As Mayoral Candidate Quintin Mecke walked into a dark bustling room lined with Christmas lights and orange streamers, a huge round of applause began to mix in with the loud background sounds of Caribbean music.

Mecke, considered by some to be Gavin Newsom's strongest opponent in this mayoral race, held an election party last night at the Peacock Lounge at 552 Haight Street.

Around 8:45 p.m., the club began to flood with supporters sporting orange, black and white “Quintin Mecke For Mayor” T-shirts.

The League of Young Voters spent the entire day campaigning for Mecke all around San Francisco.

“We’ve been in the office, [Mecke’s headquarters] since 6 a.m. and was at City Hall by
7:30 this morning passing out flyers and taking pictures,” said Ali Uscilka, a member of The League of Young Voters.

Mecke’s cheerful spirit and friendly smile were contrary to how campaign supporters felt about the way mainstream media was handling the mayoral election.

“I was upset because the media made [the candidates] look like clowns. Quintin is more for the serious things like crime and homelessness. I mean they put more attention on people like “Chicken John” and the nudity guy,” said SF State student Mk Nguyen.

“[Mecke] is aware of the issues in the community,”said Catherine Marroquin, a community organizer and Mecke supporter.

Mecke says his top issues are affordable housing, Muni, crime and homelessness.

“There are about 92 or 93 homicides so far this year[….]the main reasons for crime is disproportionate representation. There is a set record number of homicides especially in Bayview,” Mecke said.

Mecke lists education and poverty as other reasons for the high crime rate in San Francisco.

Henry J. W., who is on the Board of Directors for Acts of Love, a political group and grassroots organization for medical marijuana patients, said that even though he felt that the election was fair, his biggest concern is: “What is Newsom going to do now?”

“He can fix the Muni, but [we] still got homeless problems…he ran out of excuses. Somebody new and fresh [needs to] come in.”