeffris , said he did not understand how Colbruno would think a posting on the Internet would not become public. He reiterated Leno's vow to run a positive campaign.

"We've been very perplexed by the whole thing and are also troubled by the negative aspects of his postings and his attitude," said Jeffris. "Certainly, as Mark Leno's campaign consultants, we are committed, as Mark is, to run a positive campaign. Right out of the gate to come under this negative attack in this early in the game is really disconcerting to us."

Colbruno's so publicly attacking a sitting state legislator also raises the question if he is acting in the best interest of his employer, Clear Channel Outdoor, or ran afoul of company policies. Many companies have enacted policies restricting what kinds of posts their employees can make online, not only at work but also when they clock out at night.

Recent controversies around blog postings have seen two bloggers quit Democrat John Edwards's presidential campaign and the reassigning of Mayor Gavin Newsom 's press secretary, Peter Ragone , out of City Hall to work in the mayor's re-election headquarters.

Colbruno said until now he had not discussed his blogging with his Clear Channel bosses. He did remove his name from his blogger profile, though it is the first thing that comes up under a Google search of his name. Another site with his name in the title is still listed on his MikeOpera blog.

"This has been my personal blog. It exploded all in the last week and a half," he said.

In response to an inquiry on Tuesday by the B.A.R. as to whether Colbruno had violated company policies, Tony Alwin, Clear Channel Outdoor's senior vice president for creative, marketing and public relations, stated in an e-mail, "We are reviewing some facts and will get back to you by tomorrow."

He had yet to respond by press time Wednesday.

[After the print edition of the B.A.R. went to press, Alwin responded and said in an e-mail that Colbruno's blog "was maintained for private communication limited to his family members and close friends. It should not have been opened to the public. He has not violated any Clear Channel Outdoor policies."]

Six degrees of Whitehurst

Colbruno's screed against Leno didn't stop with his own blog entries. He has posted comments on the site of other bloggers who criticized his posting as a sleazy and homophobic smear against the lawmaker. In one entry he added a new twist to his diatribe, attacking the man Leno has hired to run his campaign, John Whitehurst.

Whitehurst is with the political consulting and lobbying firm of Barnes, Mosher, Whitehurst, Lauter & Partners, a powerhouse in local politics known for its "tenacious" tactics, which the firm itself brags about on its Web site. The firm ran both Migden's 1996 and 1998 Assembly campaigns, as well as the 1998 Senate campaign of Don Perata (D-Oakland), the current Senate leader who is backing Migden's re-election. In 2002 the firm helped Leno defeat Harry Britt, whom Migden had backed to replace her in the Assembly. That race forever soured Leno's relationship with his former mentor and ally Migden, and caused a painful rift in the LGBT community which can still be felt in the current match-up between the gay lawmakers.

On March 7, writing on the Left in SF blog, Colbruno complained "Whitehurst ran the nastiest campaign in recent history against progressive stalwart Chris Daly and tried to drag Clear Channel through the mud for supporting him." He also criticizes Whitehurst for running "John Dutra 's campaign against the progressive Ellen Corbett" and for his representing "the Golden Gate Restaurant Association, who are opposed to health care and a living wage."

The swipe at Whitehurst by Colbruno is especially odd since a review of the firm's clients, posted on its site, lists Colbruno's employer, Clear Channel Outdoor, as a current client. And under a listing of campaigns the firm has handled – since removed from the site but available through a Google search – is OakPAC, the political arm of the Oakland Chamber of Commerce chaired by Colbruno, which hired Whitehurst last year to do an independent expenditure on behalf of Pat Kernighan in her successful race for Oakland City Council.

According to an article in the East Bay Express , OakPAC convinced a federal judge to suspend an Oakland law that sought to limit the amount of money PACs can raise and spend on behalf of a candidate. The group had endorsed Kernighan, who was running to keep the seat vacated by her former boss, the openly gay Danny Wan, and wanted to spend $58,000 on her behalf. The story noted that the judge ruled the PAC could spend as much money as it wanted.

Despite Kernighan's disavowal of any involvement with the group's legal tactics or her campaign, the PAC sent out a glossy eight-page mailer to voters that rebranded the pro-business Kernighan as a progressive and gave the false impression she had been endorsed by Councilwoman Nancy Nadel, one of Oakland's leading progressive politicians.

Nadel and Kernighan's opponent, Aimee Allison , both denounced OakPAC's tactics, as did Ron Dellums, Oakland's mayor-elect at the time.

Asked if his complaints against Whitehurst's tactics are hypocritical, Colbruno responded, "I don't condone some recent activity John Whitehurst has engaged in."

Pressed if he would now sever his company's ties to the firm or decline to employ it on OakPAC's behalf, Colbruno replied, "Check back with me shortly."

As for Whitehurst, he is on a three-week vacation and could not be reached for comment. Jeffris, the firm's spokesman, said BMWL policy is not to comment on their public affairs clients.

He did say that last month the firm separated its lobbying work from its political consulting, and that Whitehurst is no longer a registered lobbyist in San Francisco.

"Whitehurst Campaigns is now a distinct name and firm that handles our political campaign business," said Jeffris. "We recently split the firm so there was a distinction."

Correction

Last week's Notebook misstated the length of time the Most Reverend Lou A. Bordisso, a candidate for Vallejo City Council, has lived in the North Bay city and his leadership role with Dignity SF, a gay group for Catholics, in the 1980s. He has lived in Vallejo five years, and two years ago, moved to Vallejo's Hiddenbrooke neighborhood. Bordisso co-chaired Dignity's education committee. The online version has been changed.