Openly gay Supervisor Bevan Dufty has announced his intention to run for mayor of San Francisco. Although renowned for its large LGBT population and its progressiveness on civil rights, San Francisco has never had an openly gay mayor. Dufty, who occupies the Supervisor seat once held by Harvey Milk, would like to change that. Dufty has earned the Victory Fund’s endorsement in his races for Supervisor, but has a lot of hard work ahead of him according to the San Francisco Chronicle:

Dufty plans to file forms with the city’s Election Department this morning announcing his intention to run and will immediately begin raising money and his profile, the supervisor told the Insider on Wednesday.

“I’m going to be a grassroots candidate and it’s going to take a lot of time and a lot of shoe leather to reach out across the city,” he said in explaining the early filing, which surprised some political watchers because of the cost of running a two-year campaign.

The next election for San Francisco Mayor will be held in 2011.