"It Was Given on a Crown of Thorns"

Few San Franciscans will forget the ashen face of Dianne Feinstein, 47, on the day she became acting mayor in November 1978. Just nine days earlier, the Guyana massacre had jolted the city, which had been the nurturing ground of Jim Jones' Peoples Temple. Now it was Feinstein's terrible duty to announce that Mayor George Moscone and Harvey Milk, a homosexual member of the board of supervisors, had been assassinated by a disgruntled former board member. As president of the board, Feinstein became acting mayor. "I found myself into the politics of assassination," she recalls. It was a "very repulsive" way of getting the job she twice ran for unsuccessfully, she said, adding, "It was given on a crown of thorns."

The path to what she called the "emotional reconstruction" of the city also proved thorny. In short order, Feinstein had to contend with "the White Night Riot," a violent demonstration that pitted gays against police. Then there were conflicts with the police department that led to the firing of popular Police Chief Charles Gain, a citywide teachers' strike and problems with the city's transportation union. Feinstein's cool head, fair but tough negotiating style and politically adroit appointments won her enough favor among the city's diverse ethnic and interest groups to let her be elected mayor in her own right in 1979. Feinstein believes that her record tends to disprove "the theory that women mayors don't make it."

A 1955 Stanford graduate, Feinstein used a foundation grant to do a study of criminal justice, which led eventually to her appointment as the youngest member of California's women's board of terms and paroles. She also made a name for herself around the city by serving on several committees dealing with crime and prisons. This paid off handsomely when she ran for the board of supervisors in 1969. In an at-large contest, she defeated five incumbents, automatically becoming board president.

In her early mayoral campaigns, she lost thunderously to Republican Incumbent Joseph Alioto in 1971 and failed to gain a runoff in the 1975 race. She was often accused during this period of being a political waffler. In fact, her views have shifted over the years. Once considered a liberal, especially on environmental issues, she has gradually moderated her position and developed strong ties with business and a reputation for fiscal conservatism.

Feinstein has been married three times. She has a daughter, Katherine Anne, 24, by her first marriage, which ended in divorce. Her second husband, Neurosurgeon Bertram Feinstein, died of cancer shortly before she became mayor. She has since married Financier Richard Blum, whose active role in his wife's career has been criticized in some quarters, leading one columnist to dub the mayor "Feinblum."

Proud of her city's "richness and diversity of people and life-styles," Feinstein takes particular delight in the fact that San Francisco is one of only four major U.S. cities operating in the black. Last week she was able to announce a 10.4% increase in the city budget, allowing her to hire 91 badly needed policemen and 33 bus and streetcar workers. Still, the increase is the smallest in three years.

Feinstein, a Democrat who supported Jimmy Carter to the bitter end, fears that federal cutbacks will hamper future efforts to improve city services, including a plan to refurbish San Francisco's dilapidated trademark, cable cars. Says she: "We have significantly less purchasing power than in past years, but so far the impact has only been on the surface."

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