HALLINAN SQUEAKS TO VICTORY OVER FAZIO IN DA'S RACE

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Terence Hallinan, a pugnacious prosecutor who
campaigned as ``America's most progressive district attorney,'' narrowly
beat Bill Fazio, according to the latest results from an excruciatingly
slow ballot count.

Hallinan's lead widened to an insurmountable 1,758 votes Wednesday, or 50.4
percent of the 208,124 ballots counted in the Dec. 14th runoff, election
officials said.

``It's claimed. It's done,'' a triumphant Hallinan said after an aide
handed him the latest tally at City Hall. ``It was a close hard-fought
election. No question about that.''

The latest count showed Hallinan with 104,941 votes to 103,183, or 49.5
percent, for Fazio, a former assistant district attorney who also lost to
Hallinan in 1995.

``Obviously, it's been a long, tough, hard six months, and to lose by such
a narrow margin is heartbreaking,'' said Fazio's campaign manager, Ellie
Schafer.

The 2,546 ballots counted Wednesday had been considered provisional,
meaning they might have been mangled, or the person voting was not listed
on the rolls at the polling place, or voted at the wrong polling place.

Each provisional ballot must be inspected by hand, and those most easily
verified have already been counted. Those that remain -- fewer than 1,700
by one estimate -- are more problematic and increasingly likely to be
tossed out, said Theresa Rabe, campaign services manager for the city's
Department of Elections.

Rabe said the final results should be released Thursday, resolving the
election before Christmas, but Hallinan's campaign spokesman, Ross
Mirkarimi, said, ``what's left to be picked over statistically won't make a
difference.''

Fazio won't disappear from San Francisco politics, Schafer said. One
possibility is running for city supervisor next November, challenging Mabel
Teng in District 7, a wealthy section of the city's Outer Sunset area.

``I think anything's a possibility right now. There's obviously a fair
number of people who like what Bill had to say. He's got a great future
regardless of what he plans to do,'' she said.

Counting the general and runoff elections, this is the fourth time Hallinan
and Fazio faced off for district attorney. In the 1995 runoff, Hallinan had
52 percent of the vote to Fazio's 48 percent.

``Kayo'' Hallinan, 62, is a former boxer, city supervisor and civil rights
lawyer who has refused to carry out the War on Drugs as prosecutor.
Instead, he has put minor drug offenders and nonviolent criminals through
school rather than jail. He's presided over a 40 percent drop in crime, but
was criticized for a low conviction rate he credits to his diversion programs.

Fazio, 52, was for 20 years a prosecutor under Hallinan's predecessors. He
was endorsed by the Police Officers Association and both of the city's
daily newspapers.

He said he would continue Hallinan's diversion programs and his support for
medicinal marijuana use -- both popular among liberals in San Francisco --
but would implement them more effectively and get more convictions for
street crime.

``This is San Francisco,'' shrugged Fazio during one debate. ``We're all
progressive to a certain degree.''

Schafer said Hallinan should thank Tom Ammiano, the Board of Supervisors
president whose quixotic grassroots write-in campaign mobilized thousands
of liberal voters who wouldn't have supported Mayor Willie Brown to cast
ballots in the runoff.

``I think he's probably one of the luckiest guys I ever met in my life,''
Schafer said about Hallinan. ``He got in on Mayor Brown's coattails four
years ago and if he gets in this time, he can thank the people who came out
to vote for Ammiano.''

The race got ugly at the end, with Fazio bringing up a sex harassment
lawsuit Hallinan settled, and Hallinan mentioning a December 1998 incident
in which Fazio was caught up in a massage parlor raid where six prostitutes
were arrested. Fazio, a private defense attorney, said he was interviewing
a witness at the time.

Hallinan deflected criticism that the campaign was marred by mudslinging.

``I made some mistakes and I did some things right, and that's the way
campaigns go,'' he said. ``You get hit, you hit back, and it just kind of
feeds on itself. DAs are just tough guys and I guess that's the way they're
going to fight it out.''