Mayor Tom Bates of Berkeley, California

On the morning of November 4, 2002, the day before the Berkeley, California mayoral election, Tom Bates, the Democratic candidate for mayor, was distributing campaign literature in Sproul Plaza on the campus of the University of California--Berkeley. Bates, a former state assemblyman, was involved in a close campaign battle against incumbent Mayor Shirley Dean. In the course of the campaign, several of the student-edited newspapers at the university had either refused to endorse Bates or had in fact endorsed Dean. As Bates distributed his pamphlets, he approached members of the Berkeley College Republicans who were handing out copies of the newsletter The California Patriot. Although the Patriot had not endorsed either mayoral candidate, it had run an article which spoke more highly of Dean. Bates accepted a copy of the Patriot and returned several times later to collect more copies. His behavior eventually aroused the suspicion of the students, who followed him and saw him dump the Patriot into a nearby trashcan. When the students examined the trashcan more closely, they discovered that Bates had thrown away not only copies of the Patriot, but also stacks of The Daily Californian, a free student newspaper that was running an endorsement of Dean. In the end, Bates took approximately 1,000 copies of The Daily Californian and threw them in various trash bins around Sproul Plaza. The following day, November 5, Bates was elected by a large margin, garnering 56% of the vote to Dean's 42%.

When confronted by editors of The Daily Californian, Bates initially denied any involvement in the affair. On December 6, however, after county prosecutors examined the case, Bates finally admitted his guilt, explaining that he "was tired on the last day of a difficult campaign" and that he "made a mistake." A month later, he pled guilty to petty theft in an Oakland courthouse and was fined $100. He also agreed to pay The Daily Californian $500 in restitution and to consider passing a new city ordinance banning the theft of free newspapers. He has, however, refused to resign.

Bates built his political career by championing progressive causes like human rights, the environment, civil rights, and, before this incident, his dedication to free speech seemed unimpeachable. Indeed, he had even sponsored a bill declaring October 1 "Free Speech Movement Day." Nonetheless, on the final day of his campaign, Bates managed not only to stifle free speech, but also to commit theft, lie to the press, and undermine public faith in Berkeley's city government. In a letter to the Thomas Jefferson Center, Mayor Bates admitted that he "made a serious mistake" and "probably deserve[s]" the muzzle award. While his candor is refreshing, it does not excuse such an attempt to stifle criticism and thereby earns Mayor Bates a 2003 Jefferson Muzzle.