"San Francisco is Dean city!" declares Larry Brilliant, and the WELL cofounder is at least half right. The former Vermont governor, leading the pack in California among Democratic presidential candidates, is best known for signing a gay civil unions bill, taking a strident anti-Bush, anti-Iraq war stance, and using the Net to tap grassroots donors and volunteers. In gay-friendly, latte-liberal, techie San Francisco, home to the largest antiwar protests in the States, what's not to like?

Depends on whom you ask. While recent polls have Dean ahead in key primary states (he's leading by 21 points in a late-August New Hampshire poll), the cult of Dean, with his rock-'n'-roll-style fund-raisers for the masses and dual Time and Newsweek covers, hasn't yet translated into unified support from city movers and shakers. It's early yet, but Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein have stayed neutral, as has Mayor Willie. (Out of loyalty, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi's early endorsement went to predecessor Dick Gephardt.)

The fund-raising folks are grappling with the Dean factor. The good doctor has already done the politically impossible locally: He split Democratic fund-raiser Susie Tompkins Buell (who's raising money for John Kerry) and her best friend, Amy Rao, a tech CEO and Dean supporter. Still, the troops are amassing: Another fund-raising powerhouse, Lore Harp McGovern, raised $50,000 for Kerry only to end up fund-raising for Dean. In August, Dean picked up over $100,000 at a house party hosted by Steven and Mary Swig, returning again for an early September tour. Meanwhile, word about his "Meetups" at bars and churches is growing. He's attracting hundreds of volunteers—gays, Birkenstock liberals, techies, and some Republicans—and staffing up to reach ethnic voters and moderates.

The ambivalence of key local players might well be attributed to the M & M factor: McGovern and Mondale, liberal losers who won our money and votes but failed miserably outside 415. Self-consciously aware of their isolation from the political mainstream, local progressives are obsessed with picking a winner, not just a soul mate. So they wring their hands: Is Dean too left to defeat Bush, as the Democratic Leadership Council announced? Or do his staunch pro-Israel tendencies, support of the death penalty, and opposition to federal gun control legislation inoculate him from right-wing attacks but alienate true believers? Is he sufficiently likable? ("When I met him, I think I saw a meanness," says Buell. "He's arrogant and has a temper.") And lately, this concern: Will he peak too soon, given his front-loading of publicity and ad spending 14 months before the election?

Those questions obscure Dean's true appeal. I can't say yet if he can win the presidency or even if I'll vote for him. But he's neither McGovern (who marshaled lefties but never caught fire with moderates) nor Mondale (a party regular who never inspired the base), nor is he Bush lite (as

some far lefties charge). And it's his strategy of solidifying his liberal base while reaching for the center that excites many here, because in Dean's case it looks less strategic than quirky. "He's not the liberal I would like, but he's not afraid to say what he thinks," says Brilliant, echoing many converts drawn to Dean's straight talk. As the angry doctor's centrist leanings become more well known, he will look less and less the perfect Bay Area candidate. Which may, ironically, be what most Bay Area voters want this time.