To be perfectly honest, I feel sorry for Matt Gonzalez (who I like personally). He's had a tough run at politics. First, he had to rebel against the Democratic Party for not being the Green Party. Now, he's rebelling against the Green Party to run with Ralph Nader. Along the way, he managed to completely miss out on the most important progressive realignment in decades.
Justifiably, he's getting whacked. There's the new Facebook Group Former Gonzalez Campaigners for Obama (recently joined by Chris Daly). I actually don't think I've seen a single positive comment about this stunt. And is it really any wonder?
I asked Gonzalez about this, about whether he is really arguing that there's no difference between Obama and McCain on the war. His answer was there's not a "drastic" difference.
And this was the best candidate to challenge Newsom last year? Really?
UPDATE: Mayor Newsom has some thoughts about Matt Gonzalez on the Nader ticket over at the Big Orange. It's worth a read, and perhaps a rec so others will get a chance to read it as well.
I made no mistake there, I mean that by running with Nader, Gonzalez has transitioned from feasible candidate to somebody shouting from the sidelines. BeyondChron has the news:
At 9:00 a.m. Pacific Standard Time today, presidential candidate Ralph Nader will announce his running mate at a Washington DC press conference. BeyondChron has learned that it will be former San Francisco Supervisor and Board President Matt Gonzalez.
The previous day, Gonzalez had written a BeyondChron editorial about Barack Obama that harshly criticized the junior Senator from Illinois for not actually being that progressive.
But his record suggests that he is incapable of ushering in any kind of change I'd like to see. It is one of accommodation and concession to the very political powers that we need to reign in and oppose if we are to make truly lasting advances.
He goes on to recount some of Obama's more troubling positions on class action and tort deform, where he enabled the Bush administration to plunder the rights of consumers and working Americans for the protection of corporations, on the plundering of our environment by mining corporations.
As for me, I am under no illusions that Obama was the progressive choice. Clearly Kucinich was the best for that, but Chris Dodd and John Edwards were clearly to the left of Obama. I understood that and hoped that Edwards would squeak by with a win in Iowa. But once it become clear that Senator Obama was building a grassroots infrastructure that could be leveraged to produce long-term electoral strength, I knew that he should be the nominee.
Look, Obama isn't perfect, and neither are any of the Democrats. I mean, you needn't look any further than the front page of today's Chronicle to see where the Dems are giving away money meant for WIC and Food Stamps to agribusiness giants like ADM. But as this movement grows, truly "we are the change we've been waiting for."
Gonzalez acknowledges this in his post, that this movement is something special. But, this movement is not about any candidate. It's been growing for a while, and Obama, like Dean before him, has only ridden the tidal wave of support for a new progressive agenda built from leadership from the grassroots on up. We have been bruised by the current administration, and while this might be a smaller step than we would have liked, it's clearly a step in the right direction.
If you peruse the virtual pages of BeyondChron, you'll see a couple of articles that dovetail quite nicely together. The first is a story by Randy Shaw with the idea that either former Board President Matt Gonzalez or Sup. Chris Daly will run against Mayor Newsom. Otherwise, why did Daly bother with scheduling a "Progressive convention" for June 1?
The second is an articlce by Paul Hogarth, which lays out the very sound basis for an argument that SF will be a very, very fertile grounds for ballot propositions in June 2008. Mark Leno's decision not to challenge Gavin Newsom (a decision that Chris Daly seems to have strongly disagreed with) and instead challenge Carole Migden will ensure strong turnout in the more progressive eastern half of the City while there will be no major elections in the Western half (or as I like to call the Sunset...the place that elected Ed Jew.)
So, two races might become more interesting. The Mayoral race might well...become a race, and SD-03 might not grate on the nerves of Carole Migden's progressive supporters quite so much given the chance for some real structural reform via the ballot box.
June 2nd is going to be a huge day in San Francisco politics. Gavin Newsom is kicking off his signature gathering with a rally and Chris Daly is holding is "convention" to try and force somebody to make it a race. At last night's fundraiser, I heard from two very knowledgeable progressive supervisors about the state of the race. One insisted that Matt Gonzalez was going to run and make it a re-match. The other insisted that there was no way in hell Matt Gonzalez was going to run. In unrelated news, a reliable source told me that Alex Tourk was seen having dinner with former Mayor Willie Brown last night (BTW, section 3.101 of SF Code says, "There shall be no limit on the non-successive terms that a person may serve"). Could be an interesting race...
Since Brian wrote an entry about the upcoming Convention, I thought Calitics readers would be interested in my article from yesterday's Beyond Chron.
On May 11th, Supervisor Chris Daly sent out a "save-the-date" e-mail to progressive allies for a Mayoral Convention on Saturday, June 2nd - calling it "the most important progressive gathering of the year." At the Convention, progressives will "consolidate our platform, train in the nuts and bolts of electioneering, launch our candidate(s) for Mayor of San Francisco, and have lots of fun!" With no serious candidate ready to challenge Gavin Newsom this November, many will say that this Convention is long overdue.
But aside from practical concerns - pulling off a convention on such short notice - should progressives prioritize the defeat of Newsom? First, Supervisors have shown in the past year that they have the power and initiative to get things done, even with a Mayor resistant to change. Second, Newsom's hands-off role as Mayor has made him a less formidable foe than Willie Brown. Third, Newsom has sometimes been willing to champion progressive causes - if he can take the credit. While it is obvious that voters deserve a choice this November, the truth is that nobody really wants to run. Which raises the question - why not just let Gavin be the ineffectual lame-duck Mayor that he is for the next four years?
Nothing like mayoral season in San Francisco to watch conservative heads explode, but this may set a new record. When the Yale Choir scandal initially broke, Fox News mouthpiece Sean Hannity decided to ignore the homophobic comments and instead focus on the fact media was reporting they were shouted during the singing of the National Anthem. He was so outraged that he offered a $10,000 reward to prove "it is OK to sing the anthem in this country and not be attacked."
Dan Noyes had more on the scandal tonight and it is sure to drive Fox News heads watchers to rue the day Hannity pulled this stunt.
You see, one of the potential suspects brought to light thanks to all the media attention is part of the Marine's elite, "2nd Fleet Anti-Terrorism Security Team (FAST) Company" and since this is an open investigation, the USMC is willing to offer him up for questioning. The kicker: by my count it looks like Hannity may owe gay San Francisco attorney Jim Hammer and Green Party leader (and potential mayoral candidate) Matt Gonzalez the cash.
The San Francisco Sentinel has a great number of photos from Gavin Newsom's HQ open house, including pics of Assemblymember Mark Leno, Supervisor Beavan Dufty, and John Burton.
In other campaign news, Newsom strategist Eric Jaye turns to blogging for his thoughts on Alex Tourk. While a touchy subject, I thought it was a classy post that paid a well deserved tribute to Tourk as a person and operative.
In tomorrow's issue of the San Francisco Bay Guardian, Tim Redmond sums up the field on the left, suggesting the CW at the Guardian's birthday bash was Matt Gonzalez has first shot, Ross Mirkarimi if Gonzalez declines and everyone if Newsom bows out. Redmond concludes, "Throw in public financing and ranked-choice voting, and the election's going to be like nothing there ever was in this town. I can't wait." He isn't alone.
