Mike DeNunzio wants to meet at "the shrine." You know where that is, don't you, Debra?

Well, no, actually. I have no idea which North Beach shrine he means.

It turns out that DeNunzio wants to meet at the National Shrine of St. Francis of Assisi, in a church built in 1849 at the corner of Columbus Avenue and Vallejo Street. In the back of the church, there is a relic of St. Francis.

DeNunzio is excited that a replica of St. Francis' porziuncola in Assisi (a tiny chapel erected near Assisi, where the Franciscan movement started) will open in September, when it will be blessed by Cardinal William J. Levada. And that the shrine is in San Francisco's District 3 -- the district that DeNunzio is campaigning to represent. As a Republican running for office in San Francisco, his faith may come in handy.

The incumbent, Aaron Peskin, is being term-limited out of office. DeNunzio is one of 12 San Franciscans running to replace the Napoleon of North Beach, and the only known Republican.

Why is he running?

"I'm not going to sit by and be a bystander," DeNunzio told me over coffee last week. For years, DeNunzio has been a staple at political events in the city. Now, as a candidate, he's planning to attend the district debates and challenge the left-leaning orthodoxy, and the sort of zany, busybody, only-in-San Francisco ordinances that cause out-of-staters to cackle and drive many San Franciscans nuts.

He has two maxims: "Make your laws with humility." And: "Government has a role, but it has limitations." That means: Enough with the laws on plastic bags and new places to ban smoking. If elected, he would concentrate on meat-and-potato issues, like bringing fiscal sanity to the city budget.

"We've had eight years of progressives (on the board of supervisors)," he said. "Maybe we now need someone who can count."

As for the school board's vote to get rid of the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corp in 2009, as a former personnel specialist in the U.S. Army Reserves, DeNunzio does not approve. And wouldn't it be nice to have an elected conservative, who knows how to get on television and radio, to show the world the side of San Francisco that recognizes the city's military heritage? Continued...