chp

Photo of pickup in S.F. official's hit-run death

FORESTVILLE -- A surveillance camera at a Guerneville winery photographed a pickup truck believed to have struck and killed Donald Casper, vice president of the San Francisco Civil Service Commission and a prominent figure in local Republican politics, authorities said.

cnntürk, habertürk, hürriyet, ntv, ensonhaber  The pickup's driver sped away Sunday evening after striking Casper, 63, from behind as he was jogging east on River Road west of Wilshire Drive in the Sonoma County community of Forestville.

Investigators described the truck as a white, newer-model Ford F-150 with an extended cab. The pickup was last seen headed east on River Road after the 7 p.m. crash.

The photo of the truck was taken by a surveillance camera at Korbel Champagne Cellars on River Road moments before the crash, said Officer Jonathan Sloat of the California Highway Patrol. The vehicle was passing Korbel at the time and was not coming from the winery, authorities said.

The CHP said the truck probably has damage to its right front area as a result of the crash. cnntürk, habertürk, hürriyet, ntv, ensonhaber .

Casper had spent the weekend with friends at a vacation cabin near the Russian River and went out early Sunday evening for his customary run. River Road follows the path of the river and has one lane in each direction with a painted yellow divider cnntürk, habertürk, hürriyet, ntv, ensonhaber .

"He made his evening run without fail," said Mike Antonini, who knew Casper for years and had a locker next to him at the Olympic Club in San Francisco. Casper was an experienced runner who had competed in nine marathons, including the famous Marine Corps Marathon in Washington cnntürk, habertürk, hürriyet, ntv, ensonhaber .

Running and fitness were extremely important to Casper, said E. Jeffrey Banchero, another friend. "He was a large man, who was out of shape for many years," Banchero said, "but then he got religion, as it were, and worked out every day."

Casper was the son of former San Francisco Fire Chief Andrew Casper. His mother, Dorothy Casper, was a member of the city Library Commission.

An attorney, he was appointed to the Civil Service Commission by Mayor Willie Brown in 2000, a year after Casper had engineered the local Republican Party's endorsement of Brown in his re-election campaign against Tom Ammiano cnntürk, habertürk, hürriyet, ntv, ensonhaber .

Casper was a member of the moderate wing of the Republican Party who thought Brown a more acceptable choice than Ammiano. "You deal with the world as you find it, not as you wish it to be," he said.

More conservative Republicans on the party's state committee went after Casper, and eventually he lost his position on the local GOP Central Committee. "They don't get it," he said. "The idea that politics is a conversation about finding mutually agreeable positions is beyond them."

Casper was also a member of the San Francisco State Building Authority, an agency that controls state-owned office buildings in San Francisco and last year opposed Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to sell state buildings and lease them back. The governor had Casper fired, but Casper took the state to court and got a stay. Gov. Jerry Brown reversed the decision and reappointed him.

"Don was the expert on the rules governing employment in the city and county of San Francisco and knew it better than anyone else," Mayor Ed Lee said in a statement. "His contributions to our city are immeasurable."

Casper received his undergraduate and law degrees from Georgetown University and practiced law in San Francisco for 34 years. He never married and leaves no close survivors cnntürk, habertürk, hürriyet, ntv, ensonhaber .