Ryan's Revenge Tour
"...I said a year ago I would do everything in my power to see to it that the Jonestown families saw justice, and that everyone - and I mean everyone - who let this cult, this cancer, and the madman at the top of it prosper, thrive and build influence in this state would have to pay a penalty for the rest of their careers. I swore, from my hospital bed after being told I'd never walk again, that I would make it my mission in life..."
- Congressman Leo Ryan after San Francisco Municipal Elections
The 1970s had, if it was possible, been even more volatile in San Francisco than even the 1960s had. In later years, historians would claim that "in Frisco, the 60s never really ended." The Alioto and Moscone mayoralties had started in the shadow of the Zodiac Killings, Symbionese Liberation Army and Zebra murders and beyond that been tumultuous in their own right, including the former having his house bombed by the SFPD during a labor strife
[1], and the emergence of an activist gay community in the city had polarized public opinions and even led to police riots on Castro Street, and made Supervisor Harvey Milk a celebrity in his state and lightning rod for conservatives.
And that was all before the Jonestown murders and political fallout of the People's Temple.
1979's city elections, then, promised to be a punctuation mark on a decade of chaos and change. Moscone, against the advice of many of his political allies such as Carol Ruth Silver or Milk, decided to seek a second term. He viewed his role as a polarizing figure as a sign that he was doing something right, particularly the contempt he drew from "the reactionaries." His longtime foe on the Board of Supes, Dianne Feinstein, was retiring back to private life; conservative Supervisor Quentin Kopp seemed like his likeliest opponent and he was confident in his ability to make the race a referendum on "bringing Jerry Ford to the Bay."
Moscone's analysis was simplistic, and he forgot one of the most important rules of politics - you're only as powerful as your allies allow you to be, and you're always expendable to your allies. Milk in particular was profoundly skeptical Moscone could earn reelection after the People's Temple killings and the cult's heavy association with the Mayor, and worried that Kopp and the "Feinstein faction" would take power easily against the embattled Mayor. With a liberal majority on the Board likely with Feinstein retiring and Kopp giving up his seat to run for Mayor, Milk thought the best solution was to tack to the middle, surprising many of his allies and fellow activists. His evolution as a pragmatic operator had only just begun.
To that effect, Milk wound up giving his quiet thumbs-up to a dark horse candidate who felt out San Francisco movers and shakers throughout 1979 - Art Agnos, a former aide to Speaker Leo McCarthy and now an Assemblyman himself, who had in fact defeated Harvey Milk for said seat in the Assembly three years earlier in Milk's first and most spirited run for office. Milk had largely buried the hatchet by then, satisfied that Agnos was sufficiently progressive for his needs and more importantly could be a viable alternative to Moscone. Like in 1976, Agnos enjoyed the crucial support of Speaker McCarthy behind him as well as the crucial support of another Leo - Congressman Leo Ryan, who had helped form the Jonestown Families Association (JFA) which aggressively lobbied for investigations into the political connections of the People's Temple and, in particular, aimed to crusade against the San Francisco establishment that had allowed Jim Jones such influence. Moscone, more than anyone, symbolized the post-Jones outrage, and he was Ryan's biggest target. Milk, even if he still had harbored ill feelings towards Agnos, was canny enough to realize that institutional opposition to Moscone was about to be overwhelming among moderates and progressives alike, and picked the smart horse. The rest of the progressive Supes followed suit, and Moscone placed a distant third in the initial election before Agnos triumphed, narrowly, over Kopp in the fall election.
The episode did set up for a new paradigm as the Eighties dawned, though; Feinstein and Kopp's retirements gave progressives a now 7-4 majority on the board and Gordon Lau was propelled to the Chairmanship of the Board. Moscone may have lost, but his impact was not going away - and Milk had fertile ground to prepare himself for bigger and better things...
[1] This may actually be underselling how insane and lawless the SFPD and FDSF strike in 1975 was, and how spineless Mayor Alioto was in caving to them and not having the National Guard send them home off the picket line
(I don't actually have any personal connection to SF - I've only been there once - it's just a really fascinating city, politically, in the 1970s, and as this is a US-focused TL I think it's worth exploring, mostly for my own interest, even though 1970s SF municipal politics is as small ball as it gets in a TL that's also covered Soviet and Chinese Communist Party backstabbing behind the scenes)