San Diego mayoral candidate Eric Bidwell rolls across the cement floor of Cream coffeehouse on his Heelys, wheeled shoes that he found used on craigslist for $20. Impressive dreadlocks extend to his waist. He wears a black shirt that has a graphic of two hands shaking under a table, and below that, in white letters, “San Diego, the finest city money can buy.” A large patch with his logo, a wrench suspended above two gears, covers one of the bulky pockets of his baggy cargo pants. The T-shirt and the patch are both his design.

Bidwell sets his black, musty-scented trench coat next to his laptop computer on one of the few available tables and rolls back to the counter for a cup of coffee. The staff knows him by name, and they talk about an upcoming art show featuring his politically inspired stencil art.

Until recently, Bidwell has used the crammed coffeehouse, located on Park Boulevard in University Heights, as a makeshift office for his struggling T-shirt and button company, as well as a place for perusing the Internet. But for the past few months the café has become campaign headquarters.

According to Bidwell, his decision to run for mayor “is pretty multifaceted. I want to inspire more of the public to participate in the political process and to bring often-overlooked issues and perspectives into the election, giving people an option that is categorically different than the others. And to gain experience organizing people and promoting a cause is a good thing. Also, just the experience of building a political campaign is enough, because I want to eventually run for president.”

In the end, the largest applause of the first full mayoral debate of the election season wasn't won by Mayor Jerry Sanders or businessman Steve Francis. It was incited by the 25-year-old in a white t-shirt sitting between them, the guy who said he lives off of about $6,000 a year and boasts a head of robust dreadlocks that fall down nearly to his waist.

Eric Bidwell experiments in guerilla marketing, fulltime revolutionizing and running a tech-savvy mayoral campaign

The bright lights, the ringing and clanging and the smell of fried food at Dave & Buster’s are dizzying, but Eric Bidwell calmly strolls down the walkway and finds his way to the corporate-event room, his long, thick dreadlocks bouncing lightly against his back.

“Sign in here and add languages to your nametag over there,” says the check-in lady.

Bidwell makes himself a nametag and heads over to a small table covered with sheets of stickers with words on them like “php,” “flex,” “AJAX” and “SEO.” By languages, the lady means computer languages, which is appropriate when you’re at the San Diego March Mingle, an annual techie meet-up sponsored by Adobe.

“These are cute,” says Bidwell. “I like these.” He picks three stickers—“SEO,” “Mac” and “usability”—then scans his surroundings. The people in the room are two things to Bidwell—potential information sources from which he can learn new things about web technology and potential constituents. He just got word a few days ago that the 200 signatures he submitted to the San Diego City Clerk were valid and he’s officially on the 2008 ballot as a candidate for mayor.