Joseph Alioto
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| Joseph Alioto | |
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| In office January 8, 1968 – January 8, 1976 |
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| Preceded by | John Shelley |
| Succeeded by | George Moscone |
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| Born | February 12, 1916 San Francisco, California |
| Died | January 29, 1998 (aged 81) San Francisco, California |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
Joseph Lawrence Alioto (February 12, 1916 - January 29, 1998) was the mayor of San Francisco from 1968 to 1976. He was born in San Francisco to a Sicilian immigrant father, who owned and operated several fish processing plants. His mother, Domenica Mae Lazio was born in San Francisco in 1893. His parents met on a fishing boat while escaping the 1906 San Francisco earthquake). Alioto graduated from St. Mary's College in Moraga, California in 1937 and from The Catholic University of America in 1940. Alioto worked for the Antitrust Division of the Justice Department and then for the Board of Economic Warfare. He returned to San Francisco after World War II and started an antitrust practice, representing Walt Disney and Samuel Goldwyn, among others, eventually becoming a millionaire. He argued the Radovich v. National Football League case before the Supreme Court, convincing the justices that professional football, unlike baseball, was subject to antitrust laws.
Alioto served on the San Francisco Board of Education from 1948 to 1954, and in the 1960s, served as the chair of the city's Redevelopment Agency. He entered the mayoral race in 1967 when John Shelley, the incumbent, bowed out of the race, allegedly because of poor health but probably because Alioto was more pro-development than Shelley (Shelley, whose rival Eugene McAteer was being backed by Alioto, was also expected to lose against a Republican opponent, Harold Dobbs, after McAteer collapsed and died while playing a game of handball).
Alioto was inaugurated on January 8, 1968, served a term, and was handily re-elected in 1971. Alioto delivered the speech nominating Hubert Humphrey at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. There were rumors that Humphrey would select Alioto as his running mate, but Humphrey selected Edmund Muskie. An article in the September 23, 1969 issue of Look magazine claimed that Alioto had ties to the Mafioso Aladena Fratianno. Alioto sued the magazine for libel and won a $450,000 judgment. In the course of the litigation, Alioto proved that Look, desperate and on the verge of bankruptcy, simply conjured up (with no proof) an alleged mob meeting in Vacaville, California at the Nut Tree Restaurant. He later claimed that he had documents that showed that the Nixon administration leaked disinformation to the magazine in order to stall his career.[1]
In January 1970, the State of Washington, three cities, a port authority and eight public utilities, brought civil suit against Alioto. The civil suit came about because he split a $2.3 million fee in an antitrust case with Washington State Attorney General John J. O’Connell and an O’Connell deputy, George Faler. Attorney General O’Connell had maintained Public Utility Districts as private clients during his time as AG. The Public Utility Districts were suing electrical manufactures that were fixing prices at an improperly high level. The case began in 1962 and O’Connell retained Alioto, a very successful anti-trust attorney, to work on the case. Originally, Alioto agreed to receive 15% of what was awarded with a $1 million cap. Later, O’Connell, apparently without telling his clients, abolished the fee ceiling. Alioto ended up receiving approximately $2.3 million and gave $802,815 of those fees to O’Connell and Faler. The state and other groups sued to have the entire $2.3 million returned. The trial took six months and jury unanimously found the three were entitled to the $2.3 million.
Alioto was also indicted by the federal government in March 1971 on bribery charges because of the means by which the fees were awarded. When the case went to court, Alioto was cleared of the federal charges by a judge that ordered acquittal without hearing the defense because he thought the government’s case was so weak.
Alioto presided over a time of turmoil and change in San Francisco. He ran on a platform of reducing taxes and fighting crime. Alioto put his energy behind the development of three major building projects, the Bay Area Rapid Transit System (BART), the Transamerica Pyramid and the Embarcadero Center. These efforts engendered opposition in the development stage but were eventually built and transformed the quality of life and skyline of San Francisco. Alioto helped to bring more minorities into city politics, launched a reform of the city charter, and mediated protracted police and fire department strikes in 1975. Alioto's tenure began with a city-wide newspaper strike in 1968, followed by a strike at San Francisco City College during 1968-1969, strife in the Haight-Ashbury, anti-Vietnam War demonstrations, and the Zebra murders and Zodiac killings. In 1971, Alioto's wife Angelina vanished, reappearing after 18 days to say that she had taken off to "punish" her husband for neglect. During the time Angelina was missing, she toured the missions of California as part of a religious pilgrimage. Angelina filed divorce proceedings against him in 1975. He remarried in 1978.
Alioto ran in the 1974 Democratic primary for the governor's office, losing to Bob Moretti and Jerry Brown. After he left office, Alioto went back into private practice, but he and his son Joseph Jr. lost a major malpractice case in 1980. In 1991, he and his son went to battle in court against one another over legal fees in another case. Alioto died of prostate cancer in San Francisco in 1998.
Members of Alioto's family are still deeply involved in San Francisco politics. Angela Alioto, a daughter from his first marriage, served eight years as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, two as its President. Currently, one of Angela's three sons, Joe Alioto Veronese, is campaigning for the California State Senate seat in 2008. One of his granddaughters, Michela Alioto-Pier, was appointed to the Board of Supervisors in 2003 by San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom and won election to the Board in 2004. Several of his sons, and many of his grandchildren are prominent and successful attorneys and businessmen/women in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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| Preceded by John Shelley |
Mayor of San Francisco 1968–1976 |
Succeeded by George Moscone |
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