What's going on my fellow rock n' rollers. Don't forget to the bell notification icon
to be notified every time i put out a new video on my channel. Initially active from 1978 to
1986,the super charged punk quartet known as Dead Kennedys blended together the styles of surf rock,
rockabilly and garage rock. Frontman Jello Biafra’s far
left leaning politically-charged lyrics provided a blistering attack on social issues at the time.
In the fall of 1979, Biafra ran for mayor of San Francisco after the band’s drummer
told him. "Biafra, you have such a big mouth that you should run for Mayor."
Deciding to put his money where his mouth was, he threw his hat in the ring.
In San Francisco any individual can legally run for mayor if a petition was signed by
1500 people or if $1500 was paid. Biafra paid $900 and got signatures over a period of time
and eventually met the requirements to became a candidate. And due to election laws in San
Francisco at the time, this meant that Biafra would have statements put in voters pamphlets
and receive equal airtime from news stations. Biafra would re-purpose the famous Jell-O tagline
"There's always room for Jello", for his political campaign.While
today San Francisco is a haven for the wealthy, especially those in the tech industry,
but in the 70’s it seemed like a warzone with Drugs. Murder, racial tensions and Corruption. The
mayor of the City George Moscone was assassinated in 1978 as was City Supervisor Harvey Milk.
Following Moscone’s murder Diane Feinstein who had previously served as the President of the Board
of Supervisors would would become the new mayor and serve out the rest of Moscone’s term. What
was strange about Biafra's political campaig nwas that he had no platform when he entered the race.
He would end up writing his campaign platform on a napkin while he attended a Pere Ubu concert.
And the two main candidates for Mayor were Dianne Feinstein and Quentin Kopp. Feinstein
was a democrat and currently serves as a senator in Washington D.C. for California,
while Quentin Cop was originally a Republican but became an independent.
So where did Biafra fit in. Well he would tell Louder Sound and ia quote She (referring
to Feinstein) ran the city with an iron fist, and the police were completely out of control,
which she seemed to get off on. I have never been very fond of her,
and any grief I can cause that creature, I’m happy to oblige.
But that wasn’t why I ran for Mayor. It was more like: wouldn’t this be a great prank?" he'd say.
what was his platform you’re probably asking. Well according to the san
francisco weekly newspaper his platform included: Businessmen to wear clown suits within city limits
Holding elections in which police would be voted into office by the neighborhoods they patrolled
Appointing a board of bribery that would set fair bribery prices.
Tearing down Pier 39 Legalizing squatting
in vacant, tax-delinquent buildings Paying the unemployed to panhandle in wealthy
neighborhoods including Feinstein’s . Banning cars citywide, and
Erecting a statue of Dan White (who assassinated former Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor
Harvey Milk the previous year) and having the parks department sell eggs, stones,
and tomatoes with which to pelt it with These weren’t just crazy proposals Biafra
thought of off the top of his head. He would tell Loudersound how making businessmen where clown
suits was in response to Feinstein saying she was going to “clean up” certain parts of the City,
which he interpreted as meaning she was going to throw all the homeless people out of the vacant
buildings, which they were squatting at. Throughout the campaign Biafra did several
notable things. He held a news conference at city hall. He then went on to do calls shaking babies
and kissing hands He wore campaign T-shirts from his opponent Quentin Kopp's previous campaign
and mocked his opponent Dianne Feinstein who during the same campaign sweept the streets of
downtown san francisco for a few hours. In turn Biafra vacuumed leaves off the front lawn of
Dianne Feinstein home. So you're maybe wondering how did he do in the campaign? Well he would
finish third out of a field of ten, receiving about 3.79 percent of the vote or about 6600
votes. The election ended in a runoff that did not involve him as Feinstein was declared the winner
and would serve as mayor for the next decade. In the years that followed Biafra ran for
president as a Green Party candidate in 2000 but lost to Ralph Nader. Meanwhile Diane Feinstein
as i said before serves as a senator for the state of california in washington DC and is on
the senate judiciary committe, while Copp would become a judge before retiring. So that does it
for today's video guys. Thanks for watching. Be sure to hit the like button and subscribe. If you
guys have suggestions for future topics let me know in the comments section below. Take care.