Candidate for
Mayor; City of San Francisco

Born in a working class town on Long Island, New York, Dennis was raised to value hard work and family. His father was a psychiatrist who emigrated from Colombia after serving as part of a United Nations peacekeeping mission during the Suez War in 1956. His mother was raised by her Italian immigrant parents and is still a practicing nurse. They taught Dennis at a young age the importance of hard work and a commitment to the right values. A lifelong baseball fan who caught for his high school team and grew up watching Mets games, Dennis now roots for his hometown World Champion San Francisco Giants.

Dennis graduated from Villanova University outside of Philadelphia before attending law school at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Throughout his education, Dennis worked many jobs to support himself + from his newspaper route as a young boy to restocking shelves at the local grocery store to serving as a short order cook in a local diner. After graduating law school in 1988, Dennis accepted an associate position offer at a maritime law firm in San Francisco.

Dennis was drawn to San Francisco's unique culture and quickly began to call the city his home. Always interested in community service, he joined Democratic clubs and helped to get local candidates elected in the city. In 1990, his experience in maritime law earned Dennis an appointment to the Waterfront Plan Advisory Board He also served on the Finance Committee for the California Democratic Party.

After President Clinton was elected in 1992, Dennis was asked to serve as the Special Assistant to the Maritime Administrator in the Federal Department of Transportation, where he managed a staff of over 1,100 people and oversaw significant transportation policy. Though he spent the next couple of years working in Washington, D.C., he stayed active in San Francisco life and returned often to his home in the Dogpatch neighborhood. In 1996, Dennis returned to San Francisco full-time and was appointed by Mayor Willie Brown to serve on the city's Transportation Commission, giving Dennis the opportunity to work directly on important transportation issues as well as begin working with the City budget. His strong work on the Transportation Commission earned him an appointment to the Police Commission. As President of the Police Commission, Dennis worked with both community members and police to implement new protocols on racial profiling, the treatment of transgender residents, and other important safety measures.

When then-City Attorney Louise Renne decided not to seek another term, Dennis knew this was a great opportunity to use his experience in the community and his expertise as an attorney to help better the lives of San Francisco residents. He ran as the underdog candidate and was elected as San Francisco's first Latino City Attorney in 2001.

As City Attorney, Dennis has used the power of his office to help protect consumers, defend our civil liberties, and protect the environment and air quality. He blew the whistle on a nationwide scam to defraud a federal program for needy school districts and brought in millions to benefit San Francisco's public school kids. Dennis also successfully defended universal health care all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and negotiated the closure of one of California's filthiest power plants, an achievement the San Francisco Chronicle called "nothing short of a miracle." Dennis is currently leading the fight in court for same-sex marriage equality and won a landmark Supreme Court case for LGBT rights. American Lawyer magazine described the office in 2004 as "one of the most aggressive and talented city law departments in the nation."

Dennis met his wife, Anne, in 1997 and they were married just a year later. Born and raised in California, Anne graduated from St. Mary's College and has a successful career in real estate. They live in the Dogpatch neighborhood with their 9-year-old son, Declan.