[lbo-talk] More news from the retreat from Mosconia

[John Adams]

Gonzalez is to San Francisco what Nader is to the United States:

"This shows the problem of trying to build a movement around an  
individual,'' he said. "There was hope after (Supervisor Tom) Ammiano  
(ran for mayor in 1999), but the movement fell apart. Now with Matt  
leaving, unless he re-emerges in a different role, it will happen again.

"People are always more energized by individuals than by issues ... but  
it's a strategy that can't sustain itself.''

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/04/05/ 
PROGRESSIVE.TMP&nl=top

S.F. leftists warily ask if Newsom is for real
His progressivism, Gonzalez's exit leave them adrift

John Wildermuth, Chronicle Political Writer
Monday, April 5, 2004
San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's surprising start -- and the surprise  
decision by Board of Supervisors President Matt Gonzalez not to run for  
re-election -- has left the city's most left-leaning activists  
wondering what to do next.

"Newsom has built up some real political capital on the left,'' said  
Rich DeLeon, a political science professor at San Francisco State  
University who has long written about the city's liberal activists. "A  
lot of progressives are slowly letting their guard down, since they  
were braced for problems based on Newsom's campaign (for mayor).''

Even the Green Party activist who served as spokesman for Gonzalez's  
mayoral campaign against Newsom gives the new mayor credit for his  
early moves.

"Gavin Newsom's stand on gay marriage made us all proud,'' said Ross  
Mirkarimi. "But it's early in his administration, and the jury is still  
out as to what will happen next.''

It has been a long, strange four-month trip for the city's progressive  
activists, who in December fell just 15,000 votes short of giving  
Gonzalez, a Green Party member and former public defender, a stunning  
victory over the more moderate Newsom, a millionaire businessman who  
was the choice of San Francisco's Democratic establishment.

The unexpectedly tight race fired up Gonzalez and his backers, who  
promised to be almost a government in exile rather than a loyal  
opposition. Supporters like Supervisor Gerardo Sandoval suggested that  
Gonzalez, as leader of the board's progressive majority, would hold the  
reins of power in the city.

"We didn't win, but we didn't lose, either,'' Gonzalez said in his  
election-night concession speech. "When Mayor Newsom is wrong, we'll be  
there to oppose him.''

The opposition wasn't long in coming.

"I was walking to my office on Dec. 10, the day after the election,  
when I saw my first 'Recall Newsom' poster,'' said Eric Jaye, one of  
the mayor's political advisers.

But after taking office in January, Newsom quickly demoted acting  
Police Chief Alex Fagan, fired some of former Mayor Willie Brown's more  
notorious political appointees, proposed a $150 million bond to build  
supportive housing for the homeless, and cracked down on crime and  
quality of life problems in the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood.

Then, in February, Newsom ordered the city to begin issuing marriage  
licenses to same-sex couples. Suddenly even some of his loudest  
detractors, like the progressive-oriented Bay Guardian newspaper, found  
themselves reluctantly supporting the mayor.

The man who had been accused during the campaign of bringing a  
right-wing agenda to City Hall was now being called "the most liberal  
mayor in the United States'' by the London Telegraph.

That easing of election-year tension between Newsom and the city's  
progressives is showing in the mayor's improving popularity. After he  
collected 53 percent of the vote in the December runoff election, a  
mid-February survey by David Binder, a local Democratic pollster,  
showed Newsom with a 69 percent approval rating.

"Newsom has earned the respect of many progressives and liberals,''  
Binder said. "He's caused a lot of his opponents to say, 'Let's take  
another look at this guy.' ''

The same progressive supervisors who planned last December to spend  
four years steamrolling the mayor and his newborn policies also know  
how to read a poll. As Newsom's numbers have soared, they've been less  
willing to scuffle publicly with the mayor. Instead, they've been happy  
to work with Newsom on popular issues like easing the homeless problem  
and improving the Bayview, and willing to disagree quietly on issues  
such as workforce housing.

Supervisors such as Sandoval, Aaron Peskin and Jake McGoldrick also are  
facing re-election in November and know that full-out opposition from  
an increasingly popular mayor would make their races a lot tougher.

Many of the city's progressive leaders don't know what to make of  
Newsom's populist leanings. They aren't sure whether he is operating  
from principle or politics when he repeats many of their own lines.

"The fear is that (Newsom is) building up some credibility on the  
progressive side, and then in a year or so the hammer will come down on  
groups like us,'' said Ted Gullicksen, executive director of the San  
Francisco Tenants Union.

What people are seeing now is the real Newsom, not the conservative  
straw man that was set up by his opponents and battered in the harsh  
back-and-forth of a typically contentious election campaign, Jaye said.

"Gavin Newsom isn't co-opting anyone's positions,'' he said. "Now he  
has an opportunity to communicate where he stands and what he believes  
with less distortion than in a campaign.

"He's able to let people take a look at his real views.''

According to studies by Binder, about 25 percent of San Francisco's  
voters call themselves progressives. These voters are younger, more  
ideological and farther to the left than the 30 percent of the city's  
voters who bill themselves as liberal. In December's mayoral election,  
the progressives went strongly for Gonzalez, while the liberals, who  
include many old-line Democrats, split their votes between Newsom and  
Gonzalez.

But the contest brought out thousands of new voters, many of them  
young, excited and anxious to work for the changes Gonzalez promised.  
Progressive activists were confident a charismatic leader like Gonzalez  
could keep those people involved and pave the way for future victories.

With Newsom's popularity on the upswing among liberals and  
progressives, however, Gonzalez couldn't have picked a worse time to  
pack his political bags.

Gonzalez refused to be interviewed, but friends said they tried  
fruitlessly to talk him out of leaving the board.

"Contrary to my advice, he decided not to run (in November), and I  
think that's a mistake,'' said Mirkarimi. "He understands what it is to  
build a movement, and he was riding high. I would like to see him  
continue.''

While Gonzalez made it clear that he was just leaving the Board of  
Supervisors and not getting out of politics entirely, that's easier  
said than done. As president of the board, Gonzalez is in the middle of  
San Francisco's political life, with both a voice and a vote in every  
controversy. As an out-of- office politician, it's hard to be anyone's  
rallying point.

"I expected to see (Gonzalez) organize, if not a machine, an effective,  
coherent organization for the left,'' said DeLeon, the San Francisco  
State professor. "There was a lot of hopefulness after the election,  
but there's now a sense this can all fall apart.''

It's disappointing to see, admitted Gullicksen, a longtime housing  
activist.

"This shows the problem of trying to build a movement around an  
individual,'' he said. "There was hope after (Supervisor Tom) Ammiano  
(ran for mayor in 1999), but the movement fell apart. Now with Matt  
leaving, unless he re-emerges in a different role, it will happen again.

"People are always more energized by individuals than by issues ... but  
it's a strategy that can't sustain itself.''

Despite their problems, San Francisco progressives aren't ready to  
concede the field to Newsom. The mayor angered Supervisor Chris Daly  
and tenant activists by vetoing legislation last month that would have  
banned demolition of large apartment buildings. He supported  
Proposition J, which would have eased the way for construction of  
housing aimed at families making more than $100,000 a year. And faced  
with the need to close a $350 million budget deficit, Newsom is going  
to have to make choices likely to anger people all over the city.

"It's hard to see how you pull off those hard decisions without making  
someone mad,'' Binder said.

"We appreciate all the attention he's paying to our neighborhood, but  
it has to have some substance,'' said Willie Ratcliff, publisher of the  
San Francisco Bay View newspaper and a Gonzalez supporter. "That's the  
measuring stick out here.''

Some of Gonzalez's backers also have started the Progressive Voter  
Project, designed to sign up voters on the left for the permanent  
absentee ballots that Newsom's campaign used so effectively last year.  
By working art openings, political talks and anti-war rallies, the  
group already has collected 2,000 absentee applications, said activist  
Richard Marquez, and hopes to have 15,000 for the supervisors'  
elections in November.

Grassroots efforts like that are part of the day-to-day task of doing  
what needs to be done to build a political movement, with or without a  
highly visible leader, Mirkarimi said.

"These are things we should have been doing for years,'' he added.  
"Politics is a long-distance race, and we have to keep looking ahead.''