Consultant Apologizes for X-Rated Party

SAN FRANCISCO —  Controversial political consultant Jack Davis has issued a carefully worded apology for his 50th birthday party last weekend, a bash that featured live sex acts performed before many of the city’s most powerful figures.

Davis, who is managing the campaign for a new football stadium for the San Francisco 49ers, offered a written apology to the team and to “all of those in attendance that night who took offense” at the X-rated performance witnessed by some 300 guests. “There were some activities on stage that many people found shocking,” Davis said in the message sent to the media late Thursday.

But political pundits say the apology may be too little, too late, to help the 49ers’ sagging campaign for a $100-million bond issue to help build a $500-million stadium-mall complex. Residents vote on the issue June 3, and polls taken even before the party, dubbed “Satangate” by some San Franciscans, showed it was in trouble.

“Hopefully, this will help allow everyone to move past the whole party thing, which has nothing to do with whether the city ought to invest in a project . . . for a part of town that’s been neglected for 50 years,” said P.J. Johnson, spokesman for Mayor Willie Brown.