Eric Bidwell, the "revolutionary mayor" candidate, is moving on to his next big thing.

"I'm thinking about hitchhiking to Chile to visit a girlfriend down there for the summer," he told Union-Tribune reporter Ron Powell. "I'm going to take a little vacation."

Of the campaign, he said, "It was a great learning process. I had no clue where it was going to go or how it was going to turn out. But I was really pleased with the way it turned out. I think I'm more disappointed in our political system and community participation than I was before. It just makes me want to fight to make it better even more."

How about a City Council run?

"(Councilwoman) Toni Atkins asked me tonight if I'd give thought to going for a council seat, but I really feel like the publicity is so much more with the mayoral race. I think that I had enough trouble getting into the media. If I were running for a district I think it would be even harder. I really want to get a message out more than just take a seat. I'm thinking about going for the gubernatorial in two years. It would be a fun excuse to go up and down the coast and travel a bit. Schwarzenegger got in there and I can act as good as him."

Bidwell is a dreadlocked 26-year-old T-shirt designer who sometimes sleeps in his van. His run for mayor made a series of debates more interesting. His biggest campaign moment was exposing from the stage an effort by Mayor Jerry Sanders' campaign manager to script his closing statement at one debate. The campaign manager resigned.

Bidwell got 6,372 votes, placing him fourth out of five candidates.