Rachel Gordon, Chronicle Staff Writer
Gavin Newsom, riding voter frustration with homelessness and fueled by nearly $4 million in campaign contributions, won election Tuesday as San Francisco's 42nd mayor in a campaign viewed as a test of strength for the city's dominant Democratic Party organization.
Newsom, a moderate member of the Board of Supervisors promoted as the new face of the Democratic establishment, was backed by endorsements from Democrats at all levels of government and supported by dozens of unions and real estate and major downtown corporate interests in defeating Matt Gonzalez, the progressive board president. . . .
Gonzalez, who would have become the first Green Party to win the nonpartisan mayor's office, ran a stronger campaign than anyone anticipated, an effort Newsom termed "extraordinary.''
"We had enough supporters to win this election,'' Gonzalez said at his concession speech Tuesday night at his Mission District headquarters. "We didn't win it, but we didn't lose it either. ... I look forward to working on the next progressive campaign in this city.''
Newsom, 36, will be sworn in Jan. 8 to succeed Mayor Willie Brown, the longtime powerful force of California's Democratic Party who gave Newsom his political start at City Hall when he appointed him to the Parking and Traffic Commission, then to the Board of Supervisors. Brown, who endorsed Newsom, was prevented by term limits from running for re-election as he wraps up eight years in office.
Newsom authored last year's voter-approved Care Not Cash homeless reform measure and last month's victorious ballot plan to crack down on panhandling. A supervisor since 1997, Newsom ran for mayor as a business-friendly centrist, pledging to create jobs in an economy still suffering from the dot-com bust. But he touted his work, for example, to increase money for parks while promising that neighborhood interests wouldn't be ignored. . . .
The race for San Francisco mayor drew international interest over the Democrat vs. Green duel.
Newsom received support from former President Bill Clinton and his vice president, Al Gore, who campaigned for the supervisor. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader in the House of Representatives, worked for Newsom to assure the Democrats didn't lose control of San Francisco, one of the party's strongholds, as it did the California governor's job the month before. Pelosi and others also wanted to make sure the city will remain solidly Democratic in the presidential primary next March.
That resonated with some Democrats, who may have favored Gonzalez's more liberal positions, but supported Newsom for purely partisan reasons.
But in a city where only 3 percent of the registered voters are Green Party members, Gonzalez proved with his strong showing that party affiliation does not resonate with everyone.
"The progressive community in San Francisco has really woken up,'' said Corey Cook, a political scientist at San Francisco State University. "It really showed a backlash to the Democratic establishment.''
Cook said Newsom's slim margin of victory means he will have to reach out to the more liberal members of the Board of Supervisors and to his opponents' supporters if he intends to move his agenda forward. . . .
Newsom, who has built a successful restaurant, wine and retail business, had been the front-runner in the mayor's race for almost a year and placed first in the Nov. 4 general election with almost twice as many votes as Gonzalez, the second-place finisher.
But once the nine-person field cleared after the November election and Gonzalez no longer had to compete with Supervisor Tom Ammiano, attorney Angela Alioto and City Treasurer Susan Leal -- all running to Newsom's left -- the one-on-one runoff race tightened in the last few weeks to the point where various polls showed the election too close to call.
Gonzalez captured the attention of voters in their 20s and 30s who had shown little interest in electoral politics in the past. Like Howard Dean's run for president, Gonzalez's campaign relied strongly on the Internet to spread the word and to raise money, and it incorporated the traditional get-out-the-vote tactics of precinct walking and phone-banking along with poetry readings, rock concerts and yoga workouts.
Newsom's campaign, with its deep pockets and an early head start, put on a more conventional campaign with considerable focus on identifying supporters early, then making sure they voted -- preferably by absentee ballot before Tuesday's election. Newsom, who in the end may have outspent Gonzalez 10 to 1, inundated voters with mail and recorded phone messages.
The effort paid off -- Newsom won twice as many absentee votes as Gonzalez, giving him a lead that was too much for Gonzalez's enthusiastic backers to overcome at the polls on election day.
In addition, business groups and the Democratic Party financed their own pro-Newsom pieces.
. . . Gonzalez argued that Brown was more interested in political patronage and high-profile development projects than taking care of the needs of the city's impoverished, working class and artists living on the fringe of the mainstream.
The hallmark of Gonzalez's legislative record was last month's voter-adopted ballot initiative that raised the minimum wage in San Francisco to $8.50 an hour -- the highest in the state.
And in response to what he termed Brown's imperial style of running the city, Gonzalez also took the lead in convincing voters to diminish the mayor's powers over the city's land-use commissions, elections operation and Police Department -- plans Newsom opposed.
Gonzalez's candidacy in the runoff election coalesced the city's progressive movement -- winning the support of tenants groups, homeless activists, environmental organizations and social justice advocates who have dogged Brown since his 1999 re-election and reached their greatest power a year later when Gonzalez and a majority of other anti-Brown candidates won seats on the 11-member Board of Supervisors. . . .
Newsom's relationship to Brown forced him to walk a tightrope in the campaign.
Newsom has been one of Brown's closest allies on the board, only voting against the mayor's interests a handful of times. But Brown remains a lightning rod in city politics -- and demonstrated it again last month when he accused Gonzalez of racism for rejecting the mayor's appointees to various boards and commissions.
While Newsom feared his campaign would be damaged by too close association with the mayor, he wanted to tap into Brown's union support and strong backing in the Chinese and African American communities. . . .
Gonzalez's late entry in the race just four months ago put him at a disadvantage to Newsom's well-funded campaign machine, but the closeness of the contest showed a deep divide in the city and signaled a desire for change. Gonzalez, a former public defender elected to office for the first time three years ago, has emerged as the undisputed leader of the city's left, and the mayor's race will not be the end to his challenging Newsom.
Newsom said time and time again on the campaign trail that he will unite the city. But that won't be easy.
His hard-fought victory does not equate into a voter mandate. He will take over Room 200 in City Hall with Gonzalez still at the helm of a hostile Board of Supervisors, which can make the new mayor's life miserable if he doesn't build bridges to his adversaries quickly. The board, with only two of its members endorsing Newsom's candidacy, can stall his new initiatives and buck his proposals to balance the budget.
Officials already are looking at a $100 million deficit for the new fiscal year, an amount that could balloon as this year's did when the shortfall reached $350 million. . . .
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Democrats hold onto San Francisco mayor's office, defeating Green Party maverick LISA LEFF Associated Press
. . . Still, with Democrats representing 54 percent of the registered voters and Greens 3 percent, Gonzalez said his 47 percent showing should send a message to the two major parties that voters will respond to candidates willing to take on the political establishment. Twenty-nine percent of the city's voters declined to state a party affiliation, and 13 percent are Republicans. . . .
ON THE NET
Election results: http://www.sfgov.org/site/election_index.asp
<http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/7457280.htm> *****