He was a communist building a "Socialist Paradise" and on the A-List with his fellow Lefties:
While the Temple's headquarters were in San Francisco, a major center for radical protest movements, both Jones and the Temple became influential in San Francisco politics, culminating in the Temple's instrumental role in George Moscone's mayoral victory in 1975. Moscone subsequently appointed Jones as the chairman of the San Francisco Housing Authority Commission.
Jones was able to gain contact with prominent politicians at the local and national level. He and Moscone met privately with vice presidential candidate Walter Mondale on his campaign plane days before the 1976 election, leading Mondale to publicly praise the Temple. First Lady Rosalynn Carter also met with Jones on multiple occasions, corresponded with him about Cuba, and spoke with him at the grand opening of the San Francisco headquarters—where he received louder applause than she did.
In September 1976, California assemblyman Willie Brown served as master of ceremonies at a large testimonial dinner for Jones attended by Governor Jerry Brown and Lieutenant Governor Mervyn Dymally. At that dinner, Brown touted Jones as "what you should see every day when you look in the mirror" and said that he was a combination of Martin Luther King, Jr., Angela Davis, Albert Einstein, and Mao Tse Tung. Harvey Milk spoke to audiences during political rallies held at the Temple, and he wrote to Jones after one such visit: "Rev Jim, It may take me many a day to come back down from the high that I reach today. I found something dear today. I found a sense of being that makes up for all the hours and energy placed in a fight. I found what you wanted me to find. I shall be back. For I can never leave."
Jones also forged alliances with key columnists and others at the San Francisco Chronicle and other press outlets.
Peoples Temple Agricultural Project ("Jonestown", Guyana)
Jones had started building Jonestown (formally known as the "Peoples Temple Agricultural Project"). It was promoted as a means to create both a "socialist paradise" and a "sanctuary" from the media scrutiny in San Francisco. Jones purported to establish it as a model communist community, adding that the Temple comprised "the purest communists there are." He did not permit members to leave Jonestown.
