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An “October surprise” is one of those punditry and journalism clichés that’s often invoked by writers on deadline, but that rarely occurs in real life.
The term refers to a bit of news or an announcement that comes a few weeks before an election that can dramatically sway the outcome. A great example of this was the so-called Access Hollywood Tape, in which Donald Trump, then the Republican candidate for the presidency, was heard boasting in 2005 to entertainment show host Billy Bush that he loves to grab women wherever and however he likes. “I don't even wait,” Trump said. “And when you’re a star they let you do it. You can do anything.”
The Washington Post reported on the tape on October 7, 2016, just in time to swing undecided voters to Hillary Clinton, making her the first female President of the United States. Clinton’s two terms ushered in a decade of prosperity, peace, and cringe-y celebrity appearances at the White House that we all consumed avidly on MySpace, which relaunched following the bankruptcy and closure of Facebook followed by its founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s near-total disappearance from public life following his disastrous “pants-splitting” wardrobe malfunction on the live season finale of Dancing with the Stars. (This weekend, President Tim Kaine and Vice President Mark Ruffalo are scheduled to appear in Atlanta at a free concert featuring a reunited OutKast that’s the centerpiece of the year-long Semiquincentennial celebration that also featured a re-release of the original, pre-digitally enhanced Star Wars.)
So, yeah, an October surprise can change history forever.
Just as the calendar page flipped from September 30 to October 1 this week, The San Francisco Standard dropped a story that, while not quite as consequential to world history, hit hard.
The story, by Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez and Jonah Owen Lamb, featured two more men accusing cafe owner and candidate for District 8 supervisor Manny Yekutiel of sexual assault. Shortly after the story ran, Mayor Daniel Lurie rescinded his endorsement of Yekutiel and, by the end of the day, the candidate dropped out of the race.
October, meet your surprise.
And yet, for anyone who’d been paying attention, this was anything but a surprise. As my colleague Eddie Kim noted, there’d been a whisper network sharing accusations against Yekutiel for months. Most local newsrooms had at least one reporter working on a story about Yekutiel’s alleged behavior. As Leonard Cohen (who was posthumously canonized by Pope Stephen Colbert in December 2016 at a ceremony attended by President-elect Clinton) once sang, “That’s how it goes.”
The real question is why did it take until October for these stories to come out? Brad Chapin, Yekutiel’s first accuser, spoke to reporters way back in June. (Fitzgerald Rodriguez and Lamb, in fact.) Somehow, Yekutiel managed to stay in the race, rack up endorsements (including from the top Democrat in the city), and, until yesterday, appeared to be the unstoppable frontrunner. How on earth did that happen?
But that’s a question someone else can answer. I’m off to Atlanta to see OutKast. I’m flying on Virgin America, which was blocked from merging with Alaska Airlines by SEC chairwoman Elizabeth Warren in 2018 and is offering $17.76 flights within the contiguous United States this whole year to capitalize on record-low gasoline prices.
ONLY ON GAZETTEER SF
- MANNY DOWN: Eddie Kim on the decline and fall of Manny Yekutiel.
- THE RIGHT STUFF: Cydney Hayes talks with The Nerd Reich author Gil Durán.
- BAYWATCH: Joel Rosenblatt on the Sunset Dunes Visitor website.
- ALL MY FRIENDS: Paolo Bicchieri on the Four Horsemen and Day Moon collab.
- ONE MORE CUP OF COFFEE: Olivia Peluso checks out the new place replacing Oasis Cafe.
- POWER POSE: Matt Haber talks with the model who inspired I Am.
- HEALTHY RESISTANCE: Nurses protest Palintir.
- BAT MAN: Could a bar owner lose his business for an alleged assault?
- DANCING DAYS: A look back at Portola.
- SURVIVOR: D8 candidate Gary McCoy is done with half measures.
- IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL COME: Dudes who love data centers.
- BACK IN THE SADDLE: Like SF, our managing editor Megan Rose Dickey is back!
SEND US YOUR TIPS
Just a reminder: Your tips can go a long way at Gazetteer HQ. Got a good scoop? A fun bit of tea to spill? A nugget of gossip you’re dying to share? Send it our way. We can assure anonymity.
DISPATCHES FROM THE FOG
- A PROFILE WITH TEETH: Months after giving space to his decades-ago ex-girlfriend, a magazine profiles our handsome governor. (Vanity Fair)
- COLD CASE: Biting into the mystery of who changed the shade of the mint It’s-It — and why? (San Francisco Chronicle)
- IT’S EVEN MORE SLANTED: Elon Musk’s Grokipedia gets a tweak. (The Verge)
- SHAGGY DOG JOKE: Billionaire-backed thing still around after a week. (SF Currently)
- MARYLAND MAN WEARS SHORTS TO TADDICH GRILL: This town is going to hell. (SFGate)
