J. Eugene McAteer (February 28, 1916 – May 26, 1967) was a

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

Supervisor (1953–1958) and a

California State Senator The California State Senate is the upper house of the California State Legislature, the lower house being the California State Assembly. The State Senate convenes, along with the State Assembly, at the California State Capitol in Sacramento. ...

(1959–1967). He coauthored legislation to start the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission. The commission's first director, Joseph Bodovitz, said, "What people tend to forget now is how unusual it was to have anybody of McAteer's stature interested in an environmental issue in the sixties." In 1967, McAteer, a Democrat, announced his intent to run for Mayor of San Francisco in the November election, opposing the Democratic incumbent

John F. Shelley John Francis Shelley (September 3, 1905 – September 1, 1974) was a U.S. politician. He served as the 35th mayor of San Francisco, from 1964 to 1968, the first Democrat elected to the office in 50 years, and the first in an unbroken lin ...

as well as perennial Republican candidate,

Harold Dobbs Harold Stanley Dobbs (December 8, 1918 – August 14, 1994) was an influential civic leader in San Francisco, California. He was a lawyer, businessman, politician, and leader in the Jewish community, founding Mel's Drive-In and serving as presiden ...

. The campaign was cut short by McAteer's untimely death at age 51 in May of that year, while playing handball at the Olympic Club's downtown facility. Shortly thereafter, attorney

Joseph L. Alioto Joseph Lawrence Alioto (February 12, 1916 – January 29, 1998) was an American politician who served as the 36th mayor of San Francisco, California, from 1968 to 1976. Biography Alioto was born in San Francisco in 1916. His father, Giuseppe ...

, then working on the McAteer campaign, entered the race and subsequently won that fall's election, eventually serving two terms in the office of Mayor.

References

1916 births 1967 deaths San Francisco Bay Area politicians Democratic Party California state senators San Francisco Board of Supervisors members 20th-century American politicians United States Navy personnel of World War II {{California-CASenate-stub