George Moscone

George Richard Moscone (/məˈskoʊni/ mə-SKOH-nee; November 24, 1929 – November 27, 1978) was an American attorney and politician who served as the 37th mayor of San Francisco from January 1976 until his assassination in November 1978.

He was known as "The People's Mayor", who opened up City Hall and its commissions to reflect the diversity of San Francisco, appointing African Americans, Asian Americans, and gay people. A member of the Democratic Party, Moscone served in the California State Senate from 1967 until becoming mayor; in the Senate he served as majority leader. He is remembered for being an advocate of civil progressivism.

George Richard Moscone was born in the Italian-American enclave of San Francisco's Marina District. The Moscone family comes from Piedmont and Liguria. His father was George Joseph Moscone, a corrections officer at nearby San Quentin, and his mother, Lena, was a homemaker who later went to work to support herself and her son after she separated from her husband.

Moscone attended St. Brigid's and then St. Ignatius College Preparatory, where he was a noted debater and an all-city basketball star. He then attended College of the Pacific on a basketball scholarship and played basketball for the Tigers. He received a Bachelor of Arts in sociology in 1953.

Moscone then studied at University of California, Hastings College of the Law, where he received his law degree. He married Gina Bondanza, whom he had known since she was in grade school, in 1954. The Moscones would go on to have four children. After serving in the United States Navy, Moscone started private practice in 1956.

As a young man playing basketball and as a young lawyer, Moscone became close friends with John Burton, who would later become a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. John's older brother, Phillip, a member of the California State Assembly, recruited Moscone to run for an Assembly seat in 1960 as a Democrat. Though he lost that race, Moscone would go on to win a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1963. On the Board, Moscone was known for his defense of poor people, racial minorities and small business owners, as well as supporting the first successful fight in San Francisco to block construction of a proposed freeway that would have cut through Golden Gate Park and several neighborhoods.^{[citation needed]}

In 1966 Moscone ran for and won a seat in the California State Senate, representing the 10th District in San Francisco County. Moscone was quickly rising through the ranks of the California Democratic Party and became closely associated with a loose alliance of progressive politicians in San Francisco led by the Burton brothers. This alliance was known as the Burton Machine and included John Burton, Phillip Burton, and Assemblyman Willie Brown. Soon after his election to the State Senate, Moscone was elected by his party to serve as Majority Leader. He was reelected to the 10th District seat in 1970 and to the newly redistricted 6th District seat, representing parts of San Francisco and San Mateo Counties, in 1974. He successfully sponsored legislation to institute a school lunch program for California students, as well as a bill legalizing abortion that was signed into law by Governor Ronald Reagan. In 1974 Moscone briefly considered a run for governor of California, but dropped out after a short time in favor of California Secretary of State Jerry Brown.

Moscone also was an early proponent of gay rights. In conjunction with his friend and ally in the Assembly, Willie Brown, Moscone managed to pass a bill repealing California's sodomy law. The repeal was signed into law by California Governor Jerry Brown.