page_title: Peoples Temple in San Francisco
section_title: Involvement in George Moscone's 1975 mayoral race
hierarchical_section_title: Peoples Temple in San Francisco / Political beginnings / Involvement in George Moscone's 1975 mayoral race
caption_attribution_description: English: Members of Peoples Temple including Edith Delaney (front) and Earnestine March rally around the International Hotel in San Francisco's Manilatown, 848 Kearny Street during a protest January 1977 against eviction of the hotel tenants. Photo by Nancy Wong
context_page_description: The Peoples Temple, the new religious movement which came to be known for the mass killings at Jonestown, was headquartered in San Francisco, California, United States from the early to mid-1970s until the Temple's move to Guyana in 1977. During this period, the Temple and its founder, Reverend Jim Jones, rose to national prominence thanks to Jones' interest in social and political causes, and wielded a significant amount of influence in San Francisco's city government.
context_section_description: In San Francisco's 1975 mayoral race, Democratic candidate George Moscone ran against Republican John Barbagelata. During the race, Moscone held a meeting with Jones and Prokes requesting Temple volunteers to perform campaign work. Temple members subsequently saturated San Francisco neighborhoods, distributing slate cards for Moscone, Freitas, and Hongisto. The Temple worked to get out the vote in precincts where Moscone received a 12-to-1 vote margin over Barbagelata. All three candidates won, with Moscone winning a close runoff by less than two percent of the vote.  At the time of the election, a Moscone campaign aide stated, "Everybody talks about the labor unions and their power, but Jones turns out the troops."
  After the election, Moscone and others believed that the Temple's efforts were instrumental in his close victory. A transcription of a phone conversation with Prokes one month later stated, "Moscone acknowledges in essence that we won him the election" and that "he promises J. an appointment." 
  Barbagelata and others suspected election fraud on the part of the Temple, believing that followers of Jones who were not San Francisco residents had been transported into the city to vote. After the mass killings at Jonestown in 1978, Temple members revealed to The New York Times that the Temple had indeed arranged for "busloads" of members to be driven from Redwood Valley to vote for Moscone. A former Temple member stated that many of those members were not registered to vote in San Francisco, while another former member said that "Jones swayed elections." Yet another former member stated of Jones that "he told us how to vote", stating that Temple members were required to produce booth stubs to prove that they voted, and that members who could not produce such stubs were "pushed around, shoved and physically abused." When asked how Jones could know for whom they voted, the member responded, "You don't understand, we wanted to do what he told us to.".
  As San Francisco's newly-elected district attorney, Freitas set up a special unit to investigate the election fraud charges. Freitas named Temple member Timothy Stoen, whom he had hired as an assistant district attorney, to lead the unit. Stoen employed Temple members as volunteers to help with work on the investigation.  The Temple was not mentioned in the proceedings that followed. After the tragedy, Stoen, who had turned against the Temple in 1977, stated that he was not aware at an election fraud effort by the Temple at the time, but that such a plot could have happened without his knowledge because, "Jim Jones kept a lot of things from me."
caption: Ten busloads of Peoples Temple members attended an anti-eviction rally at the I-Hotel in January 1977.
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