| Election Name: | 2007 San Francisco mayoral election |
| Country: | San Francisco |
| Type: | presidential |
| Ongoing: | no |
| Previous Election: | 2003 San Francisco mayoral election |
| Previous Year: | 2003 |
| Next Election: | 2011 San Francisco mayoral election |
| Next Year: | 2011 |
| Election Date: | November 6, 2007 |
| Image1: | File:Gavin Newsom (1).jpg |
| Candidate1: | Gavin Newsom |
| Party1: | Democratic Party (United States) |
| Popular Vote1: | 105,596 |
| Percentage1: | 73.66% |
| Candidate2: | Quintin Mecke |
| Party2: | Democratic Party (United States) |
| Popular Vote2: | 9,076 |
| Percentage2: | 6.33% |
| Mayor | |
| Posttitle: | Reelected Mayor |
| Before Election: | Gavin Newsom |
| Before Party: | Democratic Party (United States) |
| After Election: | Gavin Newsom |
| After Party: | Democratic Party (United States) |
| Image4: | File:Harold Hoogasian (1646356056).jpg |
| Candidate4: | Harold Hoogasian |
| Candidate5: | Wilma Pang |
| Party4: | Republican Party (United States) |
| Image5: | File:Wilma Pang.png |
| Party5: | Peace and Freedom Party |
| Popular Vote4: | 8,400 |
| Popular Vote5: | 7,274 |
| Percentage4: | 5.86% |
| Percentage5: | 5.07% |
The 2007 San Francisco mayoral election occurred on November 6, 2007. Voters elected a Mayor of San Francisco and several local officials. Incumbent Mayor Gavin Newsom was re-elected by an overwhelming margin. There were 12 candidates on the ballot as well as 6 write-ins.
Besides Newsom, other notable candidates included Josh Wolf, a journalist who was jailed for refusing to testify and turn over video evidence to a federal grand jury. Another candidate, "Chicken" John Rinaldi, qualified for public financing of his campaign but ran into procedural difficulties with San Francisco's Election Commission.
It was the first mayoral election in San Francisco history to use instant-runoff voting, also known as ranked-choice voting, so that there would be no need for a run-off, but a majority was reached in the first round and votes were not redistributed. The results of the election were not known for weeks because every ballot had to be hand-counted due to the long-running feud between the Elections Department of San Francisco and the California Secretary of State.[1]
Many ongoing and emerging issues might have influenced this election, including:
Municipal elections in California are officially non-partisan, though most candidates in San Francisco do receive funding and support from various political parties.